The Breakfast ClubINTERVIEW: Martin Lawrence Talks Return To Standup, 'Blue Streak' Sequel, Fearless Comedy + More
The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Martin Lawrence To Discus His Return To Standup, 'Blue Streak' Sequel, Fearless Comedy. Listen For More!
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning everybody.
It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the God we are the Breakfast Club. Jess is six, so she's not here. Laurla Roe is feeling in and we got a special.
Guest in the building, legend himself.
Martin Laws, Ladies and gentlemen. How you feeling.
Good, great man, Glad to be here with you. Guys.
This weekend you're gonna be at the ball Clays and also Atlantic City Performance. So if you haven't got your tickets, get your tickets. We're actually today we're giving away front row seats to go to the show. So calling one on five right now, eight hundred and five eight five one five.
We gotta don't.
Say nothing in the front row because I might get you in front row.
Those tickets are yours. How you feeling, brother.
I'm feeling great man, feeling great, feeling blessed. I feel for all the people going through uh tragic stuff in La.
You know with the fires.
My sister's house burned down. Sorry, yeah, so you know we got start rebuilding.
You know, so you live in La too, right, but it was your house?
Effective enough, No, but it was getting close. It was getting close. Yeah.
Do they call you immediately, like you know, modern house burned down?
Yeah?
Well I was at my ranch back in Virginia and chilling in the snow and all that was going on. I was just one nothing I could do, but my family that I had in LA was holding it down.
Do you reach for your pockets first or do you wait to see what the insurance gonna do?
Oh? Well both?
What's the rebuilding process going to be like?
Though?
Like you guys have to wait a certain amount of time before you can even start like thinking about that.
Do they give you a.
I really don't know. I really don't know.
I got to ask about Bad Boys? You know, the Bad Boys franchise picked back up right where y'all left off years ago, right, Yeah, And it's pretty amazing because as a kid, I grew up on it, right, but now my kids are growing up on it. So do you expected to catch so big? And how many are y'all gonna do? Because it's not it's not like you know, usually you do a sequel it's like, and then the one after that it's like, but now it's not whack. It keeps going, So how many more. You're gonna do it, y'all shooting?
I really don't know, you know, you know, the business is fickleed, you know. I hope to do uh more, you know, as long as Will wants to do them, you know, well, and the audience wants some we're doing you know. We like giving you a good work, you know, so you know, we have a lot of fun with bad boys.
Why I was wondering about the toll, like, like you got money, you're old enow, why even go back on the grind and doing a comedy.
Tour because it's where I started. It's my baby, you know, it's it's it's my bread winner. You know.
When I don't have nothing else to do, I can't do movies or TV or whatever. I can always go back to stand up and my audience is always there for me.
Do you think that the stand up Do you think the appetite of stand up is the same as it used to be?
Yeah, if you're still hungry or you know, if you're still hungry, Yeah, and I'm still hungry.
What about the audience? Because standup is kind of a lost art.
I love stand up, you know what I mean, But it feels like it's kind of a lost art because of social media.
People. I don't even know people really know what funny funny is anymore.
But to go on stage and the captivating audience just you and the microphone, You think the audience still has it?
Yeah, people need to laugh, you know, and people want to laugh. I mean you see the sound of the times that we're in. I mean, people just really want to come out and laugh, man, And that's what we need to do.
Laughter. Hill's the world. Man.
I saw a quote you said, the way fighters trained, that's how you train when you're getting ready for comedy. How do you get ready for a tour like this after ten years and getting back on the stage, Like, is that a different level of training now or is it still the same?
You know, it's same.
I go to the comedy clubs, you know, and I work out. I go to the comedy store and work out during the week and just keep working out, working out til I built up our set and to it's ready.
To go on the road.
How you pick and choose what goes into your sets?
Because I was watching one of your old sets that you did at that you mentioned, like the Rodney King beatings and like but you made it.
Funny in a dark time.
Nowadays people so touchy, Like, so, do you stay away from certain stuff cause you're like, now it's like the.
Icon right now, I'm I'm a little.
I'm more cautious about, you know, subjects that I that I choose and everything. You know, when I was younger, I was fearless, you know, I just I would talk about anything or anybody. But it's a different time.
Do you remember that the times?
Because I always hear these stories and it's to me, it's like, damn, this this really happened when you used to work telemarketing, right and you were there with Pepper, I guess can't play with.
That sis and robots and robot.
How was those experiences?
And are you ever amazed at all of y'all was successful in your own way of going?
Well, well, see, I wasn't there with kidding play. I was there with Salt and Pepper, and and I was always clown and you know, joking around at work and everything, not on the phone doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
What did you have to do?
I was trying. I was trying to crack on salt. I was trying to crack on.
SAWT and Herbie Love was working there too, and and I was like, Sor, you know, I'm trying to get with you, and she was like, Martin, I'm with Herbie.
