-I saw you on the "Comedians in Cars" with Jerry Seinfeld.
-Oh, I love that show. -Dude, you were great.
You were so funny on that.
And you started talking about stand-up,
and you said, yeah, you were thinking about maybe doing it --
getting back into it, 2020.
Are we gonna see Eddie Murphy do stand-up?
-Yeah, that's the plan, to get back on the stage
and do stand-up again. [ Cheers and applause ]
[ Laughter ]
Let's wait to hear what it is before you clap.
-But where do you work it out?
And what do you do? Do you go to clubs?
-You got to go do it like the old-fashioned way.
You got to go to the club and hop up and do it...
-Do you just surprise people or do you say --
-Well, I haven't started yet, but -- well, not surprise --
You got to go up into the comedy clubs and do sets.
-You really got to put the work in.
-There's no way around it. You must.
That's what's cool. With stand-ups, you have to --
No matter how big you get or what you do,
when you get a new act, you got to go back to square one
and start all over again.
-So you're writing stuff down in a notebook?
Where did you used to write your stand-up?
-I never wrote stuff in a notebook.
I get stuff from, like, we'll be talking, and I'll say something.
Then I'll be like, "That's funny.
I'm gonna take it to the stage."
I never, like, wrote stuff down on paper.
-Really? -Yeah.
-So you don't have any of your act --
When there's the Eddie Murphy Museum,
we don't have any words written.
-I have no old little thing, no little stuff.
No memorabilia. -Nothing you jotted down?
-Not even the stuff -- Even those suits,
Like, the "Raw" and the "Delirious" suits
I had on in "Raw" and "Delirious."
-You got to have that. -I don't have that stuff.
-You're joking me. -No. 'Cause I didn't know.
-But someone does have it. They must, right?
-I don't know what happened to the purple one,
but the red suit was destroyed one night.
We went to -- Keenen Ivory Wayans --
He's an old friend of mine. Known him since I was 16.
And if you -- Back then, if you'd dare him to do anything,
he would do it.
And one night we were up and getting dressed to go somewhere,
and he came up in the closet.
He saw that suit, and he put the red leather suit on.
And Keenen's like 6'4" with muscles,
so the suit was busting off him.
And I said, "I dare you to go out with that suit on."
And we went to -- This is back in the day.
So we went to Studio 54 and all these clubs.
Remember on "In Living Color" he used to do a character --
Keenen did a character called Frenchie?
-Yes.
-That started from going to the club one night,
and he was Frenchie one night
from 10:00 to 6:00 in the morning
and didn't come out of character.
-And he used to wear, like, a red leather suit, Frenchie.
-Yeah, it was exactly that suit.
And at the end of the night, the suit was destroyed.
-Oh, my gosh.
-And girls would call the house, and be like -- like, he met --
It was like, "Hey, is Frenchie there?"
"Hey, that girl you met is on the phone."
He was like, "I can't go out with her.
[Bleep]. She met me as Frenchie.
And she wants to go out with me?"
-Frenchie. -Yeah.
-Is it -- Was it fun doing the "Coming to America" sequel?
-Absolutely. Yes. We had a blast.
We just finished that about two weeks ago.
And it was -- [ Cheers and applause ]
-I mean, it's back. -Yeah.
-I heard -- -It is so funny.
-I know some people that were in it.
Because I saw -- All the pictures I saw, I'm like,
"Oh, my gosh. Arsenio Hall. I love him.
This is going to be so funny."
Like, a lot of the original cast came back.
-Most of the original cast is back.
We got most of the original cast and --
-Tracy Morgan is now in it.
-Tracy Morgan is in it. Leslie Jones is in it.
-Have you worked with Tracy before?
-No, this is the first time I worked with him.
And we had -- I love Tracy.
-Yeah, he loves you so much. -So funny.
-We were talking about -- Last time he was here, he told me.
He's like, "Jimmy, Eddie
is going to get nominated for 'Dolemite.'
Wait till you see what he does."
And absolutely. And I saw it. And I agree with Tracy Morgan.
-Oh, that's nice. -Dude, you are phenomenal...
-Thank you. Thank you. -...in "Dolemite is My Name."
-Thank you. -It's on Netflix now.
-Yeah, if you haven't seen it -- if you haven't seen it --
If you haven't streamed it yet, go watch it.
I promise you will laugh.
-It is unbelievable. -And it's a sweet story, too.
-It's on Netflix right now. I had no idea about his story.
I knew Rudy Ray Moore a little bit.
I think I bought an album or something of his
or something like that.
And it was -- it was too -- too dirty for me.
-It was too dirty to listen to.
-It really was. -He was pretty dirty.
He was really underground guy from the '70s.
And he had this extraordinary story about how --
'Cause his act was really dirty
and really crude and really low-brow
and really not that brilliant stuff.
It was just he believed in himself.
And he got it done. And he paid out his pocket.
And I thought how he put his movies together and how he did
his records would make a great movie,
and it all came out cool.
-Did you ever think when you were 18 years old
auditioning for "Saturday Night Live"
that you would ever be in contention to win an Oscar
for an acting performance?
-no, I didn't think
about stuff like that when I was starting.
I was just happy to be on "SNL."
And back then, you know, I'm a comic.
Back then, the ceiling for being a comedian was getting a sitcom
or getting on "The Tonight Show."
You know, you didn't think about --
Like, comedy over the last 30 years
Turned into this big, giant industry, you know,
and you can be -- You could be a comic that never
had a movie or a TV show and sell out the Garden now.
-You really -- Yeah. -Comedy got big over the years.
-Yeah, I think it's because of you.
-Oh. Well. -Yeah, we love you, buddy.
I want to show everyone a clip.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Here's Eddie Murphy in "Dolemite is My Name."
Take a look at this.
-We want this thing to be raw.
Tell it like it is on the streets.
-Yeah, lots of pimps and whores and cussing and kung fu, karate.
Brothers love all that kung fu and karate.
-Do you know karate? -No, but I'm a fast learner.
I can learn how to chop me a mother.
Hyah! Hyah! Hunh! Hyah!
You know what we should have? An all-girl kung fu army.
-Um, you know, t-there's plenty of story opportunity, Rudy.
[ Steam whistling ]
Across this nation, inner cities
are being plagued by violent crime.
I-I feel the government hasn't stepped up.
-That's it. It's whitey's fault.
The mayor's corrupt. And there's an exorcism.
-God [bleep]. An exorcism?
-Yeah, you know, all the -- [ Growling ]
-Um, I don't know how that fits into our urban, uh, motif.
-[ Laughs ] Keegan-Michael Key is funny, man.
-He sure is. -Exorcism.