The Disappearance of Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy was one of the biggest stars on the planet in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s but where has he been since then? I wanted to take a look at his fantastic career and try to find out where he went.

Eddie Murphy was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1961 to his parents Charles and Lillian. His father was a New York City police officer and amateur comedian, and his mother was a telephone operator. He also had an older brother, Charlie (who was hilarious and just recently passed away, R.I.P Charlie Murphy). When Murphy was young he watched a lot of TV and grew the knack of impersonations, doing some of his favorite childhood characters like Sylvester, Bugs Bunny, and Bullwinkle. At age 15 he entered the talent show at his school and wowed the crowd with his impression of Al Green. With the success of his impersonations he began working on stand up routines after school and started doing stand up at local bars and comedy clubs. When he graduated high school he was named the most popular kid and chose his profession: comedian.

He continued working on his stand up routines and started making his way into some of the top New York comedy clubs. Some of his early influences were Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Red Foxx, and Robin Williams. In 1980, Murphy learned that Saturday Night Live was holding auditions; he auditioned six times and eventually got a job as an extra. One night SNL realized they had four minutes of airtime with no material so they had Murphy do his stand up routine and his life was never the same after. He worked on SNL from 1980-1984 and has some of the most memorable characters of all time that include some great impersonations like Buckwheat, James Brown, and Stevie Wonder and some original characters including Gumby and Mister Robinson. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked all 145 SNL cast members and they ranked Murphy second behind the great John Belushi.

While Murphy was on SNL he released three stand up comedy specials, Eddie Murphy: Comedian which won the 1984 Grammy for Best Comedy, Eddie Murphy Delirious in 1983 filmed in Washington D.C., and Eddie Murphy Raw in 1987. Delirious is probably one of the raunchiest and most un-politically correct things you can watch, but it is absolutely hilarious. My Dad showed me this for the first time and I will never forget both of us laughing our asses off and crying from laughing so hard. Because Delirious was so popular, Raw got a wide theatrical release and grossed over $50 million. It is still the #1 stand up film of all time at the box office and at the time it set the record for highest "fuck count", passing Scarface (which was later passed by Goodfellas). Russell Brand, Dave Chappelle, and Chris Rock has named Murphy as a big influence for their material.

Starting in 1982, Murphy's IMDB list is awesome with him starring alongside Nick Nolte in 48 Hours, which is a great movie and still one of my favorites. He followed that up with Trading Places in 1983 opposite another great SNL alum, Dan Akroyd, which led to a $25 million contract for six movies for Murphy. In '84 he starred in arguably his biggest and best film, Beverly Hills Cop that hit #9 on the all-time box office list and earned Murphy a Golden Globe nomination. (apparently Sylvester Stallone was the first choice for this movie.....wow what a different movie that would have been) Murphy worked with Rick James to produce his first album, "How Could it Be?", with the classic Party All the Time that hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. '86-89 saw Golden Child, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Coming to America, and Harlem Nights come to theaters starring Murphy. Outside of Coming to America, which grossed more then $128 million, the other three movies were not some of his best work. From 1990-96 saw another lull in box office hits but he broke back on the scene in a big way with Nutty Professor. This is one of his biggest roles and earned him another Golden Globe nomination. Crazy to think that this movie came out 20 years ago... we were just quoting it on Christmas this year.

The late 90s and early 2000s saw Murphy do some roles he had never done before; he did a few kids and animated movies. He did Mulan and Dr. Doolittle in '98 followed by Dr. Doolittle 2 and Shrek in 2001. Donkey from Shrek might be Murphy's most notable role, everyone knows he plays that part and he plays it well. In between those kid-type movies he did Nutty Professor 2 where he played all six leading roles, which was hilarious to see him play an old man and two women. Another movie I love is Daddy Day Care which came out in 2001 followed by Shrek 2 in 2004. Murphy won his only Golden Globe for his role in Dreamgirls and he also earned an Oscar nomination. Dreamgirls is a really fantastic movie and I think it is extremely underrated now. Since 2006, Murphy has been in a few movies here and there but nothing of notable success. (One point about his awards and nominations, he won the 1988 Kids' Choice Award for his role in......Beverly Hills Cop 2........I had no idea this was a kids' movie but, hey, good for you, Eddie.) So where is Murphy and what has he been doing?

Unfortunately, I am not good friends with Eddie Murphy and don't have any access to his life. But he was such a huge star starting with his stand up in high school and running through his movie career into the 2000s. Normally major stars fade away because of some off-screen incident or a run of horrible movies, which Murphy really has not had. Sure he has had a few bad movies but most actors and actresses do, it's just something that happens over a career. The way I see it, there are two options to what Murphy wanted to do: he may have just decided to retire and spend time with his family which is absolutely possible, but you don't see many high profile actors go that route, or did he begin to realize that the acting and comedy world was changing and his material was not as funny as it used to be? I have not seen Dave Chappelle's latest Netflix specials, but from what I have heard is that they just are not as funny as they used to be. I heard it is pretty vulgar (which is cool) but a lot of the material is simply not funny and extremely controversial. Whatever route Murphy took I am glad we didn't have to witness 5 or 6 really bad movies and watch him fade away. For me, he will go down as one of the funniest and biggest movie actors of all time.

