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Eddie Murphy: Richard Pryor
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Growing up Eddie Murphy idolized Richard Pryor and by the age of 15 had begun performing stand-up comedy himself. His appearances at local bars and events in Brooklyn soon led across the river to Manhattan. At The Comic Strip, the club co-owners Robert Wachs and Richard Tienken were so impressed with Murphy's talents that they offered to manage his career.
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Like Lenny Bruce and Redd Foxx in the 60's, Richard Pryor and George Carlin in the 70's, and Robin Williams and Eddie Murphy in the 80's, the stand-up genre is being redefined. But, instead of shifting the complexity of the subject matter or swaying the structure to fit the times, the producers reestablished the art-form by changing the person at the center, the comedian.
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Murphy performed stand-up comedy at the same Bay Area Comedy Club as Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg. His early comedy was racy, akin to Richard Pryor, whom Murphy has credited as his inspiration to enter comedy.[3] Characterized by frequent swearing and homophobia, Murphy became, in a sense, the Pryor of the 1980s, though Pryor wrote in his autobiography, Pryor Convictions, that he always thought Murphy's comedy was excessively insensitive. Murphy's comments about gays and AIDS in his standup routines were considered so vicious that some years later he apologized for them. At the height of his popularity, Murphy appeared in the concert films Delirious (1983) and Raw (1987).[3] Delirious contained an infamous routine in which he depicted characters Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton from The Honeymooners, as well as other notables such as Mr. T, as homosexuals. In 1983, Murphy won a Grammy for his comedy album Comedian.
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In 1989, Murphy made his directorial debut with Harlem Nights, a period comedy he ... wrote and starred in, opposite Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx. In addition, Murphy starred in and produced the hit comedy Life, co-starring Martin Lawrence, and starred opposite Steve Martin in the comedy hit Bowfinger. He was also the voice of Mushu the Dragon in the successful animated epic Mulan.
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Richard Pryor