Eddie Murphy Says He’s Returning to Stand-Up After The Pandemic

It’s been a long time since Eddie Murphy has graced the stage for a stand-up. On the latest episode of Kevin Hart’s Comedy Gold Minds podcast, Murphy said that he is considering returning to standup after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

“Eddie, I don’t like talking to you about stand-up no more. I’m not fallin’ for the fuckin’ trap. I’m sick of you, I’m sick of your shit,” Hart said. “Every time we talk, he leaves me with a piece of information, and I feel like I got gold.”

Murphy then revealed that his plan was to do Dolemite, Saturday Night Live, Coming 2 America, and then stand up in that order. However, COVID derailed the last part of his plan.

“My plan was to do Dolemite, Saturday Night Live, Coming 2 America and then do stand-up. And then the pandemic hit, and it shut the whole shit down,” he explained. “Then I was going – the whole time last year I would have been out working on my act trying to get my shit right, and then the whole thing shut down.”

However, this isn’t the first time news has come out about the comedy legend returning to stand up. Back in 2019, TMZ reported that Murphy was negotiating a deal with Netflix to produce an undisclosed amount of comedy specials. The number reported at the time was $70 million, which would have exceeded Dave Chappelle’s $60 million deal, and Chris Rock’s $40 million deal.