The characters from the hit "Madagascar" films come to the small screen this evening in the new NBC holiday special "Merry Madagascar."

Chris Rock is the voice of "Marty" and he recently talked by phone about the special, his favorite holiday memories and the concept of a black Paul Reiser.

Q: So what keeps you coming back to the Madagascar series?

Chris Rock: Money...No, no they’re good, I mean, you know, as you get - you realize as you get longer in this business it’s like the only thing that keeps you working is, you know, doing good stuff. You know, I mean the box office is great too but if people don't like what you do the moment the box office isn't fair that they don't want to work with you anymore.

So I try to align myself with as many good things as possible even if, you know, even if I'm not starring, even if, you know, it always works out. It always works out for the best when you do something good.

Q: Now does having kids of your own have anything to do with it? Did you want something that your kids could relate to?

Chris Rock: It’s weird, I started the first "Madagascar," me and Ben (Stiller), start with no kids. You know, we didn't have kids when the movie started. And I don't even think we were even thinking about kids to tell you the truth the couple times we were in the studio together. You know, cut to the movie comes out we both have kids, cut to "Madagascar 2," he’s got three and I've got two or whatever, it just turns out that way.

Q: I'm guessing that friends of your children or just kids you run into will sometimes recognize your voice.

Chris Rock: They totally recognize my voice. And sometimes they don't then I, you know, it’s because it’s not really like my actual speaking voice so I kind of turn it on and just the looks on their face it’s like wow I can't believe it's...

Q: I bet you they get so excited.

Chris Rock: They get very excited. And my youngest daughter, Zahra, it’s a bragger. She’s very quick to tell people her daddy as Marty the zebra.

Q: Do your girls ever make you just do things in Marty’s voice lke, you know, tell them to go like take a bath in Marty’s voice or anything like that?

Chris Rock: You know it’s weird the voice they like the most and it’s kind of the same voice is they like the mosquito from - what do you call it - from "Bee Movie"....They love that mosquito.

Q: So they want you to turn that one on it home and stuff sometimes?

Chris Rock: I literally have to do the mosquito all the time.....Mooseblood, Mooseblood.

Q: After doing the "Madagascar" movies...has your love for animals flourished or anything like that, like do you find yourself more into animals at the zoo?

Chris Rock: You know what it’s just weird by happenstance or coincidence I had never been to Africa before Madagascar and before doing the movie. And I've gone since. And now I go on Safari almost every year.

Q: When it comes to voiceover work is there something about it that makes you jump out and say I want to do this kind of project? Is it a character, is it the actual theme of the story?

Chris Rock: You know, I always - really I'm always looking for a project that’s good enough that it doesn't even need me. Like are they going to make a good movie even if I'm not involved in this? Yes. Then I really want to be involved. But if, you know, the project hinges on, you know, me then I kind of don't want to be involved. So, you know, Jeffrey Katzenberg does quality, quality work, you know, DreamWorks does quality, quality work so I didn't - when I agreed to the first "Madagascar" I had no idea who else was going to be in it but I trusted, you know, Jeffrey (Katzenberg) and we got a great cast.

Q: You've got this wonderful comedic timing and you do a lot of voiceover work, and I was wondering how do you inflect that comedic timing in voiceover?

Chris Rock: I mean you've got to - I mean that’s what directors are for. You know, you've got to kind of trust your director - sometimes like when you’re doing a normal movie me personally I'm always trying to make the crew laugh, I'm always trying to make camera guys and grips - especially grips because they've got pretty normal jobs, they get paid normal salaries, they don't have artsy-fartsy face. And when you’re doing, you know, voiceover work you try to make the engineers laugh and the guy, you know, the gopher, the guy who goes and gets coffee like if he’s laughing you’re probably in a good spot.

Q: You've got a book coming out I think next year sometime. What’s it called and what’s it about?

Chris Rock: I think it’s going to be on negative thinking. Right now the tentative title is The Secret Sucks. So whatever I get out of that. Still working though, still working.

Q: How much have you gotten done with it so far?

Chris Rock: Not enough, I've been filming back-to-back movies this year; two movies and what you call it, what the hell, I've just been pushing Good Hair for the last couple of months so....it's tough.

Q: A lot of comedians are coming out with books lately, Paul Mooney and Kathy Griffin and David Cross and Jeffrey Ross and Sarah Silverman has one coming out next year as well. What you think is prompting all these comedians like yourself to write books?

