Concrete Playground Meets Charlie Murphy

Charlie Murphy deserves some serious credit. Trying to forge a career as a professional comedian is pretty tough at the best of times, let alone when your brother is none other than Eddie Murphy. Yet Charlie has not only taken that plunge – he's come out the other side as a top-billed international comedian playing to sold-out audiences around the world.

Next month he'll be bringing his act to both Australia and New Zealand, so he took some time to talk to Tom Glasson about comedy, basketball, being Eddie Murphy's brother and even Lamingtons.

Charlie Murphy, hello from Sydney!

Hey brother - how ya doin' man?

Good mate, yourself?

Yeah it's all good. I'm just sitting here in Englewood, New Jersey watching the afternoon news you know.

Keeping an eye out for new material?

Always brother. Got to keep it fresh for you folks in Australia.

Well yeah, it's only a little over a month now until you bring your show – the 'Acid Trip Tour' – down our way. You excited?

You better believe it man – I've never been to Australia before so this is my first time and I'm super-charged about coming there.

First time? Well then you're probably carrying around some serious '80s clichés and stereotypes about us all!

[Laughs] Ha, Crocodile Dundee! But you know, I'm looking forward to seeing all that AND the real deal. It's gonna be fun!

So what can people expect from your show?

Laughs, man! Whenever people ask me that I always tell them the same thing: you should expect to laugh. I mean you ain't going to a basketball game, you ain't going to a magician, you're going to see a comedian. When you see a comedian you should expect to laugh. But yeah, people ask me that a lot because they haven't seen me before – I'm new to most people – and I let them know it's for them to laugh. And you know, this is my first time coming to Australia; I've been to England, Canada, Scandinavia, all over the US and I've been making people laugh and I enjoy doing it.

How would you describe your own sense of humour? What makes you laugh?

Oh it's adult, man! I leave it raw and you can take it the way you want it. But it's raw and it's adult. I expect my audience to be adult, too. I don't go do lunchtime crowds at high schools, you know – I have an adult show.

Who's making you laugh right now?

You know man, it's funny - whoever's funny really. All of them can make me laugh, you know what I'm saying? I mean they're all funny guys. I enjoy all of them.

Jumping back a few years, you grew up in Brooklyn right?

Yeah. I grew up, partially in Brooklyn, 'til I was 13. Then I moved to Long Island and lived there from 13 to 17. And then I went to the military.

And your father was almost a 'slashy' wasn't he, in that he was a transit cop but also a part-time actor and comedian?

Well, my father was a police officer – a transit officer – and that's what he really was. He did a little stand-up when he was in high school, he did it on the side a bit, but he never really became a professional stand-up comedian. You know, he did talent shows and – my uncle did it as well – he did local stuff but never became professional where it was their way of making a living. Because that's when I think you can say you're a professional comedian; until then you're just dabbling.

Where do you think this passion for comedy came from, since you'd almost have to call it a family business now?

Ha, yeah. Well, I was already in the business but not as a comedian. You know I was in the business as an actor, I was in the business as a writer, a producer, but I wasn't in it as a comedian because it was obvious to me at that point that I was "Eddie's brother", you know? Eddie Murphy was the comedian, he was the younger brother and so it was always going to be hard for them to accept me as one too. But then The Chappelle Show kind of knocked that door down and I thought: "wait a minute, you can go out now and play with that." You know, that was a free pass to do it because people wanted to see me all of a sudden, and so I started going out, I started developing it and I've never stopped. I've been on the road for ten years straight! [laughs]

You just mentioned Chappelle. Did you have any sense at the time that this was your sort of 'shine the light' moment? That this was when it was all going to change, or was it only retrospectively that you came to appreciate how important it all was?

Nah I didn't know that this was going to happen. I had no idea and neither did anyone else. What's happened since is actually kind of unbelievable because I started doing stand-up at 42 years old. I didn't start when I was nine like Chappelle or Eddie Murphy or Chris Rock. I didn't start doing stand-up when I was a teenager, or in my twenties or thirties, I started when I was 42 years old…and my brother was Eddie Murphy! I mean he's one of, or rather the, stand-up guy; the recognised God of stand-up, okay? That's my brother, so to have that in front of you, you know what I'm saying, it's very unlikely that you would firstly take a chance to try to get into it, and then secondly - be successful at it, and I've done both those things. And so that's a blessing. I've jumped over those hurdles and I'm now making a presence for myself and beginning to be appreciated for what I do.

And now you're coming out to Australia on tour. That's quite an incredible run.

Exactly man! And you know, everywhere I've been it's all part of reaffirming that I'm now doing what I'm supposed to be doing; that I made a very smart choice with my life. And I'm doing something special because I can't think of anybody else that's a comedian who can say: "Okay this guy, he did it like this." I think I'm carving a brand new street.

