The Murphy Monday Podcast
This podcast is designed to celebrate the life and career of the legendary actor/ comedian EDDIE MURPHY. Each week our host (Nigel Fullerton @nigelfullerton_ ) and a special guest will breakdown a movie from Eddie’s catalog. We’ll talk about his influence , his impact and do some Eddie Murphy trivia.
The Murphy Monday Podcast
"The Films of Eddie Murphy" Episode f/ Author Mat Bradley-Tschirgi
What makes an Eddie Murphy film truly great? Is it the unforgettable characters, the quotable one-liners, or something more profound? Author Mat Bradley Tschirgi joins us to explore these questions through the lens of his fascinating new book, "The Films of Eddie Murphy: An Unofficial Look at America's Favorite Comedian from 48 Hours to Beverly Hills Cop Axel F."
Mat takes us on a journey through Eddie Murphy's remarkable 40-year career, uncovering little-known facts and reshaping our understanding of Murphy's contributions to cinema. From discovering that Murphy was briefly in foster care as a child to learning he earned more for the forgotten flop "Best Defense" than for his iconic hits, this conversation is filled with revelations that even dedicated fans might not know.
The heart of our discussion centers around Mat's unique approach to categorizing Murphy's extensive filmography. Rather than chronological order, he groups films as "Franchise Gems," "Hidden Gems," "So-So Gems," and "Not-So Gems." This thoughtful classification sparks a lively debate about underappreciated works like "Distinguished Gentleman" and "Mr. Church," which Mat surprisingly includes in his personal top five Murphy films. We also examine why comedies age so differently than dramas and how context matters when revisiting films from earlier decades.
Whether you're a casual viewer who knows Murphy from family films like "Shrek" or a longtime fan who can quote every line from "Raw," this episode offers fresh perspectives on an American comedy icon whose career deserves deeper analysis. Mat's passion for Murphy's work shines through as he makes a compelling case for why we should look beyond box office numbers or critical consensus to appreciate the full breadth of this remarkable performer's legacy.
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actually started listening to spoiler cat. I'm not spoiled. A sequel class cast yes, sir and I and I listened to your episode on eddie murphy oh, okay, right so very, very good, I don't want to, I don't want to get into it, but it was very. You can if you want.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, it was a while ago but yeah, I'm happy to talk about why my opinions have changed.
Speaker 1:I I was like, how does he get from that to the book? I don't understand, yeah we can talk yeah that'd be, All right cool.
Speaker 3:Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:This is becoming very irritating day. Oh man, this guy has written for Forbes Magazine, financial Times. He's hosted the Sequel Cast 2 podcast. He actually has a book that's out right now. You can get on Amazon the Films of Eddie Murphy, an Unofficial Look at America's Favorite Comedian from 48 Hours to Beverly Hills Cop Axel F. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a round of applause for Matt Bradley Shurgie everybody.
Speaker 2:Hey, thank you very much. Happy to be here.
Speaker 1:I am so ecstatic to talk to you. You found me off of Instagram, of all places, and you hit me with this book that you're doing that. You did actually that's out right now the films of Eddie Murphy and I have so many questions for you. First of all, I'm a fan of your podcast now of a sequel cast. I know you stopped doing it well, thank you.
Speaker 2:No, I'm glad you took a listen to it. You know I did that. I started that year before I got married, so in 2009, and did it up until about 2024 and it was a lot of fun. I did it with thrasher, who was a friend of mine in college, and we just always would talk about movies and especially ones with sequels, and the original concept was we would talk about movies and franchises and kind of talk at them one at a time, and it kind of expanded into other things, talking about video games or actors' careers or things.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know how it is with a podcast, right, you have an idea and then you kind of think of other ideas and it kind of builds on itself. But it's I've done, you know, versions of it live at different conventions out here in Portland Oregon, which has been fun in front of live crowds. And yeah, that was a lot of fun to do. And it was a lot of fun writing this Eddie Murphy book because I thought I was familiar with his career. And then I looked at his list of movies and like wait, there's maybe half of these I haven't watched yet.
Speaker 1:So so let's get this interview started. I always ask this question to every guest what was your first introduction to Eddie Murphy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I read about this in the introduction of my book and at the time my dad worked for the government and we lived in Latin America for six years in the 80s and one of these places was in Argentina and we went to the little movie theater in the embassy. They'd sometimes get movies that come in. I was maybe second grade or first grade, my sister would have been a year younger and mom and dad took the whole family to see Coming to America. So I, you know it was a rated R movie and I think at that point my mom and dad retired of renting National Geographic videos or watching, you know, transformers, ninja Turtles, whatever was the big thing, he man, you know whatever was big at the time and said, well, they're mature, they can handle this stuff and like watching it as an adult, especially for this book where I hadn't watched the first coming to America in a while. Like the real penis has been cleaned.
Speaker 1:I certainly didn't know what that meant at seven years old.
Speaker 2:I don't think any of us did. No, no, no. But like the McDonald's jokes, I understood like that was, that was something, and that I I mean, I'm an American, I was born in California in 82, but I, having lived overseas and then you go back to visit family members in the States and go back overseas because of my dad's work I did relate to Prince Akeem as like a fish out of water and going into a city and not knowing what was going on. I think I could relate to it on that level. And Eddie Murphy playing all the different characters and the costumes. I mean, as far as first Eddie Murphy, eddie Murphy movies go, coming to America, the original one isn't a bad choice, eddie.
Speaker 1:Murphy movies go coming to America. The original one isn't a bad choice. It's kind of surreal, like with your book, and I love what you do with your book and how. First of all, the way that you mix your interviews, your anecdotes about movies, your personal movie reviews are in there as well.
Speaker 2:What made you think of using that or doing it that way? Lot of that came from the publisher bear manor media I I'd enjoyed a lot of their books. Over the years they've published over a thousand books on films and tv, some like. One of them is by one of richard pryor's sons. That's a memoir.
Speaker 2:That's really cool which one junior I think so, yeah, and it talks about his you know struggles growing up with richard pryor as a dad and being in the, I think in the army or navy or something like that, and and you know some intense stuff. Some are, you know, memoirs, some are critics, like myself, you know writing about movies and he was he was telling me, you know, I'm looking for a book that I don't just want reviews, I want some behind the scenes stories. And so, because of that, I thought of well, you know, you know, I used YouTube a lot for reference, looking up old talk show clips and stuff, and I wanted to find interviews from cast members and technical people that you know behind the line talent that worked in the films that were that came out when these films came out. Cause I think that's really important, that at the time you're making something, you don't know if it's going to be a flop or not. Or you know everyone's trying their best. They you don't know if it's going to be a flop or not, or you know everyone's trying their best. They're all working. You're in the business, they're all working 20 hour days, working, like you know, eight days a week, as the Beatles song went, you know, trying to get this shit done and I think having that in and also trying to find quotes that weren't the standard EPK quotes of oh Eddie, was great to work with.
