Wow.
I have to tell you, I'm so excited that you're here.
I really am.
Thank you for coming. - Thank you.
It's great to have you here.
You were born here in Brooklyn.
Born right here in Brooklyn.
Mhm.
Grew up here.
You live where?
What part of the city--
of the borough did you live in?
- I lived in Bushwick. - In Bushwick?
Yeah.
OK.
Right on-- on Linden Street, between Bushwick and Broadway.
What did you like to do when you
were a kid, growing up here?
I think you moved to Long Island when you were 11, right?
- 10. - 10 years old?
OK.
What would you do?
What what were your activities?
What were you into? - Out here?
Yeah.
Just the basic stuff.
You know, back then we used to play in the street,
play Skelly, and--
Mhm.
You know, and hot peas and butter.
Do they still play hot peas and butter?
Do you-- did y'all play--
No, we didn't play hot peas-- what is hot peas and butter?
That's when you would take a-- take, like, a belt,
and you would, like, hide it somewhere, and everybody
would try to look for it.
And when they get closer, you'd go, oh, you're getting hot.
You're getting hot.
And then when they find it, they'd say hot peas and butter,
and they could whip. And--
Now I know why we didn't play it.
Yeah.
Very-- very violent street game.
So if you found the belt, you would get whipped with it?
No, everybody has to run back to the base, and anyone
that you caught, you could beat them with the belt.
Yeah, now that would be on the news
if you did something like that.
And would you go, like, to Carvel, or Nathan's?
Or--
I went to Carvel's when we went out to Long Island.
Out here, we didn't go to Carvel's.
JIMMY KIMMEL: No Carvel's?
We've been to Nathan's, and--
Coney Island.
Would you go on the rides at Coney Island?
- Oh, yeah. - Yeah, really?
Yeah?
The Hell-- they had the Hellhole back then.
That thing-- we'd stand, and it would spin in a circle.
And it would press you to the wall.
Then afterwards, you'd throw up.
JIMMY KIMMEL: Right.
Say, well, that's why they call it the Hellhole.
They sell more hot dogs that way, I think.
Would you get in fights when you were a kid here in Brooklyn?
Was there a lot of fighting on your block?
Because on my block, there was nonstop fighting all the time.
- Yeah, we got into fights. - Yeah?
And you-- if you've lived in Brooklyn,
you've been jumped before, too.
We got jumped.
Me and Charlie got jumped in--
back in the '60s and early '70s, they
had these can Kangol hats--
these beaver hats.
And you would-- back then, you would take baby oil
and put it on your hat, and you would just set on it,
and just keep smoothing your hat out.
And it was cool.
And me and Charlie--
I had a blue one, and Charlie had a green one.
And they jumped us on the bus stop,
and they stomped our beavers.
They were so jealous, they beat us up and stomped them.
Isn't that a weird thing they would do?
They wouldn't even steal stuff.
On my block, they'd steal your sneakers,
and then they'd tie the laces together,
and they'd throw them up onto power--
Yeah.
And then you'd have to walk by your own shoes all the time.
It's especially humiliating.
Yeah.
I didn't know this about you, and this
delights me to no end--
when did you start doing ventriloquism?
[LAUGHTER]
That was actually the first thing
I asked my mother for when I was about eight years old.
I asked for a ventriloquist dummy.
Was it a Charlie McCarthy dummy?
No, no.
It was a dummy called Willie Talk.
- Willie Talk? - It's Willie Talk.
OK.
And his eyes didn't move, though.
He was just looking straight out.
And you would do who?
Like, friends and stuff like that?
No, I would try to, you know, make my-- you know,
talk and not move my lips.
And could you do that?
Talk without moving your lips?
I was pretty good. I was pretty good.
You were?
Not good enough to, you know, follow it.
Yeah, right.
Probably a good idea that you didn't follow it.
But do you do that anymore?
You entertain your children with this sort of stuff?
I have two ventriloquist dummies now.
You do?
Yes.
But they're of people that I know.
Like, I have a couple of friends that are characters.
And if I could do, like, their voice--
like, I have a singer named Val Young.
Used to sing with Rick James.
I could do, like, her voice.
So I had a ventriloquist dummy made that looks just like her.
So we'll go on trips sometimes, I'll pull the dummy out,
she'll be talking, and I'll be doing--
Does Val--
It's very, very funny.
