{"id":233207,"date":"2019-10-01T23:44:26","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T03:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=233207"},"modified":"2019-10-01T23:44:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T03:44:26","slug":"eddie-murphy-off-the-couch-is-rejuvenated-by-dolemite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/01\/eddie-murphy-off-the-couch-is-rejuvenated-by-dolemite\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Murphy, off the couch, is rejuvenated by ‘Dolemite’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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But after a decade of relative relaxation \u2014 a time of half-hearted comebacks, movies that fizzled and occasional music projects \u2014 Murphy is back. He is \u2014 and this is big news \u2014 feeling it again, decades after he last performed stand-up. (File Photo<\/a>: David Shankbone\/Flickr<\/a>, Public domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2014 Eddie Murphy is very fond of his couch.<\/p>\n

He talks about it a lot. It’s where, according to Murphy, he’s spent much of his last few years, in a happy retreat from the public eye. He’s a natural homebody, content to stick close to his Los Angeles home with his family (he has 10 kids) around him. One of the funniest, most electric comedians ever \u2014 the leather-suited dynamo of \u201cDelirious,\u201d the street-wise rebel of \u201cBeverly Hills Cop\u201d \u2014 just lounging.<\/p>\n

But after a decade of relative relaxation \u2014 a time of half-hearted comebacks, movies that fizzled and occasional music projects \u2014 Murphy is back. He is \u2014 and this is big news \u2014 feeling it again, decades after he last performed stand-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I’m being funny, there’s this spirit that comes up,\u201d Murphy says. \u201cThat spirit comes up in me a lot now. Stuff’s just been coming out of me like it used to. This movie has got my spirit up. This movie got me off the couch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The movie is \u201cDolemite Is My Name,\u201d which opens in theatres Friday and arrives on Netflix Oct. 25. In it, Murphy plays Rudy Ray Moore, the iconic comic performer whose pimp persona, Dolemite, spawned a long-running stage show, a series of profane comedy records and the shambling 1975 classic Blaxploitation film \u201cDolemite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy’s performance as Moore has all the familiar charisma and exuberance of peak \u201c48 Hours\u201d-era Murphy, but mixed with a more mature and gentle side of the 58-year-old comedian. It’s the Eddie Murphy we’ve been missing, one that Murphy was ready to rejuvenate. At least under the right circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t want to just pop up out of nowhere. I was waiting for a really funny movie. We were thinking I could tour after a ‘Coming to America’ movie but this movie came out so funny,\u201d Murphy said in a recent interview at the Toronto International Film Festival where he was momentarily breaking from production on a \u201cComing to America\u201d sequel. \u201cThis movie turning out the way it turned out made me go, ‘I’m going back to \u201cSNL.\u201d And I’m doing stand-up.\u201d’<\/p>\n

Those are the next items on Murphy’s comeback agenda. In December, he’ll host \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d for the first time since 1984 , shortly after he departed the sketch show. And he’s prepping a return to stand-up with a tour next year along with a Netflix special.<\/p>\n

When it’s pointed out that people would have been plenty thrilled for those things, regardless of the big-screen lead-in, Murphy replies with a grin: \u201cI didn’t want to show up there and the last movie you’ve seen me in is ‘Mr. Church.\u201d’<\/p>\n

And \u201cDolemite Is My Name,\u201d thankfully, is no \u201cMr. Church.\u201d Directed by Craig Brewer (\u201cHustle and Flow\u201d), it’s an ode to DIY filmmaking and to Moore, who through sheer toil and pluck, carved out a place for himself and others in a movie industry that offered little room for African Americans. Murphy calls him \u201cthe godfather of making a spark into a flame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy first tried to get the film going years ago after meeting with Moore, shortly before his death in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no Netflix then. That was just a crazy thing we were trying to put together,\u201d says Murphy before slipping into the voice of an incredulous film producer. \u201cA Rudy Ray Moore biopic? And you’re just coming off ‘Pluto Nash?’ I don’t know if we’re going to get financing.\u201d<\/p>\n

To write it, Murphy sought out Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander, the screenwriting team behind another affectionate portrait of a movie-making striver whose enthusiasm surpassed his filmmaking proficiency: \u201cEd Wood.\u201d When they walked into the meeting, Murphy was doing lines from the 1994 biopic.<\/p>\n