Speaker 2:I wasn't trying to do like an overly negative book, but I tried to do a mixture of positive and negative and especially when I quoted other critics, movie reviews I wanted to have like a positive quote and a negative quote because it's so easy for and you've mentioned this on your show I've listened to some episodes of this podcast before, which is what made me reach out to you on Instagram and it's great, and a lot of critics are just really unfair on Eddie Murphy and I didn't want a book that was like Eddie Murphy sucks. I wanted to give my opinion. I'm not positive about all his movies by any means, but I also wanted to try to give a balanced approach where you could enjoy it whether you've seen the movie or not and kind of get a sense of what it's about. And that was real challenging because the internet being what it is, so many links go out of date so quickly. Oh, yes, that when I did the first draft of this, I was quoting these interviews and I wasn't keeping track of the references as I went along, and so that made it much more difficult for the second draft.
Speaker 2:I'm like shit. I had to look up. I had my Google search and everything else.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, look up, you know, I had my google search and everything else. Oh my god, you know how hard it is to find these clips.
Speaker 2:It it is, I do. Yeah, it's. It's hard, you got to do the subtitles. I mean it's more use. It's a little bit easier now with youtube in that it transcribes things automatically so you can search the transcription to jump to the the clip you want to see. But it's still difficult to find these things and sometimes the youtube clips get pulled for copyright. The most difficult one to find stuff about the making of the movie was best defense which is which is a movie that eddie murphy is barely in.
Speaker 4:He's credited as your strategic guest star and after I did 48 hours of training places, all these scripts started coming from everywhere and I picked up a script called Best Defense. There's a movie that sucked real bad. At first I wasn't going to do it because I read the script and I felt like I was an actor at first, but the money they gave me to do it, y'all would have did Best Defense too.
Speaker 2:I like Dudley more. You know it's based on I didn't get to read the whole novel but I got to read some of it and the novel weapon is airplane. It's not a tank and it's set in, but you know it's very much like a british sex farce. That's a spy thing and the test screenings must have been disastrous. For them to pony up the money for eddie and do his wraparound story that takes place in the future. Technically that makes like no, you know, it barely makes no sense. It makes no sense. And and there's, there's some okay material in there.
Speaker 2:It's cool that he's, you know, bane and chicks and and whatever, and shooting people with the tank, like it. They spent some money on it, clearly, but what? What's crazy is that I discovered a behind the scenes photo that had dudley moore and eddie murphy in the same scene. So they shot a scene with both of them together and they didn't use it. And that's the real shock. I'm like, why would you not use that to give at least some connective tissue between the two? It would not have saved the movie by any means, it wouldn't have worked miracles. But you have, you know, two different generations of comedic superstars on screen together, even if it's a shitty scene that should have been in the movie, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I actually own it on dvd. I have to check and see if there's any deleted scenes. I doubt it. I don't think so. No, yeah it's. It's a very obscure movie. It's so like it's so bad that people forget about it in the list of eddie murphy movies. Like it falls in between trading places and beverly hills cop and everybody figures about's about best defense.
Speaker 2:And he got paid one of the. I think I quote this one in the book. I don't always remember what I quoted in the book and what I don't, but like he's talking to David Letterman or something and he mentions he got paid more for best defense than for Beverly Hills Cop and 48 Hours combined. How do you go about picking your films Because of the three that?
Speaker 3:you've been one of the principals in. They've all done unbelievably well. I mean, at least it looks like beverly hills cop is doing record-breaking business already. It's only been out a week or so right but how do you? How do you pick these out? How do you know that this is going to be?
Speaker 4:okay, I trust my feelings. The only movie I've had a bad feeling about when picking up the script was best offense Before I even opened it up. It was like I opened the script up and read it and I felt bad. But they had a check that like I had never seen before and my morals and principles went right out the window. Yeah, my career almost went out with it too, but that was a small part.
Speaker 2:You were just barely in the film, right? They told me.
Speaker 4:They told me. I was like look, eddie, we're not going to advertise much with you, it's a Dudley Moore film. Next thing I know Eddie Murphy, that's the thing. And I'm standing there like this. So that's what happened. Tell us how big the check was. It was big. It was more money than I had been paid to do. 48, 48 hours and trading places combined to do best defense. Oh my, that's how much money it was.
Speaker 1:So that's how I was I freaked man because even with doing this podcast and like I said, what you do and what what I do are very similar, especially with this. This is like the podcast as a book. I went reaching out for a lot of Eddie Murphy's friends, people like, and the closest that I've gotten is probably two people. I got his friend, his childhood friend that's actually in Coming to America.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 1:I got him the one that said that was good. I got him on the podcast and he only spoke for like five minutes, Like he was, he was not trying to mess up his check. And the other guy that I got is an episode that I cannot air because I I can't like I have so much integrity I guess that's the word, I don't know, but it's his bodyguard and he told me a lot of disparaging things about Eddie, which I'm like I can't corroborate this, Like I can't, I can't say that this is fact or this is fiction, and it had to deal with people who have passed on.
Speaker 2:Sure yeah so there was a lot of Michael Jackson and when Houston things and whole bunch of stuff and I was, was like I can't no well, that must have been fun to talk to him and and shoot the shit about those stories anyway. But yeah, I mean, so I reached out to friends of mine that were either comedians or authors or critics and and talk to them. I you know. So it's a bit eclectic who I interview in there, but I'm still glad the interviews are in there, I think, to kind of give different people's perspectives, although every white person I spoke to said Bill Finger was their favorite.
Speaker 3:That was pretty consistent, that is true.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:No, that's fine.
Speaker 3:It's all good. It's all good. It's scripted as butter. What Butter butter? This stuff is butter. It's script is butter. What Butter butter? This stuff is butter. It's all good, it's a cheeky baby.
Speaker 2:And I have to say you know, out of the people I interviewed I don't want to say you know what's a favorite interview or not, but one of the more interesting things I stumbled upon was Alison McCore, who wrote a book about Warren Scarron who, among other things, did an uncredited rewrite on Beverly Hills Cop 2. So I mean she worked on his memoir kind of after he died and got to. You know, look at all these drafts and all these different notes and things. And talking to her about Eddie Murphy and stuff I think was really really interesting.
