Oregon daily emerald., September 29, 1982, Image 44

Eddie Murphy
Breaks Into The
Bi$er Time
BY (Sill BRAUNSTEIN
gf
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America .s fastest rising young comedian is just a few minutes away from hav
ing the living bejeezus kicked out of him Quietly tucked away in a Claus
trophobic dressing room on a downtown Los Angeles parking lot taken over
by the crew of Paramount Pictures' 4fi HRS is funnyman Eddie Murphy. Mur
phy. whose only previous screen appearances are of the television variety as
the only certifiable star of the third incarnation of Saturday Slight Live, will
soon lx' engaged in cinematic fisticuffs.
The scene is to he filmed in a sleazy alleyway bedecked with glitzy neon to
make it resemble a San Francisco street. “We got right up to the start of the
fight last night," says a subdued Murphy, dressed in his character's Armani
glen plaid suit, waiting for darkness to fall. "Got right up to the point where I
throw the first punch, but by then the sun was coming up."
Murphy leans back on the narrow couch and smiles Behind him, hanging
in a tiny closet is a pair of worn denim jeans and a denim overcoat that he
would undoubtedly feel more comfortable in After all. Eddie Murphy is 21
years old. The three months lie's been working on the movie represent the
longest period of time lie s ever been away from home
Yet, here is Eddie Murphy, starring in a big budget motion picture, oppo
site a major star, Nick Nolle, Ix ing directed by Hollywood vr'eran Walter Hill
Talk about being on a roll. His first comedy album, Eddie \nirphy, had been
released earlier in the week He w as scheduled to do Johnny-Carson's To
night Show, the next day (his third appearance on the late night kingpin's
show). He had bought a black Mercedes, his fourth car, the previous week
And this September he started his third season on the show that began it all
for him, a show he also helped-to revive, Saturdity Night Utv.
After a year as a second string "feature" player during SNl.'s ill fated I‘>80
81 season, Murphy helped take the show to new heights with brilliant and
crazily Original characterizations when he was finally allowed to turn it all
loose last season. Armed with a brash cockiness and a veritable laundry list of
impersonations and odd characters, he Iwgan his comedy1 march off the
beaten laugh track with parodies of Buckwheat, of Little Rascal lame, Velvet
Jones, a jive talking huckster, Mr Robinson, the ghetto's answer to the clean
as vvhitebre.nl Mr Rogers, anti film critic Ralieem Abdul Muhammad; who
defiantly asks why s/w/r was nevet nominated for an Oscar
Murphy 's impersonations are equally- on target, with the barbs leaving no
figure untouched Some people even say that his humor has a mean streak,
that he can be mercilessly cruel l ake, for instance, a sketch he did last season
portraying Muhammad Ali as a punch drunk, disoriented okl man There was
his soulful James Brown, dressed in curb ret I wig. singing .-V/nite's The sun
Will Conic Out Tomorrow His Little Richard Simmons is two parodies tor
the price of one And then there was the infamous Larrv the lobster sketch,
where a tuxedo dressed Muipln invited viewers to vote whethei he should
kill the crustacean on live IV (To Ins dixm.iv, the lobster was allowed to live 1
I don't do easy comedy, says Murphy VI’ll do anything that is not taboo to
mess with Like, I won t do |okes on religion ot the shooting of the pope or
Martin Lutlict Kings death Tti.it kind ot thing But |ieople watch vUunUt\
Night lire to see outrageous things l liev want to see shocking stutl that they
didn't know you could do on television And that's the stuff they remember
Foi the past three months, however. Murphy has hail to lx content to plav
only one character, that ot Reggie Hammond, a convict sprung from |all tor 48
hours to help a cop placed hv Nlrk Nolle find some convicts that have mui
dered a wave ol |ioltcrmcn Pining the scene that will be shot tonight, Mui
phy anil Nolle, aftci s|x-nding the dav together, are fed up with each other
Nolle decides to let Muipln know lie means business hv trying to wipe the
street with him
A knot k on the dressing room doot signals he’s needed on the set He
walks out of the dressing room and down the seeds street, where hustlers,
hookers anti transvestites have come to watch the excitement. Qff-dutv
polkemcn have Urn hired to patrol the area and an occasional backfire from
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