Eddie Murphy,
welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Oh, thanks for having me.
I feel like you-you, you know, you seem like the kind of person
who's almost the least affected by the pandemic,
because I feel like you always stayed at home
before the pandemic.
I've been sheltering in place and washing my hands constantly,
using Purell for over 30 years.
-(laughs) -Yeah. That's something I've known
about Eddie Murphy my whole life.
They go and like, "Eddie Murphy washes his hands."
Like, that was a thing I knew about...
I knew Eddie Murphy: comedian, jokes, actor.
But then the third fact I knew about you
was Eddie Murphy washes his hands.
"Very clean. He's a terribly clean man."
(chuckles) I'm very clean.
When was the last time you were sick?
-Sick, sick? -Yeah.
Uh...
Maybe about two years ago,
I caught the flu at the Golden Globes.
That's why Eddie Murphy doesn't go out.
And the time before that, I caught the flu at the Oscars,
like, two or three years before that.
It's those big crowds of people getting trophies.
-(laugh) -The virus is in the room.
(both laugh)
People have grown up with you. People have-have emulated you.
There's no stand-up comedian who hasn't been touched by you.
There's no film or there's no comedic actor
who doesn't have a little bit of Eddie Murphy
in how they perform.
We see it in Coming 2 America now.
You know, it's like... it's like a celebration
of a movie that was genre-defying back then.
I mean, I remember watching that movie, going like,
"I've never seen Africans portrayed like this
in an American film."
You know, seeing, like, regal Africans,
seeing rich Africans.
I mean, Zamunda was-was Wakanda before Wakanda in that way.
It was just like, "What-what is this place,
you know, where the royal penis is being cleaned?"
You know what I mean?
(both laugh)
When you, uh, when you... When you decided
to make Coming 2 America, the sequel,
I-I'm sure it wasn't an easy choice.
Why did you say yes?
It was an easy... It was a totally easy choice.
It kind of happened organically.
It wasn't like, uh, somebody pitched it,
and I was like, "Oh."
What happened was the movie became
a cult movie over the years.
-Right. -And-and I've re... I-I've realized,
you know, there's an audience for this movie
if I can figure out a way to connect those dots.
There's an audience for a sequel to the movie.
But that was, you know, 25 years into it.
People started, you know, dressing up as--
On Halloween, people get dressed up as some of the characters.
And they have a-a restaurant in L.A.--
uh, I think it's called Fat Sal's--
they turn their restaurant into a McDowell's restaurant.
Right, right.
And on VH1 shows Coming to America
24 hours straight on Christmas.
-So it's stuff like that, you know? -Right.
So that's what made me go,
"There's an audience for the movie."
I loved how, the movie,
it was-- it was new enough to be, like,
you know, new for a new generation,
but I love that you guys brought back
so many of the same characters.
I mean, like, my-my favorite characters easily
are the barbershop fellows.
Like, I mean-- You know what I mean.
Everyone from Saul to the dudes in the chairs.
Did you ever go out into the streets as those characters
just to test the characters in real life?
Oh, yeah. When we first put them on, we'd go out
and play around in those makeups.
Like, you would go out as the old dude from the barbershop?
Absolutely. A couple times we went out in that--
those makeups, just to talk to people
and s-- you know, see if the makeup is working.
'Cause I don't know if this story's true or not,
but Arsenio told me that you wanted to see
how convincing you could be as an old man
and you-you decided to go and, like, flirt with older ladies
just to see if you were in, like, the right bracket.
No, not-not for-- not to see how convincing I was.
To see how convincing the makeup would be.
-Right. -So I flirted with some older-older woman
when I was an-an older man.
-And? -(chuckles)
And-and I got the pussy.
-No, I'm just kidding. (laughing) -(laughing)
-Oh, man. -Actually, some of the easiest pussy I ever had.
Be surprised how easy old women are.
(laughing)
Oh, man. You-you...
"Oh, your back is so strong."
(laughing)
Did you ever feel like living like that?
Or, like, not-not living like that but going out like that?
Because Eddie Murphy is-is an insane superstar.
I mean, I remember there was a time
when you went around with bodyguards,
but it was, like, for a short moment in time.
And then you were like, "I don't-- I don't do this."
But I wonder if Eddie Murphy-- Like, have you ever just thought
to yourself, "I'm just gonna go out as a different character
and see what life is like"?
I used to go out with bodyguards back in the early days
when I toured
-or when I was at the club every night. -Right.
...around people drunk every night
and you're one of the faces,
you should have some people around you, so...
But after-after that period, I never, you know...
You know, I got rid of them, and...
I kind of don't really go out that much.
You know? So...
I kind of have my little...
world that I'm in and...
not really doing a lot of going out. (chuckles)
And if I do, it's to some controlled place.
Right, right, right. It feels like you were...
...first part of your c-- first part of your question was what?