I said, Herbie is your your boyfriend? And I look at Herbie. I said, Herbie, this is your girlfriend? He said yeah. I said, oh man. So then I just had to leave that alone.
So what were you selling on the phone? That's what I never like. What was Sears selling?
You're selling maintenance agreement selling me?
Do you remember your pitch back then and what you had to do?
Well?
You know, hello, how are you? I was wondering, you just brought a new applying? How is it working for you? You know, in thirty days or sixty days, something could happen to it?
Would you like to extend your warranty and all that?
And the way they said no, did you curse him out? Do you start cracking on them? Nah?
Because a lot of them just hang up.
Okay.
One of it shows to be like yo, you called me like nobody. That's never happened.
No, No, I don't remember that.
Y'all was thinking too, My you're you're a very physical comedian, right, that's like a lot, a lot of what you do involved with your facial expression is how you move as you got older. Do you believe that impacts your comedy?
Like, no, no, I still love being physical. I love I love it.
It's ain't falling all over the floor.
No, no, no, I'm not doing that, but I love still doing some physical comedy.
Yeah, And you said, you know you don't say what you used to say on stage. I remember an episode of Death Comedy Jam I forgot he was messing with I feel like it was at level. But maybe I'm making this up, but you were saying you was talking about a girl. He was with a girl, and you were saying, you remember that episode.
You're talking about mc light.
Like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but that wasn't the true joke all the time, all the time, Yeah that that wasn't true.
That wasn't true.
I was just messing with her boyfriend and I was just jaging at them.
So you know, I just said it. God damn.
You know he had to approach you about that.
He couldn't do nothing. He could whoop my ask. Yeah. Yeah, it was todd at the time or something.
Why did you decide to heat him up?
Like that because I love her and was saying get get him with a joke.
That's a hell of a joke to stay in front of him.
Used to do the I used to do a rap city with him, not rap city, but.
Has anybody about joke?
Nah? She she was real cool. No, she's real cool.
Did anybody ever coming to you after the show and wanted to fight, because, like he said, you didn't hold anything back, like you didn't care who was in that show. You was going at him. Anybody said you, I'm gonna be moaning outside after No.
Never, No, because I'm not that dude. Man, I'm not that dude. And I got.
Goomed back then, so it wasn't happening.
Wasn't happening and then.
And I still got him. Go back to that.
You still lean into a lot of the crowd work in your shows now you mentioned did you still do a lot of CrowdWork today in your shows?
Yes?
I do a lot of meet and greets and stuff. You know, I love, you know, hooking up with my audience.
He's talking about snapping on people in the audience.
I mean not snapping, but just like you know when you go to the comedy shows, I feel like a lot. I know for me when I go I want to see the comedians of the crowd work because it's off the top and like most people when they do it, well, I'm like, oh dang, he's like really good at this. So I think people look for that for you also too, because it's in a lot of your stand ups. You see you go off on the crowd.
Thank you now.
Also when it is your daughter got engaged to Eddie murphy Son, Yeah, congratulations.
And he's a great kid. I'm a great young man, great young man. I don't think she could have found nobody better.
Now, we have this rule up here if we're ever out and about that's Richard than us. Whoever has the most money has to pay.
Well. Eddie already said I have to pay for it. He said he paid for the last six weddings. You know, because Eddie got a lot of kids.
He said he paid for the last six. So he said, no, this is on you, he said. I said, I don't mind.
So he's still holding you today, I said, so he's still holding you to that.
Yeah, he's holding me to that. He's holding me.
Did you ever did you envision that? Because it seemed like back in the nineties, and I could be wrong. It seemed like y'all had just like such a brotherhood amongst each other, you know what I mean. And to see that brotherhood y'all had. But now y'all kids getting married, did you see that?
Never? I never couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe it when.
They first told you that they was connected. What you did you call it and be like, hey man, you know our children to day?
No, I just uh.
When I talked to him, I said, can you believe it? He said, it's beautiful.
You know, long as they respect each other and love each other. You know, hey, world two nah?
Nah nah.
I picture you and Will at the door and they coming up and you having that conversation.
You never had to have that conversation.
No, with my daughters, I'm open.
I'm you know, I'm kind of father that gives them, gives them room. You know, if they if the boyfriends they're bringing me to meet are disrespectful, then they're going to see another side of me. But if they're nice young man or whatever.
I don't I don't do all.
By the time you meet, my dad needs to be right, yeahund and my.
Reputation proceeds itself.
You mustn't people.
Thought in the comedy world, how important was it?
I mean, how hard was it to sell hip hop the Hollywood in the nineties, Because when I think of like Martin, y'all had Biggie on and Met Mann movies like House Party was was was Hollywood.
Embracing of hip hop back then? Or did y'all have to tell them.
We were coming up? We were coming up, but because we were doing so good, you.
Know, they had to accept us.
They had to embrace us, you know, because hip hop was hitting hard.
You know, you had all this talent.
