So we were talking about going back to SNL.
Obviously, you were a regular, but you've
never hosted the show.
And Lizzo is on the show, who you love, right?
Lizzo.
My kids love Lizzo, yeah.
All the young folks love Lizzo.
She's fantastic.
We had her on the show early on.
I think she's so talented.
She's so great.
So you'll do all the characters that you used to do?
I don't know what we're going to do yet.
You can do whatever you want.
You don't know what that show is going to be till you get there.
You got to get there, and then they kind of figure out--
over the week-- what the show's going to be.
You really don't know what's going to happen.
Yes, but you could go in there and say,
I want to do Buckwheat.
I want to do Gumbo.
Go in and demand to do Buckwheat.
I demand to do Buckwheat!
You can!
Well, usually when people from that show go back there,
they do characters that were popular on the show.
Right.
I would imagine I would do that.
Buckwheat, and Gumby, and Mr. Robinson.
Velvet Jones.
Young people going, who are these characters?
Well, they'll see.
That's what's great about it, as we
get to see it all over again.
So we were talking during the break.
You're doing stand again, which I can't wait to see.
I haven't started yet.
Well, you are.
Right.
[APPLAUSE]
Have you given yourself a date that you want to shoot it?
Or you're just going to take it easy
and go out there and see how it goes?
I'm going to start kind of working out
at the beginning of the year.
And when it's ready, then I'll give myself eight, nine
months to get it ready.
Mm-hmm.
So you're going to play small clubs around town to surprise
people, get on stage?
Yeah, I'll do some of that.
Yeah.
How else are you going to try this stuff out?
Yeah, you got to do something.
Are you excited?
Do you go to stand up clubs?
Do you see what's going?
I haven't been back in years.
And I won't be wearing anything like that.
I think you should.
I should.
You should wear the red leather one.
I should wear that one?
Lord, have mercy.
[LAUGHTER]
That was very popular at the time.
Well, not till after that.
When I put it on, it wasn't popular.
No, I know.
But that's how powerful you are.
You put that on, and everybody started wearing it.
But I mean you really were the first to play--
standups weren't doing arenas.
You were doing huge arenas, and that was
incredible for a standup to do.
That wasn't me that started that.
It kind of grew into that over the years.
Stand up comedy, when we started, stand up was--
the biggest gig was opening for somebody, or a sitcom
or something.
And over the last 30 years, stand up
turned into this big mainstream--
it's like as popular as becoming a singer.
When we started it was like being a--
you saying you were a comic was like being a juggler
or a magician or something.
Now it's this mainstream thing.
Did you open for people before you were out on your own?
Oh, yes.
I opened for Grace Jones.
Oh, wow.
That would be very cool.
Opened for Grace Jones at the Savoy,
and opened for Melissa Manchester.
That's a weird one.
Why would they have you before Melissa Manchester.
I didn't have a good show in front of Melissa Manchester.
But I had a great show in front of Grace Jones.
I bet.
I didn't think she would even have someone.
I played Vegas a lot.
I opened for the Pointer Sisters, and Smokey Robinson.
It's really tough to open for somebody else
because they're all there to see those people,
and they don't care about you at all.
But Grace Jones-- that's a cool gig.
She had the coolest thing.
It was the coolest entrance I've ever seen.
She came out-- she used 4th Street as her backdrop.
She came, the stage door was busted open,
and she was kind of standing there.
You could see traffic going behind her.
And that song, "Roll up to the bumper" was playing.
You could hear the horns honking.
The coolest shit I've ever seen in the club.
That's great.
I saw in New Orleans, she's amazing.
She's amazing.
All right, we have to take a break.
More with Eddie after this.