Speaker 2:Also, walter Shaw did a thing on Netflix called Voir Dire that was produced by David Fincher and it was four film. It's like four or six film critics each did a short film about something and Walter Shaw, who's Asian, did one about Eddie Murphy in 48 hours and how he felt empowered as a person of color growing up seeing Eddie Murphy walk into the honky-tonk bar and act like he owned the place yeah and I want the rest of you cowboys to know something there's a new sheriff in town and his name is reggie hammond.
Speaker 1:Y'all be cool, right on as I was reading your book, I found some things that I've never even heard of before, which which was kind of crazy for me. Yeah, um you have a part in there and I believe there's a part in your book where you say that eddie and charlie were in foster care at one point. Where did you find your your information for that?
Speaker 2:I find that from a book by frank sonello called eddie murphy. I have to look up. I thought it was on my bookshelf. I can't find it right now, but it's called like, like Eddie Murphy, a life on the edge, I think, and he really digs into them being in foster care. Briefly, it was his, his, as I understand it, his mother got sick and the two of them were in in foster care and she had separated I didn't know if I think she officially divorced his dad. His dad got murdered. His dad was murdered by an ex-girlfriend or something and then when his uh, his mom got better, which she was able to get her kids back from foster care and remarried, he, you know, moved on up to more of a like lower middle class lifestyle with his yes, he moved to long island.
Speaker 1:I'm from long island, that's why okay but it was regardless.
Speaker 2:You know it was a big step up from where he was before and I, yeah, when I read that I it surprised me as well stumbling across that, and also that that book, eddie murphy, a life on the edge, is notable because it was about to go to press and then all of a sudden the big eddie murphy scandal in the 90s happened, oh okay, and and they added a bunch of extra stuff in that last minute is what the author mentions in kind of the introduction and it's. You know, I like reading about this stuff, I don't like writing about it yeah, because you can.
Speaker 2:You can find that stuff anywhere, but it's the way eddie mur Murphy handled. That was just about perfect. I think they give people a lot more scrutiny nowadays. If something like that was going on.
Speaker 1:They definitely do. Especially when I started this podcast, that was the first thing everyone came to me about. Who cares? At this point love who you love.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're adults and that's what matters. If they're cool with it, then who gives a shit? Really?
Speaker 1:What else do you expect from somebody that wrote Party All the Time? I love how you categorize Eddie's movies and you group them in a way that I wouldn't expect. You did them in Franchise Gems, hidden Gems, so-so Gems and Not-So Gems. Walk me through the process of classification for these movies. And was it based on sales? Was it based on reviews? Right?
Speaker 2:yeah, so with nonfiction books, when you're pitching them to a publisher, they want a table of contents and of course that's not what the final one looks like, and originally I had it just as movies, in chronological order. And as I started looking at the table of contents and writing some of the chapters I didn't write it in order from start to finish that way, but I thought you know this is a little bit expected, a little bit stale. How can I mix it up? One of the people just did. You know you should really mix it up and have kind of the stuff you know, the movies people expect. You know, have kind of the movies you think are dogs kind of near the end. Kind of mix it up into what I thought of these movies.
Speaker 2:And it's not a ranking like the first one I talk about is what I think is his best movie, but I thought, well, categorizing it by franchises, that's kind of linked to my sequel cast thing and he has done a lot of movies with sequels, so there's that.
Speaker 2:And then afterwards it's sort of like well, well, what kind of stuff is sort of unexpected? That's kind of hidden gems, and so so is stuff that's okay, and the not so gems are the ones I I think are the worst, but it's also what I thought at the time of writing the book and and later we're going to get into my top five eddie murphy movies and I I was just on a podcast a few weeks ago talking about this and my top five Betty Murphy movies changes nearly every week. It depends on what mood I'm in. It depends, you know. There's some movies I really will always stick in that top five, but sometimes I'll put things in there that are a bit unexpected and it just depends on what I feel like watching. Like I don't always want to. I love the first Beverly Hills Cop, but I might not turn to that every time as my number one.
Speaker 1:I don't know Like my mind has not changed since I started the podcast.
Speaker 2:That's interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it has and it hasn't, so like there'll be one movie in and then another movie out, For instance. Like I, I originally like the original test for this podcast was in 2017. And I listened to those original episodes which, oh no, yeah, I listened to the original episodes I actually aired one of them on here, but I listened to one of the original episodes and my top five hadn't really changed. The only addition that made it up there was dolomite is my name.
Speaker 2:Okay, right.
Speaker 1:So I guess this would be a perfect time to ask you what is your top five.
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, I will go from start at number five. I guess Is that how you usually do it.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, who can do number?
Speaker 3:five. It doesn't matter, we don't rank.
Speaker 2:Okay, you don't rank Right, so number five I would say the Distinguished say, the distinguished gentleman.
Speaker 3:Ooh.
Speaker 4:Hey, you eating the greens and you on the cornbread. Put that down and cast your vote for Jeff Johnson. The name you know. You know it's good. Jeff is good, just like them. Greens, jeff and greens. When you think greens, think Jeff Johnson.
Speaker 3:In this mashugan of a world. You want to vote for Jeff Johnson. I don't know why I got. Come drive to here and tell you this. You should know who to vote for. We're voting for Jeff because he's a good person. What are you crazy?
Speaker 2:That's one that well as of the time of writing the book. It's different now, but you can't find it on streaming services. It's really difficult. I had to go and buy the DVD, and I'm glad I have a PlayStation so I can watch a DVD on something Right. Go and and buy the dvd, and I'm glad I have a playstation so I can watch a dvd on something right. But uh, yeah, distinguished gentleman, you know I used to.
Speaker 2:For a few years, after living overseas, I lived in centerville, virginia, by dc, and I have a lot of family in that area that worked in politics. So it it was nostalgic for that. It reminded me of visiting dc a lot as a kid and I like that. It's a bit of a satire, in the same way trading places is, but I think it's a bit smarter, it's a bit less broad. I like the nonsense in trading places with the gorilla, but it's a bit much, and so I think the distinguished gentleman is more grounded and it's also trying. It's eddie murphy in the middle of trying to change his persona, you know he's been kind of in in 48 hours in beverly hills cop, he's almost like a bugs bunny sort.
Speaker 2:You know, he'd been kind of in 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop, he's almost like a Bugs Bunny sort of anti-a-stinker kind of character that everyone loves and stuff. And he's beginning to do characters that are a bit sexier or a bit more flawed. And I think the romantic stuff in the Distinguished Gentleman, you know, works pretty well. It's a story with a beginning, a middle and an end you have. It's not just a collection of sketches, right, right and and it's, you know, the pacing is a little bit slow.