I'm curious about your take on comedy at the moment, because – and I'm thinking here about something one of Conan's writers said, a guy called Andrés du Bouchet – his advice to young comedy writers was: "write and perform comedy for 10 years in obscurity then luck out." Do you feel that's a little cynical or pretty reflective of the nature of the industry?

No that's kind of true man, because there are guys out there right now who are really really really good and they're not famous. I know who they are because I'm in the world of stand-up, I'm a comedian so I know who the other comedians are. Like the guy I'm bringing with me to Australia, his name's Freeze Love. You've never heard of him, but he's very very funny in his own right and yet he doesn't have a headliner name, a household name yet, so people say: "who's this guy? We came to see Charlie Murphy!"

And then this guy comes out and you forget that you came to see Charlie Murphy because he's that funny. When you come to my show I want you to laugh from the moment you get there to the moment you leave. And I'm only on stage for an hour but the show's an hour and a half, you know, so I make sure you get some variety and when you leave your face is hurting. That's my objective – to hurt your face – and I'm not a boxer!

There's this idea that comedy runs parallel with the zeitgeist, so in the '60s and '70s it was all about social change, then in the '80s it was the battle of the sexes, in the '90s it was drugs and most recently it's been terrorism and war.

And George W Bush!

The human punch-line.

Exactly!

Do you feel like there's a new theme emerging now? Because a lot of the current acts seem to focus on the influence - and perhaps intrusion - of technology in our lives and how dehumanising and lonely it can all be.

Totally, that's it man.

But at the same time these comics, people like Louis CK, they're sort of embracing that failing aren't they? Embracing their own shortcomings and emerging as anti-heroes.

Yeah man, it's all those things! You named almost everything I cover, like my show encompasses all the things you just talked about. We've had the '60s, '70s, '80s…well this is the new millennium and I'm talking about all of it. You're gonna hear about social issues, you're gonna hear about family, politics…all of that in one hour. And it's going to be fun.

A few years ago you said you were a huge fan of Obama but just couldn't see him becoming President given the state of things in America. Now that it's happened a lot of people have called this the 'post race' age, but that seems like a bit of a stretch doesn't it?

Exactly. That's not true. Things are just different, you know. Racism's still alive and well. Is it as rigid and defined as it was in the '60s? No, but it's still there. That other way, the old way, it wouldn't be able to exist in the climate we've got now, but it's still there. It just adapted. It's gradually leaving though, because if you look at the young people and their intelligence, there's not as much of that ignorance from the old days any more.

Actually I was watching that movie the other day, the J Edgar movie with Leonardo DiCaprio - who does an excellent job by the way - but for me that movie was about this man who, before this movie was made and various documentaries were made, he was held up like a God, a man who could do no wrong, a perfect person. And then that movie exposed that not only was he human – that was the first thing – but he was also flawed like all of us. Severely! I really liked that movie.

And just finally Charlie, you're a New Yorker and you recently did some promo stuff for Air Jordan with your Leroy Smith character – I'm guessing you've been caught up in the whole Jeremy Lin saga?

Oh yeah man – I'm a big time Knicks fan! And my show's called "The Acid Trip" so I'm glad you brought the Knicks up because I point out things that are really really totally unexpected, like if ten years ago you'd said that in 2012 the highest paid rapper would be white, there's going to be a black President and an Asian's gonna be dominating the NBA, nobody would've believed it!

An Asian guy from Harvard no less.

Exactly! This is all really happening, it's real, see so that's kind of the metaphor for my show because every day of life is another opportunity for you to go: "Oh wow!" Every day something could happen that's never happened in your life before. You could smell something you've never smelled before, taste something you've never tasted before and I don't know how old you are but think about that. If somebody said to me: "How long did it take you to get here?" and – because the first person who did that said "oh it took me 15 minutes" and I replied "Oh really, because it took me 52 years." So that's how you're looking at it, you know?

Well it was well worth it Charlie because we can't wait to have you out here.

I can't wait to come out there man. And I want you to give me the heads up on what's the first thing I should try to eat? What's an Australian dish, because I've never had Australian food so what would you recommend I eat when I get there? What's it like?

Well it's pretty much like American food except sized for humans. But I suppose the Lamington is the go-to option for something sweet, and of course the good ole meat pie.

Meat pie? What kind of meat is it?

Okay, it might not be 'meat'.

Ha, yeah okay. But I'll do it anyway.

Just ask for a regular beef pie and if they like you they'll top it off with some ketchup in the shape of Australia.

[Laughs] Okay I'm gonna try that man, and I look forward to seeing you all real soon. Thanks brother.

Charlie Murphy's "Acid Trip Tour" will hit Melbourne on 19 and 20 April, Auckland on April 23 and then Sydney on April 26. Check for tickets at www.abpresents.com.au and keep up with Charlie via Twitter @cmurphycomedy.