What kind of comedian is eddie murphy

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Show all 8 episodes. Self uncredited. Murphy watched a lot of television growing up and developed a great skill for impressions, doing such characters as Bugs Bunny, Bullwinkle and Sylvester the Cat. Although he was never a dedicated student, Murphy found a great forum for his verbal agility in grade school, excelling in the popular game of "ranking" — trading witty insults with classmates.

Hosting a talent show at the Roosevelt Youth Center at age 15, Murphy delighted his young audience with an impersonation of Al Green.

This early success ignited a passion for showbiz, and Murphy began working on his comedy routines after school and performing stand-up at local bars, clubs and "gong shows. By doubling up on classes, and attending summer and night school, he graduated only a couple of months late.

Murphy was voted the "most popular" boy in his graduating class. His declared career plan: comedian. Responding to the pleas of his mother, Murphy enrolled at Nassau Community College after high school and worked part-time as a shoe store clerk. He continued to perform in local clubs and eventually worked his way into such New York City venues as the Comic Strip, billing himself as a disciple of the great comedian Richard Pryor.

Although his raunchy, profanity-ridden routines resembled his idol's, Murphy stayed away from drinking, smoking and drugs, and would later declare to Barbara Walters , "I don't have to sniff cocaine to make me funny. When Murphy learned that the producers of the popular late-night comedy show, Saturday Night Live , were seeking a Black cast member for the season, he jumped on the opportunity.

He auditioned for the part six times, and finally earned a place as an extra on the show. Murphy appeared sporadically throughout the season, until one fateful night when producers realized they had four minutes of airtime remaining and no material. They pushed Murphy before the camera and told him to do his stand-up routine. His improvised performance was called "masterful" by Rolling Stone , and Murphy became one of only two cast members along with Joe Piscopo asked to return for the next season.

Murphy became Saturday Night Live' s strongest comedic presence, creating such memorable characters as Mister Robinson, an urban version of TV's Mister Rogers ; an older version of the Little Rascals character, Buckwheat; and an illiterate convict and poet named Tyrone Green.

Murphy received criticism for his satirical characterizations based on Black stereotypes. He defended his performances, claiming that his characters were far too absurd and abstract to be taken seriously. In , Murphy received a Grammy nomination for a live album of fresh stand-up material called Eddie Murphy: Comedian.

The album eventually went gold. That same year, at the age of 21, he also landed his first major motion picture role alongside Nick Nolte in 48 Hours. He approached the role with confidence and ingenuity, convincing director Walter Hill to adjust some of the dialogue to more genuinely depict a Black speaker.

Murphy followed this success with the s style farce Trading Places Murphy's next film, Beverly Hills Cop , hit No. His performance was a hit with fans and earned the actor a Golden Globe nomination. Murphy went on to make Beverly Hills Cop II in , which received mixed reviews from critics, but major rewards from the box office.

His other efforts of this period — including The Golden Child and his directorial debut, Harlem Nights — were deemed failures by critics and audiences alike. He originally wasn't supposed to be a cast member on Saturday Night Live When Jean Doumanian was gathering her cast, she had another token black cast member in mind Robert Townsend , after failing to get comedian and street performer Charlie Barnett, who, despite being talented enough for TV, was a barely-literate high school dropout , but an SNL writer at the time named Neil Levy and Murphy's agent urged Doumanian to give him a chance.

Murphy was let on the show after Townsend forgot or refused to sign his cast member contract, and even then, Murphy was relegated to background roles even though he was a feature player along with Patrick Weathers , Yvonne Hudson , and Matthew Laurence and fought hard to be more prominent on the show. When Doumanian was running out of material for the episode hosted by Ray Sharkey , Murphy stepped in and did a stand-up bit about black people fighting and was promoted to repertory player on the next episode hosted by Karen Black.

He was the original choice for Steven Hiller in Independence Day He has apologised for the homophobic jokes he made in his stand-up routine, such as in Eddie Murphy: Delirious He was going to star in Bad Boys opposite Wesley Snipes. He made fun of Best Defense when he hosted Saturday Night Live in , joking that the reason he did the film was that "four guys came in the room carrying a cheque.

He was originally considered to star in Critical Condition It became a Richard Pryor vehicle. Engaged to Paige Butcher since September 28, He has appeared in one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Shrek Said during an interview in that he took six years off from acting in the early s after a string of bad movies because he was tired of winning worst actor Razzie Awards.

He gave up drinking alcohol in after feeling sick from champagne while on his honeymoon. I'll do that before I'm thirty. Every bad decision I've made has been based on money. I grew up in the projects and you don't turn down money there. You take it, because you never know when it's all going to end.

I started out as an impressionist and that's all about observing - how people move, their voice quality, their attitudes and quirks. That's my idol, Elvis Presley. If you went to my house, you'd see pictures all over of Elvis.

He's just the greatest entertainer that ever lived. And I think it's because he had such presence. When Elvis walked into a room, Elvis Presley was in the fucking room. I don't give a fuck who was in the room with him[ Humphrey Bogart ], Marilyn Monroe. If you're involved in with something that's original, you know, you'll always go back and try to rehash it. The advice I would give to someone is to not take anyone's advice.

I keep telling people I'll make movies until I'm fifty and then I'll go and do something else. I'm going to be a professional gentleman of leisure. I definitely consider him to be in the top 5 all time best actors.

Jim Carrey did The Riddler once and he did a wonderful job. Egghead, I could be Egghead. You can draw a line from them to anyone who's trying to do comedy - or just be funny - today, including me.

I know what I'm capable of doing and what I'm capable of not doing. To be perfectly honest, I'm a little afraid of doing a straight dramatic film.

I'm not saying I couldn't do it. I'm saying I'm afraid to. Everyone is afraid of failure. With the success that I've had and the money that I make, if I and a white man went out to get a cab together, the cab wouldn't stop for me. It would stop for the white man. It's weird to change something that's as natural as that. But it started out as a real laugh, then it turned into people laughing because they thought my laugh was funny, and then there were a couple of times where I laughed because I knew it would make people laugh.

Then it got weird. People came up to me and said, "Do that laugh," or if you laugh, someone turns around and goes, "Eddie? Or in those Shrek movies? But, you know, both the year-old and the year-old was like, "Why am I in Imagine That ? Belushi's like Spanky of the Little Rascals series.

I guess that makes me Stymie, but that's cool. I'll be Stymie. Think of all the people who came off that show. It's no coincidence - that show's like Harvard for a comic actor. When you come off the show and get into the movie business, it's like you're moving in slow motion for a couple of years. You've been working like a crazy person in a pressure cooker, then you're in the movies, just sitting in your trailer. But I don't know. The way that used to come about, you'd be around the house, hanging out, say something funny and it'd be like, "I'm going to go to the club, try that out tonight.

I'm not that guy in the leather suit anymore. The hardest thing for comics nowadays is to find your fucking voice. But the reality is, all this shit turns into dust, everything is temporary.

No matter what you do, if you're around here long enough, you'll wind up dribbling and shitting on yourself, and you won't even remember the shit you did. I saw this documentary on Ronald Reagan , and it was like, "Whoa.

In years, it's all dust, and in years, it ain't nothing, and in 1, years, it's like you wasn't even fucking here. But if you're really, really lucky, if you really did something special, you could hang around a little longer. I didn't know you was brothers. He has a black belt in karate.