BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) JOHN LEQUIZAMO
To be perfectly honest, I don’t know for sure if he’s “abandoned” stand up. It’s just I’ve not seen or heard anything about this guy doing any specials in recent memories. He’s busy being an actor. He’s not just a movie star, but the dude is an actor. He’ll do theatre, big roles, small roles, indies, blockbusters, TV, anything. He just stays busy and seems to go after what interests him. I was a bit young, but I do remember him being pretty popular among stand up specials for awhile. I know that he kind of went into a performance art-one man show direction as opposed to just telling jokes, but I’d definitely check out a new John Lequizamo comedy special if it came on. I’m sure I’m not alone.
(THREE) JAMIE FOXX
He’s way too busy acting, singing, and being a little too awkward to do stand up. I’m not a huge fan of his. Something about him just rubs me the wrong way. He’s seems too cocky and has limited range outside of Jamie Foxx and impersonations. Still, this one makes sense. It’s just his old stand up stuff was a huge in getting him where he is. I know he pops up here and there, but a full on stand up special would probably be really successful.
(TWO) STEVE MARTIN
Steve Martin pretty much graduated from standup comedy. The closest thing we get to him doing standup now is his witty retorts on talk shows and any antidotes he throws in between his banjo performances. He writes books, is a great banjo player, and pretty just does what he wants in between collecting pay checks from laid back work on family films. He’ll occasionally throw in an indie movie, but for the most part he’s mellowed out and lost some edge. I’m sure a stand up special of his now would be hilarious but it would probably have a weighty pompousness to it. No harm in that, but still…
(ONE) EDDIE MURPHY
I’ve had the same conversation with a few different people and I’m sure you have too. How bad ass would it be for Eddie Murphy to do a stand up tour-slash-special. When he was in his prime he was easily one of the most successful stand up acts of all time. His stand up specials were amazing and still talked about and learned from today. The specials and his SNL reputation made it easy for him to transition into doing the monster hit movies. His earlier comedy stuff was great, but slowly and surely he lost his edge, at least publically. Him doing a stand up special around the same time as doing a Beverly Hills Cop 4 would be a great way to come full circle on all that he’s done in the past twenty five or so years.
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