I remember the first time I saw Eddie Murphy's stand-up special, "Delirious," for the first time. It was one of the funniest stand-up specials of all-time. I was in high school and my friends watched it again and again. We put it on at parties so our friends who hadn't seen it could laugh with us. We quoted it endlessly. And, yes, it is vulgar and NOW politically incorrect (Murphy, like many comedians, has now been forced to apologize for some of the content).
And now, Eddie Murphy is making a comeback, courtesy of Netflix. Even though he hasn’t done standup in years, the streaming giant is reportedly plunking down $70 million dollars for a series of comedy specials.
While Netflix wouldn’t confirm the financials, it wouldn’t be far-fetched for them to give Murphy that kind of money. Dave Chappellle reportedly got $60 million for three specials, and Chris Rock picked up $40 million for two. Meanwhile, Amy Schumer reportedly got more than $11 million bucks for her last showcase.
“I’m gonna do it again. It’s just, you know, everything has to be right,” Murphy told Jerry Seinfeld on the current season of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” He added, “The only way I can get, like, an act is I gotta go to the clubs and work out.”
If you are an Eddie Murphy fan like me, you probably have the same concern: Murphy became increasingly UNFUNNY over the years. The "Raw" special was more angry than funny (he had just gone through a bad break-up) and it's always the death knell for a comedian's career when he or she begins talking about how hard it is to be famous. Murphy went down this path and hasn't come back.
But still - it's EDDIE MURPHY. Stay tuned...