- Does Val like the dummy? - She loves it.
She loves it?
She doesn't call it the dummy, though.
She'll go, go bring out the Val doll.
It's like, that's not a doll.
This is a ventriloquist's dummy.
Who's the--
Where's the Val doll?
Who's the other dummy in your life?
Paul Mooney.
I have a Paul Mooney doll.
Paul Mooney?
I have a little Paul Mooney ventriloquist,
so I'll do him while he's there, and I do the dummy talk.
And if you're part of the little circle, it's very funny.
You will get-- yeah.
What was Paul's reaction when you produced
the dummy for the first time?
Oh, he said, [BLEEP],, you're crazy.
You have lost your [BLEEP] mind.
That's what he said.
Earlier this year, I was at a party at your house.
And thank you for--
I don't know if you invited me or not, but I came.
Ah.
I was very excited to be there.
And embarrassingly, I was the first one to show up.
No, you weren't. There was other people there.
I was the first one. Yeah.
There were-- the people who were there
were there, like, kind of hanging out with you
to start with.
And I walked in, and you and Arsenio
were watching YouTube videos.
And I was just, like, oh, my god.
This is just what I prayed it would be like.
And there were quite a few comedians there.
Chris Rock was there, Dave Chappelle was there.
Jamie Foxx. - Sacha Baron--
Sacha Baron Cohen was there.
And do you-- are you aware of how, like, giddy
we were to be in your house?
Well, it was a party.
I didn't know they were just giddy for--
Yeah, no, we were giddy to be in your house.
And we had conversations about it.
And it's funny to be with, like, Chris Rock, who you know, is--
you know, is unbelievable-- or Dave Chapelle.
These guys who are like, oh, my god,
I can't believe we're in Eddie Murphy's house.
They've been in my house before.
He still can't believe it.
Did-- so you--
I guess-- yeah.
[APLAUSE]
And one of the things that we're all excited about
is this idea that you are planning
to return to stand up comedy.
Yes.
[APPLAUSE]
Which is a little bit like hearing Michael Jordan's going
to play basketball again, but without the physical element
there.
And I mean because, you know, you really--
I'm sure you're aware of how much you mean to everyone,
especially of a certain age group
that I happen to be on one end of.
Are you worried that you cannot live up to this--
this thing you have-- you created?
Naw, I don't be worrying about stuff like that.
Like, I'm-- I'm not gonna--
[APPLAUSE]
I'm-- I tend to think constructively when
I'm thinking about something creative, if I'm doing
something creative. I'll think about--
I want to think--
I'm thinking about how--
making it as funny as possible, because I want to shut
[BLEEP] down when I do it.
So I don't be going--
I don't be thinking, like, oh, what's going to happen?
What are they going to say?
And are they going to put me put me onto YouTube?
Or are they going to--
That's just part of the world now.
Are you the kind of person who will
walk out in front of an audience and spot
one woman who's not laughing?
And then--
Who's not laughing?
Her name is Ann.
She's-- she's laughing now, but I got nothing from her before.
EDDIE MURPHY: Where is she?
She's right there.
All right.
We're going to take a break.
When we come back, we're going to see
a clip from Eddie's great new movie, "Dolemite Is My Name."
Eddie Murphy, everybody.
We'll be right back.
Action.
Hold it, Dolemite.
What do you want?
FBI.
What do you want, man?
Where's your warrant at?
This badge is my warrant.
Open up the trunk.
It ain't mine.
I don't know how it got in.
You're going to jail for a long time.
You're gonna have to take me!
[GRUNTING]
Cut! Cut.
Cut.
That is Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes
in "Dolemite Is My Name."
It is on Netflix now.
It is in movie theaters, too.
Oh, what a funny-- well, explain to the white people
who don't know who Dolemite is.
Dolemite is this character that a comedian named
Rudy Ray Moore came up with.
And Rudy Ray Moore is a comedian from the '70s.
Like, this underground comic, and that I
was just been a fan of for years.
You loved him.
You and your brother used to watch him.
Not just-- he has, like, a little cult following
of people that, like--
his movie started out--
they were kind of, like, stoner pictures.
Like, people would smoke weed and watch his movies,
and be like, hey, look, you can see the microphone
come in the shot.
You know?
So that's why people started watching him early on.
