
"His show was real tight," Charlie Murphy said. Murphy's brother, Charlie Murphy, a successful comedian in his own right, recalled Eddie's intensive preparations in the lead-up to "Delirious." Eddie had been honing his stand-up act on his "Lord Have Murphy" North American tour and was primed to deliver the maximum comedic payload at Constitution Hall. That was when every other comedian raised their expectations." I had never seen anything like it."Īdds Keenen Ivory Wayans: "That was a defining moment in comedy. "'Delirious' was a combination of two things: great material and a great performance. "Eddie Murphy inspired me to become a comic," Chris Rock says.
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But on the "Delirious" DVD, a Who's Who of black comedians, including Chris Tucker, Cedric the Entertainer, Sinbad and Martin Lawrence, weighs in on the TV special's initial impact. He made the ridiculous sublime while also managing to get laughs out of such once-sacrosanct subjects as AIDS, slavery, domestic violence and what he predicted would be the assassination attempt on America's first black president.Īdhering to a long-held policy of not granting newspaper interviews, Murphy declined to comment. And Murphy became perhaps the earliest comedian to riff on how Michael Jackson "ain't the most masculine fellow in the world." T and "The Honeymooners" Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton would have been like as outed gay men. Over the course of his act, Murphy verbally flambes an eclectic array of subject matter, with spot-on impersonations of Elvis, Teddy Pendergrass, Stevie Wonder and Ricky Ricardo re-enactments of what Mr. And the rest of the comedians had to step up their game."

"He definitely took the art form and raised the bar.
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" 'Delirious' put Eddie in a league by himself," said comedian Robert Townsend, who directed Murphy's second concert movie "Raw" and recently directed the documentary "Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy." Once upon a time, Murphy was a baaad man - a stand-up superstar who in equal parts could infuriate, entertain and inspire his audience. The disc serves to remind comedy lovers that Murphy wasn't always the family-friendly star of such flicks as "The Nutty Professor II", "The Klumps" or "Daddy Day Care" - not to mention the tween-skewing "Imagine That." Shirtless and dressed in red leather pants and matching jacket unzipped to his navel, Eddie Murphy sauntered onto the stage at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., one night in 1983 and changed the face of stand-up comedy forever.Īt the time, Murphy was "Saturday Night Live's" youngest cast member and a newly in-demand movie star after the success of his action comedy "48 Hrs." Age 22 and cocky as a top gun pilot, Murphy used an arsenal of curse words that made his punch lines detonate with the force of Sidewinder missiles.Ĭaptured by an HBO documentary film crew, Murphy's performance galvanized a generation of comedians when it went into rotation on the cable channel the following year under the title "Eddie Murphy: Delirious."Īnd earlier this month, a 25th anniversary "Delirious" DVD reached retail stores.
