Eddie Murphy says he's getting ready to launch his first stand-up tour in decades
Eddie Murphy has felt like he’s been on the edge of some kind of resurgence for a while now. Not only is he just sort of due—having been out of all but the most generous of limelights since 2011's Tower Heist—but he’s begun to make noises in recent weeks about getting back into the “Public Person Eddie Murphy” game in a pretty major way. Said noises included finishing work on his long-in-the-works Rudy Ray Moore biopic, Dolemite Is My Name, gearing up for the Coming To America sequel, and—perhaps most shockingly— announcing that he’d be returning to his old Saturday Night Live stomping ground to host the show on December 21. (His first time hosting the show in more than 30 years.)
Now Murphy has confirmed that monologuing on the set of Studio 8H won’t be his only attempt at getting back into the world of stage-based comedy in the near future, announcing that he intends to follow his return to SNL will a full-fledged stand-up tour—something he hasn’t done in any sort of regular way since 1987. (The closest Murphy came to doing stand-up “recently” was a set he delivered while picking up his Mark Twain Prize For American Humor in 2015, where he riffed extensively on a then pre-imprisonment Bill Cosby.)
Per EW, Murphy confirmed his intentions to start touring again in a recent episode of the Netflix podcast Present Company With Krista Smith, noting that “Next year, in 2020, I’m going to go on the road and do some stand-up.” He said something similar (if less definitive) in his recent episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, because if there’s one takeaway from all this, it’s that Eddie Murphy goddamn loves Netflix.
And look: Is there a worry here that Murphy, a 58-year-old man who lives in his own private castle, who’s been one of the most famous people in America for more than half his life, and who was already prone to occasional bouts of “Really, dude?”-style material in his celebrated older performances, might end up coming off a tad out of touch when he gets back up on stage after 30 years? Sure. But on the other hand: Eddie Murphy! Doing stand-up! What could possibly go wrong!?