by Eddie Murphy last appeared on the show that broke his career 30 years ago, when he hosted Saturday Night Live on Dec. 15, 1984 (an episode NBC just rebroadcast in primetime this month). Murphy plans to be back onstage with his past and present SNL colleagues for the show’s big 40th anniversary show on Feb. 15, 2015, though!
What took him so long?
“It’s just timing. It just never worked out where the timing was right for me to do it. It’s part of my life… actually they’re having a 40th anniversary I think in two weeks. I’m going to that, and that’ll be the first time I’ve been back since I left.” Murphy said in a phone interview today with Roland Martin on TV One’s NewsOne Now.
Murphy also talked to Martin about making music and making plans for a larger return to the stage.
“I never ever stopped making music, I stopped putting music out in the ’80s. In the ’80s for some reason more than in any decade, there was a bunch of actors that was trying to sing and put records out and you know how, it looks crazy…I didn’t want to be a part of that,” Murphy said. “I just stopped letting y’all hear it.”
He came back to sharing music over the past couple of years with reggae tracks, first with “Red Light” with Snoop Lion.
And this is Murphy’s latest song, “Oh Jah Jah,” released this month.
As for seeing Eddie Murphy onstage again as a stand-up comedian? Or in any capacity? He has teased the idea for the past few years.
“Well, that’s my fantasy is if I ever got onstage as a live performer again, I would like to be able to do everything that I do, and have that be my show,” he said. “As opposed to being just another one of the comics. You know, back when I stopped doing comedy, it was 100 comics. And now it’s 100,000 comics. So I’m like, if I was to jump back into the game, you know, what’s different about me from the other people.” He realizes he’s still different. But: “It’s still just somebody onstage telling jokes. I’m like, if I got onstage again, I want to take what I’m doing to the next level and be everything that I am onstage.”
Does he miss it? “I think when you come from the stage, and you come from a show like Saturday Night Live, I think you always have that feeling – it’s nothing, there’s nothing like connecting with a live audience. That feeling is the best that there is.”
The show Eddie Murphy dreams of putting on for you today?
“Shut it down with a band for a half-hour, then an hour of jokes, then leave.”
Roll the clip!