Speaker 2:I don't think the ending was the best it was the best but I do quote a really amusing interview that I think was from Politico, from the screenwriter Marty Kaplan, where he makes direct comparisons between the distinguished gentlemen and Eddie Murphy and George Santos Ooh, which, if you can find that essay, it should be in the the references section of my book is like 30 pages, which is ridiculous because referencing all the videos and articles and things. But yeah, I mean, when you look at it through that lens, I think it's a movie that probably plays better now than it did at the time.
Speaker 1:This is the first time I've ever heard anybody talk about the distinguished gentleman as like, especially in their top five. So that's, that's very refreshing.
Speaker 2:That's great. Yeah, I mean I as a kid I avoided renting the distinguished gentleman because I thought I think the poster art is so cheesy, it's not representative of the movie. It's Eddie, I think, is so cheesy, it's not representative of the movie, it's eddie. I think. It's done by drew struzan, who's like a. He did the indiana jones movie posters and stuff. You know really famous guy. But it's eddie murphy with his shit-eating grin with the money and you think like, oh, he's just ripping off people, which he sort of is why because it's hollywood pictures off, shoot one of the vistas pictures disney, yeah, that's why that's the only movie he was allowed to do outside of paramount at the time that's right yeah, so it's.
Speaker 1:It's kind of weird. It was like his second. He was on his second deal. So remember there was a big paramount deal that he did in the 80s and then I think, after part of that paramount deal, for him to be able to do a movie like harlem knights and boomerang he had to do sequels to movies like another 48 hours, like sure devil's cop 3 for him to be able to do the movies that he wanted to do like a vampire in brooklyn
Speaker 4:and you're writing with your brother, charlie, who you all have probably seen in things like more better blues. He's an actor or writer, or actually he writes a rap too, you know, but you all are writing a vampire movie he wrote we came up with this story together and he went off and wrote this script called A Vampire in Brooklyn that I'm directing, and after I do Beverly Hills, cop 3, I'm doing this vampire movie and it's pretty funny. It's about vampires in Brooklyn and rap music and black people in horror.
Speaker 4:Okay, this is very funny, and Flavor Flav's supposed to play the vampire's assistant and I'm playing three characters in the movie. I'm playing me and Sweetwater Clint Smith. We're playing Sweetwater.
Speaker 2:Sweetwater is the guy that was in the barbershop with us.
Speaker 4:The other barber, the little one, is that man you don't know, no, martin Luther King man. He's playing me and him are playing two roommates that rent our apartment out to this vampire upstairs and we don't know. We're two little old men and I play an old lady across the street with big, giant a**es that sit in the window you know the ones that always be in the window to see everything that go on in the neighborhood. I'm playing her and I'm playing, oh, four characters. I'm playing a full character. I'm playing a little Jewish man. I'm playing a Korean guy in a store, all in makeup. I love to be on the camera as me and I'm dressed like. You know. It's like my brother's movie. My brother's a star in it. They're playing these cops that are after the vampires Very funny and very hip, and you're going to bug out. Oh and Ghost, go with Cameron. Go see Distinguished Gentlemen. It's a very funny movie.
Speaker 2:Vampire in Brooklyn. I've you know that is not one of my favorites. It's not in my top five.
Speaker 1:I saw We'll get into that We'll get into that.
Speaker 2:It's one of those movies where I think you can. We'll save that for later. We'll focus on the top five. Number four is one you talked about on your show extensively and it's one I always bring up to recommend as a movie. Most people haven't seen that eddie murphy is in and that's mr church.
Speaker 5:Oh, you never heard of grits.
Speaker 2:A lot of secrets in my grits and I think he really tries for something subtle and dramatic there, and it's a character he normally doesn't play.
Speaker 2:It's a character that is, I think, pretty clearly a closeted homosexual yes even though it doesn't throw that in your, you have to really pay close attention to that. There's like one or two monologues where he makes things and him, you know, sneak it out at night to the club and stuff, and and he, even though he's the movie's called mr church but he's not the lead character in the movie no and and a lot of it could play like a lifetime movie.
Speaker 2:I mean, the guy that directed, that did driving, miss daisy, and there's some of the you know kind of standard kind of it does feel a bit like a lifetime movie at times but despite all that he is really trying something different there and really stretching and it's.
Speaker 2:It's too bad that, again, like the distinguished gentleman, mr church has a really shitty poster of eddie mur, face with the hat bathed in golden light and the name Mr Church, which is the character's real name. I thought it was a religious movie for the longest time, which I thought was sort of a turn off. I didn't quite know what it was and it could use a better title.
Speaker 1:It could.
Speaker 2:It was and it could use a better title and it and it was barely in theaters and it's something that a lot of people don't know about, which I think is too bad, and I wish you would. I like that he's taking more chances now. He, he seems kind of reinvigorated with kind of his more recent movies.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. Okay, so we. So we have singles gentlemen. Mr Church, what is your third?
Speaker 2:Number three, I'd say Boomerang.
Speaker 4:Ooh, what are you trying to imply there? I hit it. Oh no, I see what you're saying, Marcus darling. Hey, how you doing, Lady.
Speaker 5:Eloise. I don't have any panties on Lady Eloise, please. We have a meeting, Can we just please go?
Speaker 2:Okay, and that's one I never saw before. Doing research for this, I'm not sure why I never saw it Maybe it wasn't on TV or I dismissed it for some reason but I thought the writing was really impressive. It had Eddie Murphy playing a very vulnerable character. It made him look foolish. He wasn't the guy you know, you think Kind of like Distinguished Gentleman, you think it's going to foolish. He wasn't the guy you know. You think kind of like distinguished gentleman, you think it's going to be one thing in the beginning and by the end it's something different. So his character does have an arc.
Speaker 2:You, david alan greer is really funny in that. Martin lawrence is very good. You, eartha kitt is just crazy. You have, you know, such such a great cast and it has, you know, pretty much an all-black cast where it's showing them as yuppies basically, and successful ones at that. It's none of them, you know, showing being anguished over being a slave or having a tortured life or whatever these cliches you see in a lot of movies with studio movies, with with black people in them. You, you see them just as regular people. And you know what I'm saying. I'm not trying to be offensive saying that, but it's just like it's just especially at at the time, like it was really ahead of its time in. In displaying characters like that, it still feels really fresh and I never yes, I see if they've done like a boomerang tv show or something.