Shelf Life of a Stand Up Comedian

A few nights ago before falling asleep Ellen and I had a very interesting discussion about stand up comedians. For some reason I asked, "Whatever happened to Carrot Top?" Neither of us knew the answer so Ellen pulled grabbed her phone and we found out that he is still performing stand up in Vegas. So next time you are in Vegas, you can see Britney Spears one night and Carrot Top the next. This brought up another question, "What is the average shelf life of a stand up comedian?" Like Dane Cook, he ruled the world for a few years and I don't remember the last time I heard from him, do you? I am by no means an expert in the world of comedy but I did some research and found some really interesting things about some of the best comedians.

Dane Cook was one of the best comedians when we were in high school, we got tickets and went to see him live. It was awesome and he was hilarious, he burst on the scene in 2003 with his CD/DVD Harmful if Swallowed. The album went platinum and features some of his best work featuring "Umm, Hellllo?", "The BK Lounge", "Slip N' Bleed", "Not So Kool-Aid" and many other classic skits. He then released Retaliation which went double platinum and led to his first HBO special, Dane Cook: Vicious Circle. He hosted Saturday Night Live twice and starred in some pretty good movies, Employee of the Month, Mr. Brooks, Good Luck Chuck, and My Best Friend's Girl. It seemed like he was on top of the world, so what happened? In 2012 Cook made a joke referencing the movie theater shooting in Aurora, CO which really hurt his following (understandably so... not okay). He also has been named by numerous other comedians as someone who steals their jokes and someone they do not find all that funny. He was also popular before the age of YouTube and Social Media which made it more difficult to spread his comedy and interact with fans. In my opinion it seems like he struggled to adapt into other medias, such as podcasting and the other factors really hurt his credibility. 

Another guy I looked at was Kevin Hart, who has been huge for a few years now. After a slow start to his stand up career he began to switch the focus of his stand up and jokes, he started using his own insecurities and life experiences in his routines. Starting in 2009 Hart had a great run with stand up tours; I'm a Grown Little Man (2009), Seriously Funny (2010), Laugh at my Pain (2011), and Let Me Explain (2013). After his last tour in 2013 Hart extended his career by venturing into film and has been a big success. With films like The 40 Year Old Virgin, Death at a Funeral, Little Fockers, Think Like a Man, Ride Along, among a few others. In most of these movies Hart is not the lead role or even the supporting actor, he usually plays a secondary character but he plays them perfectly. You walk out of the movie talking about his role. He has also played alongside some of the biggest actors of this time like Will Ferrell, the Rock, Ice Cube, Ben Stiller, etc. He has also hosted Saturday Night Live a number of times. Hart also benefits by being in the social media age, he is one of the biggest social media stars and has one of the largest followings online. After his stand up "career" Hart is arguably a bigger star now then he was during that time. 

One last comedian I will bring up is Richard Pryor who was popular long before either of the previous two guys I mentioned. Pryor is considered by many to be the greatest stand up comedian of all time, and for good reason (if you have not watched any of his material, I recommend you finish reading this and immediately go to YouTube). He got his start by performing in New York City nightclubs by opening for musical acts and other comedians. In 1966, Pryor started performing on TV, doing his skits on shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, Johnny Carson, and Merv Griffin. After his TV performances he ended up in Vegas opening up for the likes of Bobby Darin, however Pryor was not fond of the rules in Vegas so he went to Hollywood. He starred in a few films, had his own NBC show, and hosted Saturday Night Live during this time. He also began writing for shows like Sanford and Son and worked with Mel Gibson on Blazing Saddles. Pryor was successful in everything he did, from his stand up to his film roles. In 1986, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and even that would not hold him down as he kept performing. Pryor is a prime example of a comedian branching out into other mediums and being extremely successful. He was extremely popular long before the time of social media and is still popular and hilarious now. That is one of the many reason he is considered as the greatest comedian of all time. 

In my opinion, Pryor is the greatest comedian of all time and it seems his model is one that Kevin Hart has followed. It is really difficult to solely be a stand up comedian, you have to be able to adapt and explore different avenues if you have to extend you career. Pryor was before the social media age but Hart has used that to catapult his career even higher and Cook missed the boat. Hart is still extremely successful but has moved over to film exclusively and Cook is no where to be seen. Ultimately where Cook failed, Hart excelled. Cook also made a joke in very poor taste and that was a key factor in his down fall. However one of the biggest ways to judge a successful comedian is how well their skits age and all 3 of these are no doubt successful by that measure. You can go on YouTube and pull up any of their skits and still laugh your ass off.