Chris Rock: I don't know, I guess the publishers just - I guess some of them are selling. I mean, you know, especially when we put our mind to it we can be funny people. I mean that Steve Harvey book I'm sure is triggering most of this, you know, his book is so big so whatever one, you know, some midget wrote a good book, a bestseller, they'd be making a lot of midget books all of a sudden.

Q: And how are you going to make your book stand out among so many others that are out there written by comedians?

Chris Rock: I know, you know, just the same way you make yourself stand out you just, you have a different sense of humor, you know, try to - I know, I like what Steve did, he made a book about one thing, you know. I think that’s why that worked where most comedian books are, you know, kind of like Dumbo. So, you know, it’s a little bit of picture book, it’s a little bit of biography, it’s a little short story, you know, but Steve’s book stuck to one thing.

Q: Where do you find time to write?

Chris Rock: Now I'm home for a while, right now I'm kind of home until April. Got a movie coming out in April so not much to do but pick up my kids from school for the next few months.

Q: Do you have any other TV projects coming up since "Everybody Hates Chris" has left the air?

Chris Rock: Nothing, I need a new one man.That was a good weekly check. But I'm scaling back now.

Q: Do you have a favorite Christmas memory?

Chris Rock: You know they all kind of - at this, you know, as I enter my 40s they all kind of mix up - they’re all kind of the same. I have a Christmas, you know, like a couple years ago my family we were in Africa on safari for Christmas. And, you know, at a lodge and, you know, my kids are really young and they were so scared Santa wasn't going to show. And just the look on their faces, you know, when their toys were under a tree in Africa. Kind of cool.

Q: Did you always believe in Santa or when did you stop believing?

Chris Rock: I know when did I stop believing, I do know one day I looked out the window and saw my father carrying in a dump truck or something, I don't. It was just like I saw a car being unloaded with toys, oh okay.

Q: So that was like, "Oh I get it."

Chris Rock: Oh that makes sense, you know, you know, I always liked to make sense of things, so it was a traumatic....actually was a relief. It was like chimney and the guy comes down and reindeer? It doesn't make any sense.

Q: When you hear people talk about influential comedians over the past 10, 15 years your name often comes up. I wonder are you the type of person who takes that to heart and things about it or are you too modest, you don't like thinking about stuff like that? You’re very highly thought of in terms of begin ground breaking; how do you take that compliment?

Chris Rock: Really? Really? Really? I'll take it, you know, but, I mean, I don't try to give it that much thought. It’s not good - it’s not good for you, you know what I mean? It's, you know, you know, you know, Derek Jeter can't be thinking of "oh you’re an iconic Yankee" when he’s up to bat. It doesn't - put it this way it’s great and I'm happy for more for my parents than me. You know what I mean?

My parents, my brothers, sister, whatever, they can like really - my family can really like enjoy stuff like that.....me, I have to work.

Q: Does hearing stuff like that make you uncomfortable?

Chris Rock: A little bit. I mean, I mean, a little uncomfortable. At the same time you've been doing it - I've been doing it a long time so it’s nice to, you know, have some mark there. But yeah it's, you know, when somebody says that I'm just like oh I hope my aunt hears this. I hope my mother hears this you know what I mean? Because they get a kick out of it but, you know, I know, you know, the audience doesn't care when I get on stage. And, you know.

Q: Generally speaking do you think that comedy is in better shape now than when you started or worse shape?

Chris Rock: I mean it’s a good - when I started - it’s in much better shape it's, you know, when I started, you know, there’s no Comedy Central, there’s no... you know, all these great, you know, shows they do and, you know, forget being a black comic, my God, there was, you know, it was superstar or bust you know what I mean?

It was just like Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby; there was no like here, there was nowhere to be like the black Paul Reiser, you know what I mean? There was no, you know what I mean, there was no where like you had to be a superstar or you didn't work. And, you know, now there’s all sorts of levels of comedians that you didn't have before; it’s great.

Q: You recently told Monique that she scares you in the movie "Precious." What'd you think of the movie in general and have you ever thought about going back and doing another serious role?

Chris Rock: I loved the movie, I thought the movie was powerful and just - it was amazing. I thought all the performances were great. I thought Lee Daniels did an amazing job. All his movies are pretty good, you know, I mean even the, you know, the ones he produced too are pretty, pretty - I liked the Woodsman and, you know.

Would I do a serious - I'd love to; no one calls me up with one but yeah if somebody gave me an offer. I'm actually - I've been scouring, looking for a James Baldwin script because I think I could play Baldwin. I just been reading a lot of Baldwin and I punched him up on YouTube and I was like just listening to him and looking at his face and everything. I was like I could probably play James Baldwin. So if you see a James Baldwin script out there I wouldn't mind doing it.