Speaker 1:I've never seen that it wasn't good. Don't know was it okay, okay, okay all right, so that was your third. What is your second, second? Is life, life I like your list already.
Speaker 2:Thank you, sir, appreciate that, nigel. Yeah, no life. I do think it's a bit long. It's trying to do a lot, but you get Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence and it's really like a character piece. You get to see them age over time. You get to see them really as tragic figures that they're put in an unfair situation and they just can't seem to get out, figures that they're. They're put in an unfair situation, they just can't seem to get out, and you get a mixture of serious and and funny. Where you get you know the stuff, of course, like the cornbread scene or all their business at the beginning, before they they get thrown in jail to begin with, but also at the end, where they eddie murphy decides to sort of take the fall for martin lawrence and there's a lot of real emotional moments.
Speaker 2:I think that really work and it has it feels like an epic in its own way. It it's. It's different. You know it's not one that did hugely well at the time. They marketed it Like it was some wacky comedy, which it's. I think it's more than that and that's something that people should really check out, because the poster makes it look like just I'm complaining about the posters here, but you know it has life and big red font, cartoon font and then making their you know crazy kind of home alone faces on the poster. And I think there's more to it than that and it, and I think the attention to detail with the costumes, with the makeup, I think really makes it something different.
Speaker 1:I love your second pick. What is your first?
Speaker 2:My first pick is Beverly Hills Cop 3. It's my no, just kidding. It's Beverly Hills Cop. It's the original Beverly Hills Cop.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to fall for a banana in the tailpipe.
Speaker 2:I had to pull a fast one there. But yeah, the original Beverly Hills Cop. I think it. I really. You know it's often between that and 48 Hours, but I think Beverly Hills Cop's more of eddie murphy's persona, of what he'd become. He's a bit rough sometimes in in 48 hours and while that movie's edgier, I think beverly hills cop has such a fun cast of characters that he gets to uh play off of whether it's bronson can show his surge. It lets him do some of the gunplay stuff. Towards the end that feels more like a james bond, which is fun, and even the flirtation he has with the white woman in the movie is good.
Speaker 2:It's just a good movie all around. It's never too slow. It has a mystery where you're actually trying to solve the mystery. That doesn't get too complicated. I think it's really something that's streamlined and it's just a surprise. It's as good as it is, Cause recently online what leaked was the Sylvester Stallone co-written draft of Beverly Hills cop, because he was supposed to be in it and most of that later ended up as Cobra. But like reading that is just bonkers, Cause some of the scenes are the same. But it also has Stallone writing descriptions of himself as like the sexiest man alive, like it's very ego driven and other things like it's. I believe instead of beverly hills cop he might have done rhinestone with dolly parton I think so or something like that.
Speaker 2:So so we should all be thankful that that's what happened I'm gonna put a banana in your tailpipe.
Speaker 5:It had been menacing, it had been mean when it was like you're gonna follow me, I'm gonna put a banana in your tailpipe.
Speaker 1:No funniness oh man, I I love your top five. I I love the fact that a year ago, or maybe maybe a year and a half ago, you did a. You did an episode on your podcast yes uh, where you talked about eddie murphy movies and most of those movies that you named you've never seen right, yeah, no, I mean, that was a while before you know.
Speaker 2:I probably recorded it maybe two, two years ago or something.
Speaker 2:I tended to record that show in advance and it was something where I had liked eddie murphy stuff and was a fan. But then you look at show in advance and it was something where I had liked eddie murphy stuff and was a fan. But then you look at the filmography and it's like, oh wait, I haven't seen a whole lot of these. And it's something that really crystallized for me that I write about in the end of the book.
Speaker 2:Where I was at a dvd store and I, you know, back when I had a adding stuff to my dvd collection it was a long time ago and and I was asking, you know, oh, where do you keep your Eddie Murphy movies? And the guy says, oh, you want to look in the kids section? And I was like, oh, don't you mean the comedy? And he's like, no, he only does kids movies. And that made me feel so old and like this. You know, I was maybe in my twenties and this was making a lot of stuff that his kids could watch and a lot of actors comedians or not, you know make that transition and I think, even if the movies that Eddie Murphy are in aren't always good, I think he's always trying something different in them, for the most part Right. Maybe not Haunted Mansion or something, but I mean he's always.
Speaker 1:I don't like that movie.
Speaker 2:No, it's. And watching the interviews for that, you can see Eddie Murphy barely mustering enthusiasm saying there's a lot of funny stuff in this movie, like he's practically rolling his eyes, and I don't know. You can't begrudge a guy for making a lot of money while he can, and people pick projects for different reasons. You know, sometimes you make what can get financed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that movie, that whole idea I can't put it all on Eddie for that one that whole idea was like hey, the Pirates of the Caribbean worked very well, why don't? We try with Haunted Mansion and it's like ugh. There's a lot of that in his, in his filmography, but I like how you you characterize them. However, I need to know the classification, like how you, how you classify these movies.
Speaker 1:Yes, because there's some that I'm like I'm scratching my head on and I'm like why would you pick this over this and why so? What was what? Was it based off sales? Was it reviews?
Speaker 2:No, it was just my, it was my gut. I just went with my gut feeling Like, what did I feel like after watching these movies? My personal opinion, it wasn't about money they made or not, and you mentioned Vampire in Brooklyn earlier and I think you know I like him as the preacher in that I like that the vampire is Jamaican, that that movie has good cinematography. I don't think it's that funny and it reminds me a bit of, you know, another kind of horror comedy made by a horror director, and I'm thinking of Chevy chase and memoirs of an invisible man. Okay, right, where. In both those cases, the director and the one who did Vampire in Brooklyn was Wes Craven, of course wanted to do something with the comedian. That was funny. But the star of the movie you know, chevy Chase and the one in Eddie Murphy and the Vampire in Brooklyn wanted to do something more scary, and so they couldn't even agree at what direction to go and I think it's really evident in the final film.
Speaker 1:And I agree with with you. It's not the best movie, but there's movies that you had from like your not so gems okay, should have been in okay name. Some of those go um one of those movies was pluto nash yeah, I.