No, I wanted to know if you just went out like that ever.
You know? If you-- if-- Just to be, like, free, as Eddie Murphy.
Just to-- just to be like, "Yeah, I can just do
-whatever I want." -Yeah, I could-- I just go out as-as me,
you know, to controlled places,
you know, for the most part.
And I never put on the makeup.
'Cause you're not really free if you go out in those makeups.
It's like, "I'm free! I'm this other guy." (chuckles)
You know what? I did a movie called Norbit years ago,
and, uh, uh, uh... where I had no mustache.
The only movie I've ever done in my whole career
where I had no mustache.
And, uh, I'm-- with no mustache, I'm unrecognizable.
-Huh. -Like, me just walk-- If I cut my mustache off,
I could walk into-- I literally have gone to Mr. Chow's
with no mustache and walked past, you know,
photographers and I'll just walk right p--
going up to people that I knew, famous people,
and talking to 'em for a second, and they'll be like,
"Who is this?" And they'll realize. (chuckles)
-Wow. -I'm a totally different person.
-It's just that. -And I don't like it. I don't like it.
I didn't like it. I didn't like the whole "being just a guy."
-You know, I was just... -(laughing)
"I think I'm ugly. I think I'm ugly."
The way they were acting, the way they were acting,
I think, without my mustache, I might be
not just regular guy but an ugly regular guy.
Listen, girls wasn't giving me no kind of energy or nothing.
I walked in. No-- It was very sh-- I hated it.
I grew my mustache back as quickly as possible.
(laughing)
When-when we look at your career now,
um, you've done everything.
And you've always talked about how your family's your legacy.
But, selfishly, your fans want more stand-up from Eddie Murphy.
Are you coming back to the stage?
Yeah, that-- The plan was,
I took off from making movies in 2011.
-Right. -And then six, seven years go by and I'm like,
"Okay, all right, I'm--
"I've-I've recharged my batteries,
and I want to go do some stuff."
And I was like, "You know what would be really cool?
To do some stand-up."
But I don't want to just jump back out there,
having not had a new movie out in years,
so I was like, "Let me go do so stuff
to-to kind of remind them that I'm funny."
So, like, I did, uh, Dolomite,
and then we went back to Saturday Night Live.
And then the plan was to do Coming 2 America. We did that.
Then the plan was to go and do stand-up.
But then the pandemic hit. So this last year
when we were all sheltering, that was the year
I would have been out trying to get my shit back together.
Right, right, right, right, right.
So as soon as we get back to, you know,
people can sit in a room again and you can go,
then I'm gonna go start workshopping
and getting the act together and--
The plan is to do it again.
Eh. Well, we're looking forward to it.
It's, uh... it's been an amazing journey,
having you in our lives. Thank you for releasing a movie.
Thank you for getting back onstage.
And thank you for being you.
-Keep washing your hands. -Oh, and thank you for being
-in the movie. To-To... -Oh, no, are you k--
-are you kidding me? -Totatsi Bibinyana?
-T-Totatsi Bibinyana. -(laughs)
-MURPHY: That's a great name. -(laughs)
I was like, "I know it's authentic,
-'cause he's from South Africa, so I know that's..." -(laughs)
I made up all those other names. Those are not real names.
Most of them are, like, uh...
My mother's name in it was, uh, Aoleon.
That's not-- that's not a real name. I totally made that name--
"Jaffe Joffer" is a totally made-up name.
(laughing)
"Totatsi Bibinyana" sounds very authentic.
It-it really does. Well, "Bibinyana,"
a lot of people don't-- "Bibinyana" is actually like--
it's a play on-- it-it-- technic--
if you say it properly, it means "small penis."
So there was a little joke, a inside joke
-for-for South Africans. -Exactly.
Yeah. Like, my brother came up to me and he was like,
"Hey, man, who-who called you that,
"because I don't know if these Americans know
what they called you." And I was like, "Oh, no,
that-that was on our side." He's like, "Oh.
"'Cause that sounds like...
-That sounds like a..." -And is "Totatsi" something, too?
No, no, no. That was just, like, a South African--
just, like, play on the name and then--
It was a last name that sounds like it.
-It sounds like it. -"Little Dick Totatsi."
That's what your name, Bibinyana, means.
-Totatsi... -Well, it sounds-- it sounds like it.
Sounds like "small dick." But it isn't.
-It sounds like it. You know? -Okay.
Just to give it some of that-- just to give it some of that.
But thank you for having me, man. Thank you so much.
-Thanks for doing it. -I'm excited to see you on the--
on the stage again, Eddie. And, um...
Yeah, man, keep washing your hands, keep doing you.
-And I appreciate you. -Yeah, man.
I appreciate you, too. And thank you for having me.
And congratulations for all the success you've been having, man.
-You've really... Funny brother. -Thank you, sir.