But when they couldn’t get the film off the ground and as years went by, Karaszewski says, \u201cWe sort of felt the whole thing had passed us by.\u201d Other plans for a \u201cDolemite\u201d remake or a biopic of Moore floated around Hollywood, never coming to fruition. The project was revived, the writers say, after their success creating the miniseries \u201cThe People v. O.J. Simpson.\u201d With their new industry capital in hand, they asked if Murphy wanted to give \u201cDolemite Is My Name\u201d another try.<\/p>\n

\u201cEddie hadn’t made a movie in a while but we always felt that this movie doesn’t exist unless Eddie is doing Rudy Ray Moore,\u201d says Karaszewski. \u201cThat’s what makes this exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy has long adored Moore. His movies, Murphy calls them \u201cstoner pictures,\u201d were \u201cthe best thing to watch when you smoked.\u201d \u201cDolemite Is My Name\u201d goes behind Dolemite, capturing Moore assembling his over-the-top character bit by bit, a transformation familiar to the mild-mannered Murphy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m nothing like any of my characters. I’m this guy. What I like to do the most is be around my family, sit on the couch, strum the guitar,\u201d Murphy says. \u201cEven when I’m doing stand-up comedy, it all comes from little snippets of stuff I’ve really said. But once I put it all together into a structure and go up there in a leather suit, I’m not that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy laughs. \u201cI’m not that guy in the leather suit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy connects with Moore in another way. He sees his early screen persona as almost a real-life Blaxploitation hero, just without the kung fu.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the first African American actor to get roles where I took charge in the white world. Going into the white world and taking charge, and being funny too,\u201d says Murphy, referencing \u201c48 Hours,\u201d \u201cTrading Places\u201d and \u201cBeverly Hills Cop.\u201d \u201cI didn’t plan it. When I step on the set of ’48 Hours,’ I’m 20-years-old. I’m just: Whatever’s coming my way, I’m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet \u201cDolemite Is My Name\u201d achieved something that nothing else could: It got Murphy back on the stage. To film scenes of Moore performing in small clubs, Murphy was again in front of a microphone, telling jokes and riffing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he left, I turned to the audience and said, ‘Y’all, do you realize what just happened? I don’t think he’s done that in like years! Decades!\u201d’ says Brewer, who’s also directing \u201cComing 2 America.\u201d Alexander watched the extras sitting in the faux-nightclub thinking, \u201cYou’re getting paid to watch Eddie Murphy do stand-up in a 40-seat room. That’s a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was mounting outside pressure, Murphy says, that caused him to give up stand-up in the first place. In 1996, amid protests in San Francisco over gay slurs from his 1980s act, Murphy issued a statement apologizing for jokes about AIDS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn’t getting the kick that I would usually get from it. I started feeling like there’s a pressure. People had an expectation,\u201d Murphy says. \u201cA lot of it was controversial. I’d get picketed. They started being on my act. If I said something it would be in the newspaper. I just wanted to tell some jokes. They were reading too much into it. I was like, You know what? How about I just go do ‘Dr. Doolittle.\u201d’<\/p>\n

Murphy has lately been regularly dictating potential new material into his phone. He estimates he already has enough for 15 or 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe muscle that always came up with jokes, I never stopped using that muscle,\u201d says Murphy. \u201cAt the core, I’m a funny person. I’m a funny guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But after so many years away from stand-up, and on the couch, Murphy will be walking back into a very different landscape for comedy. The scrutiny that prompted his withdrawal has only increased. Murphy says he’s not concerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see what’s in me. I want to see what comes out. And I see what’s going on, so I know there are parameters. You’ve got to eggshell it in certain areas,\u201d says Murphy. \u201c(Dave) Chappelle has some new stuff out that’s edgy, and I see a couple of other comics doing stuff that’s edgy. It’s almost like there was this thing where for the last couple years, people had to apologize for saying this and that. It seems like I’m seeing a couple comics going ‘You know what? Enough of this s—. I’m doing my thing and let the chips fall where they may.\u201d’<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s where I’m coming from,\u201d says Murphy. \u201cI’m not planning to step on nobody’s foot or get in some controversy or turn over the applecart. I’m just going to be Eddie. Whatever comes out, that’s what it’s going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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