As a man, if you lose your wife, it's a horrible experience, especially with kids. But when one person passes away and you're still alive, people still depend on you - that's what you have to lean on.
If the 'Chappelle's Show' had stayed on, I seriously doubt I would have developed this fast as a stand-up comedian. I probably would never have taken stand-up comedy really seriously.
Most actors can't write. Most writers can't act. Most comedians can't act. I can do all three, so why wouldn't I do that?
Before stand-up, I didn't even have an agent. Once I started doing stand-up - boom. I got an agent. In fact, I got three agents. I got a lawyer. Now I get taken seriously.
The audience is my hardest and best critic.
There's no one on the road that I tried to pattern myself after. There's no one in history that I tried to pattern myself after. Because one thing I was told that in standup you want to develop your own voice.
Before I started doing standup, I knew that I had what it takes to develop an act. I went down to clubs with not many people there, and I just worked on it, man. A lot of my friends are comedians, so that part had a lot of encouragement, even though the shows were very caveman-like.
If I'm afraid of something, I'll deal with it and get past it.
A comic's like anybody else - he does what he does to support himself and feed his family. But if a comic says the wrong thing, there's a chance the audience will want to take you down.
Back when Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin were doing roasts, they were all friends. They knew each other's children, each other's wives, each other's families. It wasn't about being disrespectful. It was about being funny.
Every script I've read for 'Black Jesus' has been hilarious.
Eddie had the perfect template of what not to do. His big brother did all the wrong things.
I protected Eddie. He never had to fight, because people knew who his older brother was.
I was the dude you didn't wanna go to school with, because I would come to school and get on your shoes. If you had a hole in your pants, I'd talk about it all day long. If your hair was messed up, if you had buck teeth, I'd talk about it all day long. And I made people laugh doing it, but it wasn't like I thought I was a comedian.
If I want to be a real comedian, I can't let you dictate my material, so I started creating more new material.
I'm an entertainer, period. I can write it, I can speak it, and I can act it.
I've been called Mr. Eddie's brother, but I don't trip on that. Whether you realize it or not, that's a sign of disrespect. If you address me, call me by my name. You can't lower me or make me feel uncomfortable.
I've become a writer, an actor, producing films, and having a TV show. I'm pretty successful and proud of it.
I wasn't drawn to comedy: it was drawn to me - from fighting in school to going to jail, then joining the military and getting into Hollywood.
My own son called me Eddie Murphy's brother once. Once.
