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DDIE MURPHY was 19 years old in

1980 when he exploded into the

American consciousness on Saturday

Night Live, bringing urban sass,

pop-culture insight and wicked wit

to characters like Gumby, Mister

Robinson and Buckwheat, while in the process reviv-

ing the flagging comedy franchise. Two years later

he co-starred in 48 Hrs., in which he walked into a

white country-western bar, took the measure of its

patrons and walked out a movie star. After his 1983

stand-up special, Delirious, Murphy became as ubiq-

uitous as superstar peers Michael Jackson, Prince

and Madonna, making blockbuster movies (Beverly

Hills Cop, Coming to America) and selling out concert

venues. As a comedian and an African-American,

Murphy pushed boundaries, opened doors and made

millions. Next year will mark Murphy’s 40th as an

entertainer, and it’s shaping up to be a big one.

In the coming months, he will finish filming

Coming 2 America, host Saturday Night Live, prepare

for a reboot of Beverly Hills Cop and, most nota-

bly, stage a return to stand-up comedy, an arena he

stepped away from more than 30 years ago. If there’s

one connecting thread to this phase of the 58-year-

old performer’s life, it’s of the past becoming the

present and future. Even his funny, poignant new

film that Netflix released in October—Dolemite Is My

Name, about cult comic, actor and film producer Rudy

Ray Moore—brought Murphy back to his teen years,

when his brother, the late funnyman Charlie Murphy,

introduced him to Moore’s no-budget, jailhouse

rhyme–based movies.

Over the phone from the set of Coming 2 America

in Atlanta, where he’s revisiting the character of

Prince Akeem from the fictional African kingdom of

Zamunda, Murphy’s voice doesn’t contain the cackle

of a cartoon donkey or the quicksilver wit of Axel

Foley. Instead, Murphy sounds relaxed, if a bit tired.

Despite the current controversies that have made

stand-up comedy a contested space, where political

correctness has bumped heads with artistic license,

he is unfazed. For a man who’s been in the public eye

for four decades, Murphy sounds remarkably opti-

mistic and exceedingly mellow.

BY NELSON GEORGE PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSH OLINS

In the coming year, the legendary performer and star of the new movie Dolemite Is My Name

will host Saturday Night Live, bring back two of his most beloved film franchises and ready

himself for a much-anticipated return to stand-up comedy.

MURPHY

ENTERTAINMENT INNOVATOR

EDDIE

RENAISSANCE MAN

“I always wanted to

do stand-up one more

time,” Murphy says.

“Once I get back onstage,

I kind of feel that’s

what I was born to do

more than anything.”