Speaker 2:I think it's maybe because I heard so much shit about pluto nash non-stop for years, ever since it came out, and they delayed it forever and you know reading about test screenings on Inicool News or whatever way back in the early days of the internet when I saw it I'm like this movie isn't great, but you can tell it has good production value. I liked Randy Quaid. I almost said Randy Newman, that's not right. Randy Quaid as the horny robot butler assistant, that stuff is kind of different. Rosie O'Dawson's okay. Eddie Murphy's just like, I think, sleepwalking through the thing, like he is not into it. I think it's one of those looking around like Variety or Hollywood Reporter. He was trying to get this made like in the late 80s, like they were trying. He was attached to Pluto Nash for a real long time and the original script sounded like something that was. Kim is more of an underdog and it tries to be like a detective story. It doesn't really work, but it's just so damn strange.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:It is. I think that's what makes it stick out. I'm willing to give more of a chance to something that really swings for the fences, even if it misses, as opposed to something that plays it too safe.
Speaker 1:Okay, listen, I agree with you. This is actually when Pluto Nash came out. It was one of the movies I was actually excited to go see. Okay, because I heard that it was on the shelf for so long. I was like, why aren't they putting out this movie? But anyway, another movie that you have in your so-so that I wish was in your you're not so gems yeah is daddy daycare right, daddy daycare.
Speaker 2:It's certainly a movie for little kids, but what I liked about it is that it's kind of sloppy. A lot of the kids don't even look like they're actors and it it reminded me of like I, you know, all my cousins are a lot younger than I am, so it reminded me of going on spring break with them, you know, renting a house up in duck, north carolina or something, and going out and just kids going crazy, running everywhere and I think the chaos it captures the chaotic energy of a kid's birthday party and it's not super serious, it's not super plot focused and it's kind of shabby and steve zahn is, you know, kind of an unexpected person in that movie and it's pretty early in in his career and so I would not call daddy daycare one of the best. But that it kind of lets kids be kids and they're not like precocious kids out of a commercial or something. I think I can respect it for that and I was like I walked away from not liking it, but I didn't absolutely hate it. I mean the one that the movie out of all the movies I watched, the one I thought was the absolute worst was I Spy.
Speaker 2:Oh, with him and Owen Wilson. I did not like that at all. That struck me. As you know, with Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan they did Shane High Noon, shane High Nights. They're trying to do the same kind of thing with Eddie, and Eddie Murphy got in good shape for that as to be a boxer and his father used to be a boxer, and the you know him playing the Bill Cosby character in the TV show. Bill Cosby's character is a tennis player.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And to get him to do the movie. Eddie said well, he might do it if you make the character a boxer. So that's why he's a boxer. Yeah, but that one is just such a lazy kind of spy spoof. The special effects are really bad. It's a lot of people shooting at each other. They don't.
Speaker 1:there isn't really good chemistry, Wilson, and it feels like you could have had any actor besides Eddie Murphy in that movie and it would be no different. I think it was a problem or a trope from the early 2000s where it was the movie Cause when I, when I look at these movies, I compared them to the movies at the time. Yes, sure, and the early 2000s I'll probably say from 2000 to 2010, had some of the worst movies that I have ever seen. So for me, my bar is set super low, so I'll give movies like I Spy a.
Speaker 1:Pass, because I know that Freddy Got Fingered was a movie.
Speaker 2:I know that Ready to Rumble was a movie.
Speaker 1:Dane Cook had a run of bad movies. I love Dane Cook but his movie career was not great, so I know that these movies exist. When I watch a movie like an I Spy and I have to redo it for and there's some people that actually put I Spy in their top five Crazy I know, but it's a movie that like and I'm not doing any apologies for but I feel like if you take the character from Bowfinger the one, the actor and you put him into this boxer role, I feel like they're the same thing. You know, kelly Robinson, uh, 34 and oh.
Speaker 2:I could say that, right, we have the high energy, the kind of pissy nature of the character and and that's a good point I mean, when writing this book, I was really focusing on comparing the eddie murphy movies to other eddie murphy movies gotcha not not as much as other movies.
Speaker 2:At the time and yeah, I mean that period of comedies there was a lot of really bland studio material. You either had no, you either had stuff like scary movie or american pie or stuff that was kind of more r-rated, or he had stuff that was, you know, probably worse than a lot of sitcoms that were on tv at the time. That it's like, you know, it's like they're making these movies to watch in an airplane or something like what are they doing? Like it's just this real safe milk toast kind of stuff that all feels like a copy of a copy of a copy it's like when you break open your dvd collection and you're like waiting.
Speaker 1:Oh, I remember this was good. Back to one other thing that I wish was in your not so gems yes holy man yeah, holy man is a weird one.
Speaker 2:It's even though eddie murphy is all over the poster.
Speaker 2:For that he's really a supporting character yes and I admit a lot of holy man is atrocious, but I think what barely that that was a not so gems for a long time.
Speaker 2:But what barely edged it over for me was one scene where a guy is freaking out about his fear of flying and eddie murphy, as the z, the holy man, tries to get him to meditate and calm down and it's a really weird chill vibe that the rest of the movie doesn't have and I thought that one scene, for whatever reason maybe he had one too many scotches that night worked for me. So I think you know, overall the movie doesn't work. Him and jeff goldblum is okay, but it I just don't know why that movie had to be made ultimately. So I think maybe in retrospect you're right. Maybe if, like right now, I was reorganizing the table of contents, I'd move it and not so gems, because a lot of stuff I'd kind of shuffle at the last second when I was revising it, going like, uh, where do I really want to put this? Do I want to put this and not so gems or so so gems or?
Speaker 1:yeah, because I have like. I have the movies written down and I have like why next to them like candy? Candy cane lane is in hidden gems. I'm like why. Um meet dave, you don't like and I'm like why some of these you could shuffle.
Speaker 2:Maybe I should have swapped that for holy man, like that's fair, I don't know, or like, or you can look at you know one I have. That I kind of question.
Speaker 2:I almost put not so gems was a thousand words yeah, but the stuff at the end of that gets really weird, where he starts to try to kill himself by singing songs with a lot of lyrics. He has a weird vision of his father and and I found some I don't think I quoted it in the book, but there's some some interviewer. He's interviewing antonio banderas. They're interviewing each other, for for some reason, yes, I remember.
Speaker 2:Okay, actors on actors actors on actors right, and he's talking. Eddie murphy's talking about a thousand words. He doesn't mention what the movie is, but he talks about that. He tried to do method acting and feel what he felt about his father and he didn't like how he was feeling. So he's like I'm just going to act the scene instead.
Speaker 5:For me. I did a scene not recently where it was a scene where my father died. In the scene and in real life my dad passed away and I thought about it when I was doing the scene and it was, and I thought about it when I was doing the scene but then I was like, oh, I'm not touching that, and I just pretended I was sad, as opposed to letting it really come in me and thinking about it. Using it, I felt like I would be like Like it naked, like it's. You be completely and totally vulnerable to it and that's all I rather just make make a sad face and to really cry for real.
