The making of a stand up guy - Charlie Murphy

[MAFOOMBAY]

 

Years ago, when this first came out, I read this.  Rarely one to read biographies (they're so self-serving), this was during the height of the Chapelle sketches and he was Eddie Murphy's brother, so I gave it a shot.  And I'm glad I did.  I instantly became a Charlie Murphy fan for his down to earth-ness and awareness of  how blessed he was to achieve his dream.

Dude was real.

An excerpt:

After bombing in St. Louis and Cleveland, we rolled up to our next show at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. By that time, all sorts of crazy, negative thoughts were swirling inside my mind. This was the very same venue where Eddie had performed his breakout stand-up triumph, Delirious, in 1983. Suddenly I was terrified all over again about standing in front of a live audience.

As the car approached the venue, I looked out at the soldout crowd of 3,702 people climbing the steps into the performance hall. My palms were slick with sweat. My heart kept throwing itself against the inside of my chest like it was trying to bust down a door.

I turned to my cousin Rich and said, "This is it. I'm gonna die here tonight. If I bomb tonight like I bombed the last two nights, it's over for me, man. I quit."

I made up my mind that bombing in Constitution Hall would be all the proof I needed to know I wasn't the real deal; to know, once and for all, that I wasn't a professional stand-up comedian, and that I was never going to be one.

As soon as I got inside the venue, I was told that a very famous stand-up comedian was waiting for me inside my dressing room. I didn't want to talk with anyone, especially since I was sick with the feeling that I was about to bomb for the third straight performance and that my career as a stand-up was all but over. When they told me who was waiting to speak with me, I thought, What does that brother want?

I was horrified.

As it happened, all that brother wanted was to say hello and to pass along to me a crucial piece of advice that would change my whole approach to stand-up comedy from that point forward, teaching me how to ingratiate myself to an audience, and saving my career in the process.

But before I get into who that comedian was and what he had to tell me, allow me to introduce myself.

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[Troy]

Man, I just now learned that Charlie Murphy passed.  He was only 57. Charlie always stuck me a more rugged, manly version of Eddie Murphy. May he rest in peace.