Eddie Murphy wanted to warm up for his stand-up tour by making his movie return to remind fans of his comedy greatness.
The actor returned to the spotlight with 2019’s “Dolemite Is My Name,” only his second movie since 2012, and he is currently promoting his long-awaited “Coming to America” sequel, projects the star felt the need to complete before heading back out on the road.
Eddie explained: “When I got up off the couch and did this little patch of work, it was, ‘Let’s do ‘Dolemite.’ Let’s do ‘Saturday Night Live’ Let’s do ‘Coming 2 America.'” Because I want to go do stand-up again, but I don’t want to just pop up out there when people hadn’t seen me be really funny in a while.”
Although the coronavirus pandemic has forced Eddie to put his stand-up plans on hold, he eventually hopes to tour with some of his favorite comedians.
Eddie told The New York Times newspaper: “(I thought), ‘Let me remind them that I’m funny.’ And then the pandemic hit and we had to pull everything back. But when the pandemic is over and it’s safe to be around people, I’m going to go do stand-up again.
“There’s so many comics in Coming 2 America. I’d love to do a tour with all the comedians: me, Arsenio Hall, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, Trevor Noah, Jermaine Fowler, Louie Anderson, Michael Blackson.”
Eddie also revealed that the pandemic has given him a reason to watch the news, having been so out of touch with current affairs for so long.
He admitted, “Before the pandemic, I never, never watched the news. “I never know what’s going on. I’ll be like, ‘What happened?’ ‘Trump is the president?’ I totally don’t follow any of that stuff.”