Speaker 2:Overall with this book. Eddie Murphy has done so many different films in so many different genres over the years that the one thing I wish he would have done and COVID messed up a lot of things. But for me, what makes me the most angry thing about COVID is that Eddie Murphy had it all set up to do a stand up tour around the United States in a Netflix special.
Speaker 1:See, my issue with that is because, you know, I'm a stand-up comedian, right so, and I say that when I don't get on stage for like a good couple months to a week or weeks, it doesn't matter, when I don't get on stage I become rusty. Yes, problem with that is that eddie murphy's had 30 years of rust. Now I can be funny in certain settings you're right I can be.
Speaker 1:I can be hilarious hanging out with all the people. I'll be the funniest person in the room. The problem is it translates differently on stage. So for me watching eddie is kind of like how eddie was watching bill cosby talked on stage, or talk to him, or it's like you know, because what does he have now?
Speaker 1:like you know, it's he's a grandfather. He has 11 grandkids. That is his life. So for me, I don't. I don't know what he's going to talk about. As a 64 year old man, I I would love to see him go back on stage, but how do you want him to be like? Do you want like it's kind of like watching jordan come back to the nba?
Speaker 2:sure, yeah, and I can make a comparison of like I, in 2005 I got to see robin williams do stand up when he was on tour and, uh, when he was in atlanta at the fox theater.
Speaker 2:I think they eventually taped it in new york for hbo or something yeah, and I remember what, while it was funny, it's nowhere nowhere near as funny as the stuff where he was high off his ass on coke doing stuff with the Rainbow Suspenders in San Francisco or his early stuff in the 70s. And you're right, as people get older they talk about different things. And also Eddie Murphy has so many houses and kids and grandkids and cars and you can go to every once. What can you say that's relatable? I'm sure there's stuff you could do. I'm sure it could be funny. It's not the Eddie Murphy that we. You know. You can't go back home again. You can't be the same as you were in your twenties. So I agree It'd be disappointing, but it would be the chance to see him live. Even if's not as good, I think would be worth it for a time.
Speaker 1:He was talking about also incorporating music into the performance, which is why he was had those kind of weird reggae singles uh, yeah, I mean I think he was just trying to do something different when he did those things, because the timing between that I think that was 2013 versus yeah, that was that was a bit before, but for a bit around the time he talked about, I think, what might have been in retrospect.
Speaker 2:It might have been a a better missed opportunity than the stand-up is, when he was supposed to host the oscars with brett brettner producing and that and that was more around like 2012 something.
Speaker 1:That's how I would want him to come back that's hosting something, rather than because what the problem is is that we're going to be sitting here waiting for Raw. It's kind of the same issue that we had with Coming to America. It's kind of the same issue we have with Beverly Hills. Cop Axl F.
Speaker 1:It's like we want something new and something different, but we also want what you did back in the 80s. That is hard to recreate because you are such a different person. There's so much stuff that has happened in the years since you've been on stage. Half of the jokes that you used to tell you can't even tell anymore.
Speaker 2:Right and yeah, those are some of the toughest chapters for me to write, for the book were about his standup specials, delirious and Wrong, because I'm like how am I going to tackle it? And I gave it my best. I tried to say you know context of that. He you know it was a different time. It's how he felt at the time. He apologized. He apologized since then.
Speaker 2:I mean, he was apologizing for that stuff in the in the 90s, which was pretty ahead of the curve for comedians apologizing about their bits, which I'm not sure is a thing comedians should always be doing Like it's, it's it's a tricky thing, right, Cause comedian comedy is so subjective and I think it's a lot more difficult than drama, where you can watch oh I don't know, Like geez, Schindler's List or 12 years, a slave or something, and you know, the majority of people can find it moving in a great film. But you can put on something like I don't know golden child. Some people might like it, some people might hate it. Like comedy, there's something special about comedies where the favorite ones people will watch over and over again. But it's also very personal in a way that dramatic films aren't.
Speaker 1:You just brought up two points in my head. One is the fact that when we look at a Delirious, when we look at a delirious, when we look at a raw, it's two things going on here, right, delirious he did. He was 22, 23 years old. That's right, raw, he's 27, 28. So you can't like I've said a lot of dumb stuff in my twenties.
Speaker 3:I see it all the time on Facebook.
Speaker 1:Yes, right, so you can't keep going back Like I can't apologize for how I was. I can only highlight to say how crazy I was back then and I don't have these same beliefs now. The other thing and this is something that I put up on, I think on threads, and I put up on Facebook earlier today where I was like what is the funniest movie to you of all time and did it age?
Speaker 1:well, because the way that we look at comedy and this is the reason why I did this podcast is basically we look at comedy differently. Like we, we praise things in comedy that we shouldn't praise. Half the time Some things aren't really comedies, but we we categorize them as comedies and then when we look at it years later, we're like okay, that wasn't funny, or this wasn't funny. Like I've actually seen people write about how Nutty Professor is so problematic, or yeah. Or I've seen people say certain things about certain movies that I'm like you know, you had to be in a time and place to actually, you know, receive it and think of it. Well, I, I fight with people, you know now, and it's just me being a jerk, I'm not gonna lie, it's me being a jerk.
Speaker 1:I say that Ghostbusters is not a comedy because I don't look at it as a pure comedy. If you think about what we think comedies are, ghostbusters isn't a comedy. Ghostbusters is more like a Marvel movie now, like Ghostbusters is like Guardians of the Galaxy, but for you to categorize it as a comedy. Same thing with Back to the Future, for you to categorize it as comedy. I'm not looking for that as a comedy, but then that's the question.
Speaker 2:What is a comedy? Especially now and today where we don't have any comedy movies anymore, and that's because comedy has become subjective. We don't know what to laugh at anymore. Things we visited we're looking at different franchises of sex comedies. So we looked at porkies, we looked at american pie, we looked at revenge of the nerds and there's a lot of hot button topics in those movies and yet they're all so funny and it's sort of kind of reckoning with that. But at the same time, context is everything you have to consider.
Speaker 2:When it was made, why it was made, these things weren't made in a bubble.
Speaker 2:They're made as as reactions to what, what's going on in society or what was popular, and they're they were trying to rip stuff off or whatever it was.