Then it kind of developed into--
when I started making movies, I had
a whole different appreciation for him.
I was like, yo, this guy--
he financed these movies himself,
and he kind of put it all together himself.
And he did his records the same way.
And he became, like, one of my heroes.
It is an inspirational story.
He's a totally inspirational figure.
This is a guy who's determined to be successful,
and he tried as a musician, and as a dancer,
and then he just found his thing playing
this character, Dolemite, and really did risk everything.
- Everything. - And you met--
you've been trying to make this for a long time, right?
How long?
Yeah, I met him-- about 15 years ago,
I approached him about it.
And he-- he was like, man, let's go on tour together.
They want to see us on stage, man.
Why do you think he wasn't interested in you playing him?
I think the idea of a movie about him
just sounded ridiculous to him.
It was like--
How could anything sound ridiculous to him?
But the idea was--
we're going to make a Hollywood movie about how you did--
how you made Dolemite, and all--
to him, at the moment, that sounded like--
that's not something that's going to happen.
Wow, really?
Even with you? - No.
It was, you know--
I think I might have just been coming off a movie
like "Pluto Nash," too.
He was like, man, they ain't making no movie like that.
Let's go on tour together.
So you got stiffed by Dolemite?
Wow.
Yeah, because the movie--
I went and watched the original, and that scene
is almost identical to the scene in the real movie.
Yeah, it's a bunch of stuff.
We went to the same locations and--
we went-- we shot--
we had the exact outfits, and cars, and it's just--
Craig Brewer, who directed it, just really did a spot--
It's really, really good.
And Wesley Snipes is great in it, too.
He is so funny in this movie.
Now, you're a mysterious man.
You're aware of that, right? Because you--
Am I mysterious?
Yes, you are mysterious.
You are.
So I want to run through a few random questions,
if you'd be so kind as to solve these mysteries for us.
You turned down the chance to be part of "We Are The World,"
in the "We Are The World Video."
Is that true?
Well, I didn't turn it down.
I was doing something else, and Stevie--
I was in Stevie Wonder's studio, and I
was working on some music.
And he was like, hey, come over, we're doing this thing.
You know?
And I was like, hey, man, I'm recording this song,
"Party All The Time."
[AUDIENCE CHEERING]
So I was doing some other--
then they called-- then I realized afterwards what it
was, and I felt like an idiot.
Right before you guys got "SNL."
They did this real heavy song in "We Are The World,"
and my song is party all the time!
Shake your ass!
Shake it!
You were fired from a job at McDonald's.
True?
No, I quit that job.
You quit the job at McDonald's?
I was fired from Chandler's Shoes.
Chandler's Shoes?
Yes, that's right.
Is this right before "SNL?"
- Oh, yeah, right before "SNL." - Yeah.
A year before.
And you're going to be returning
to host SNL for the first time in how many years?
[APPLAUSE]
35 years.
First time in 35 years?
That's going to be something great, hu?
I hope so.
I hope so, too.
Have you started thinking of-- will you do
any of your classic characters?
I hope so.
Yeah, I would imagine I'd do some of that stuff.
Yeah, but that show, you can't really prepare.
You can't prepare.
It happens on the Monday, and it's over on Saturday.
You can't really get ready for it.
But Gumby is timeless, really.
Oh, yeah, I'm gonna do Gumby.
And I want-- I'm trying to figure out
some reason to do Velvet Jones.
Oh, yes.
Velvet Jones.
And Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood.
One of those.
Oh, my gosh.
Well there's, certainly been a resurgence of Mr. Rogers
in the recent years, so I don't see why you couldn't
do something like that.
Yeah, exactly.
And a funny Buckwheat sketch.
Are you aware--
do you read the reviews of your movies?
- No, I don't-- - You do not?
Well, you should on this one, because it's, like,
99% on Rotten Tomatoes, and people are saying you might
win an Oscar for this role.
Oh, that's great.
So that's good.
That's good.
Well, I have to say, it is so exciting to have you here.
Especially here in Brooklyn.
And I really appreciate it.
And I think I speak on behalf of everyone
that we are thrilled that you are back
and making movies, and doing stand up comedy,
and giving us your all.
Really is-- that's all we want, is everything.
Eddie Murphy, everybody.
"Dolemite Is My Name."
It's in theaters and on Netflix.
We'll be right back, from Brooklyn.