I just always wanted to be a baseball announcer. I'm a huge Mets fan, and I wanted to be the next Bob Murphy. As far as careers go, that was the first career that I really thought about. Well, before that, I wanted to be a Mello Yello truck driver.
I had all the intentions of being the next Eddie Murphy.
I learned from the guys before me - Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, just to name a few. These are guys that let it all hang out. What they lived is what they took to the stage.
I was influenced by a lot of stand-up comedians... Eddie Murphy back when he was doing 'Raw.' I watched that so many times as a kid, I can probably still quote the entire thing to this day. Chris Rock. Dave Chappelle. George Carlin. A lot of the guys who were sort of edgy for their time.
Ever since it was announced that Ryan Murphy intended to produce 'The People v. O.J. Simpson,' I have been inundated with the question as to 'How do I feel about it?' All I can say is, for me, it was personally the most heartbreaking tragedy that altered my life forever.
At one point, people thought that Eddie Murphy would only reach one sector of the audience, but now everyone sees everything Eddie Murphy does.
My thing is you're only as good as the people you work with. I've been blessed to work with the Wayanses and Eddie Murphy and Adam Sandler and Chris Rock, and it makes you better.
Look at Cillian Murphy: 'Batman,' 'Tron'... those are some heavy-hitting franchises. But he works his way around it. He manages to have a great career and a great life.
At the end of the day, I want to be part of the same conversation as Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor.
A man writing a letter is a man in the act of thinking, and it was an exercise Reagan obviously enjoyed. After his first meeting with Gorbachev, for example, he sent a 'Dear Murph' letter about it to his old friend George Murphy, a former senator and actor who had once played Reagan's father in a film.
I used to watch 'Coming to America' every day after school. I have full-on long-running inside jokes with friends and family about different scenes in that movie alone. Also, my brother and I loved 'The Golden Child,' so, yeah: I was a huge fan of Eddie Murphy growing up.
If I could work with Eddie Murphy on 'SNL,' I think I could quit comedy forever. For me and my generation, he's God.
Bush is very clever. When the debate should have been about the deterioration of our cities and the lack of action by government, he sent in his idiot to make an outrageous statement about Murphy Brown.
Art should be witty, like a good Eddie Murphy movie, to make your life a little easier and better.
When I was 13, Eddie Murphy was to me what Chris Tucker was to 13-year-olds when I made 'Rush Hour.' And 'Rush Hour' really came out of the fact that I grew up watching 'Beverly Hills Cop' and '48 Hrs.'