Speaker 2:And you know, I think I do have fun watching some of those youtube videos where it's like, oh, you know, younger people react to something and it's like I can't imagine putting on the first Revenge of the Nerds for Gen Alpha or something and get their reaction Like I don't know if they could even. I mean, you mentioned you were just in Costa Rica. I was in Costa Rica for work a few years ago and I was with some coworkers in my twenties and I was with another guy that was in. You know, we were both in our forties and these girls were in their twenties and they're both from England and we were describing the, the sitcom three's company to them and they couldn't wrap their heads around the premise for three's company that wait, they did a show for you know seven or eight years at least, about a guy pretending to be gay to save on his rent. That's the whole concept of the show, like yep, and no one complained.
Speaker 1:No, not really next you're going to explain to them about bosom buddies.
Speaker 2:Oh, boy, right, yeah, bosom buddies or, oh, because you know just about anything really it. So I mean, yeah, I I appreciate with what you do, with with your podcast, and what I tried to do with this book is putting stuff in its historical context.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's awesome. The last thing I actually have to ask you and I don't know if you do it on purpose or not but what is your issue with Harlem Nights?
Speaker 2:I try so hard to watch that movie several and enjoy it several times.
Speaker 2:I know it's it's one I've heard that's important to to a lot of people and I love that he did that.
Speaker 2:The one movie he directed uh was one, a period piece, a gangster movie among other things, also a comedy, but that it had him with two other comedy legends, with red fox and richard pryor, and it just to me like some of it works and some of it doesn't, and I'm not sure if it's the pacing or what it is. I like how it looks. I like I think the beginning of it works okay, but it, I think, just in the second half it just kind of loses me and part of it is I want Richard Pryor to be a bit more active in it and unfortunately, knowing what we know now about Richard Pryor's health at the time he wasn't able to bring it like he could in his, his older movies and in fact in in some of the interviews I looked up, eddie murphy was given a real tight release date window for that film and so the script didn't. Even though he was the only credited writer of the script. I'm not sure if anyone else worked on it, but like he didn't write that script he didn't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, he maybe wrote a few notes on some napkins or something, but Right, or talking to a tape recorder, whatever it is. But yeah, I mean. So, the point being the script wasn't developed as much as it should have and he was expecting there was reading somewhere. He expected Richard Pryor to kind of bring more to the table and at the time he was frustrated that he didn't. But then and now that we know more about his medical stuff, that was going on it, more about his, his medical stuff that was going on it. It affected his, his performance and you know Rhett Fox I think, is very funny in it.
Speaker 2:It's just something about the whole movie doesn't show and maybe you know you're convincing me to maybe watch it again and kind of give it another chance, because I really like what it's trying to do, right from those opening credits with the classy font. Uh, you know, it makes it feel like a real, like Turner Classic movies kind of thing, with the curtain on the background and the credits the way it is. It's letting you know hey, this is an older movie, this is trying something different and I really like its ambition, but it just falls a bit short for me and maybe that's my fault for having too high expectations. All right, bitch, you want to?
Speaker 3:fight, we can fight. Then you fat motherfucker, I'm tired of your shit, just bring your ass. I'm going to beat the shit out of your ass, you, you, oh Jesus. No, don't hold me shit. No, let me go, shit, Let me go.
Speaker 4:I'm just scared. Watch your ass, don't hold me.
Speaker 3:Don't hold me, you better watch it quick.
Speaker 1:You fucking with heavyweight. One of the reasons why I did this podcast because, like you said, there was somebody at the, the video store that said oh, eddie murphy only does his kids movies.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, metro was. Oh, that was horrible. Oh, this movie was bad when you actually watch it in the scope of things, especially outside of the box, because I was also told that metro was bad for a long time until I actually went to watch it. I I think it was on some kind of cable network, but I liked that movie and over the years I'm liking more and I'm finding nuances in these movies and I think that's why you write a book like how you wrote the films of Eddie Murphy and an unofficial look at America'sedian.
Speaker 1:From 48 Hours to Beverly Hills, cop, actual F, you spanned a whole 40-year career in a book. That's amazing. And I tell all the listeners please, if you can this is on Amazon Go get it. This book is amazing. I'm not just saying this and Matt's not paying me to say this, I'm just telling you right now. The book is actually really good. I really, you know, even though I messed around with him from his classification things, I actually do like the insight, I do like the nuance that he gives and he gives certain things and after every chapter he gives his own review of the movie as well as the anecdotes that happen. So it's kind of like this podcast in book form. And God, is there anything else that I can just say about you, matt, before we close this out?
Speaker 2:Well, no, thank you very much for that. Yeah, it was. It was fun to write. I, you know, just find out about you by just looking up Eddie Murphy in my podcast app and yours was one of the first shows that popped up and I listened to it and liked it, so I reached out to you and appreciate being on the show to talk about it. I am writing another book. I can't say what it's about, but if you go to an Instagram or on Twitter, go to MATWBT you can find out more about me there and go to wwwmatwbtcom. We'll send you to where my books are and stuff. I got a sub stack called Film Flam man where I do kind of movie reviews and book reviews and interviews. I recently got to see a screener of Cheech and Sean's last movie, which, which is mostly a documentary, but some of it isn't a documentary. It's a bit strange how they do it, but it it's pretty good.
Speaker 1:I saw the trailer yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's, but it was really funny to get the screener for that, because that was another.
Speaker 2:my dad showed me Cheech and Sean's next movie when I was like seven and like I didn't understand that at all, but I had some scenes in line stuck in my head that when I finally watched it years later I'm like, oh, that's what that's from so so, yeah, I hope this book and your podcast, you know, helps more people appreciate the career of Eddie Murphy, and I think too many modern comedians are sort of overlooked and should be studied more in depth, because if you're looking for a book on comedians on Amazon or whatever, a lot of times, what is it going to be? It's going to be Charlie Chaplin. It's going to be, you know, know, really old stuff and there's been a lot, but not that there's anything you know wrong with that, but there's been a lot more notable comedians since then thank you for being a part of this man.
Speaker 1:I thank you for writing this book anytime again. Where can the people find you?
Speaker 2:yeah, so they can go on. I'm probably most active on Twitter or Instagram. Just do. Matwbt is the handle you can contact me on there and if you want to send me an email, you can do that at sequelcast at gmailcom. And you can listen to the old podcast, sequelcast 2, and Friends at sequelcast2.com should have most the episodes on there. I think I did like a few hundred episodes over the course of 15 odd years and it's everything from. You know, as you said, it started with Beverly Hills Cop to Star Wars, star Trek. You know all kinds of crazy stuff on there.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, I thank you again, once again, for doing this. Thank the listeners for listening. If you can, please like, share and subscribe. Tell an Eddie Murphy fan to tell an Eddie Murphy fan that you love this podcast. With all hearts and minds clear, let's end this show.