And so they had to say, I open the door and say we gotta let hip hop in because it's impact in the world, you know, and you see what hip hop is doing now.
You know what what do you think happened to television? And what I mean by that is, you know, they always talk about the negative images of black people that exist now on TV and in film, But it's like when we came up in the nineties, we didn't have that. We had the Martins and the Cosby shows in the Different Worlds and the living singles like what do you think made Hollywood say? We're gonna stop doing that and start doing reality TV.
I don't know. I don't know.
Maybe because reality when when they first put it on, it hit, you know, people started gravitating to it or whatever. And maybe it's it's ways they get tax breaks.
I don't know.
But y'all was hitting too, and it was great the tation like you had a job, he was a radio person.
It was probably cheaper too, though you ain't.
That's why I'm saying tax breaks and all that stuff, you know, but.
It don't stand the tother time. It ain't a sy indication.
Years later, thirty years later, yeah, you know, I also wonder two. But growing up, you know, watching you play, watching you in Big Mama's house, I never thought anything of it. I just thought it was funny. But nowadays you hear people say, oh, you know, that's you got to sell your soul in Hollywood, and that's humiliation rituals and nil zumanai.
What are you think of that?
It's bullshit.
It's it's all bullshit doing doing what I'm doing doing Big Mama and characters like that and whatever. These are strong black women, you know, and I'm a comedian, you know, and I'm not above playing the character, putting on the dress or whatever, because I'm in tune with my manhood, you know, so I know who I am. So I don't worry about all that.
Had a missed art because we've seen it with you, We've seen it with Eddie. But now it seems like everybody, like he said, is afraid to do that.
But except for talent.
Except for talent.
Yeah, it's if you're in tune with your manhood, you shouldn't be worrying about it, you know, if you ain't letting nobody get other than your dress.
Whatever a point.
Whatever, a point where you felt like the industry boxed you in and they just wanted you to be the funny guy and didn't give you, like I guess, room to grow.
Was an actor, yeah, because I haven't been offered a lot of dramatic roles.
You know. The closest I I.
Had to I got a dramatic role was I had to do it myself was the line between eleven eight.
So that was the closest.
And then I wind up recently, about two years ago, I did a movie called Mind Gauge that was total drama, no comedy and everything else.
So I did about two.
Do you even want to do that?
Are you like, yeah, I wanted to try it. I wanted to try to see if I could pull it.
When you saw it happening to you, though, were you talking to your team like, yo, why is this happening? Why are we not pushing back? Or were you just like I gotta do what I gotta do to eat to keep my family fat always.
You know, I'm not sell your soul, but what do what's appealing to you now?
They also talk about Blue Streak the sequel. Yes, you got the shooting that we're working on it. You're working on right, we're writing the right to.
Leave off in Mexico or have you figured that out as yet?
No, we haven't figured it out yet.
Yeah, but if they come get me from Mexico to you know, because I have the diamond so I'm living high off the hog, you know, so.
We'll see what happened to be a crazy soundtrack to like the first one?
Oh yeah, yeah, how.
Do you choose what to do a sequel to? Because Blue Streak was good?
But to me, I'm like, y'all rather see Life Part two, like I like another one.
I like to see how y'all want, they want.
Everybody wants to be Life Part two. But you gotta remember, uh me and Aaddy were we were what ninety bout time?
It can be a period, so it can be based on when y'all first got out, wh y'all first broke out.
What did Ray and Claude do? What was their life like when they first.
Broke Well, we went to the baseball Gamember, that's all we saw right by, you know that getting introduced by Agron.
You know, they might not have made it through the experience.
I want you to die with you could right when y'all.
Broke out, right, Well, if somebody puts it together, man, hey, I told her. I talked to Daddy about it and ed he said, he Man, if somebody could make it make sense, hey, we'll do it again.
You do you get I don't want to say frustrated, but like having to convince people in Hollywood, like you, Martin Lawrence, you know what I'm saying, Like having to sit down and pitch things.
Or like, yeah, that's frustrating.
That's frustrating, but it's part of the business, you know, And and it's hit a mess, you know, But uh, I have a strong faith in uh in God and uh he's my Asian.
It's crazy to me that you still have to pitch things like just hearing that, it's like, wow, what about a Martin reunion? Like I know you guys did the reunion, but like people wanted to see like actual episodes like maybe You're Not Sex and the City. They got back there the dated episodes and then they had a movie like is there anything on screen from you guys that we're going to ever see from the Martin from the Martin Cash?
Yes, no, No.
Tommy Ford was a big part of of what we did and him not being there that's not the same got you and we we can't. We called uh lightning in a bottle, you know, and that that won't happen again.
Who came up with the idea of being a radio host like that?
That was dope?
Like but I just I did?
And why yeah, just try something different, you know, you know Detroit, you know, being able to say say what I want on the radio and being you know outlandish uh radio announcer and everything, having celebrities come through and everything.
It's just fun fun of radio.
Did you type cast yourself with Martin? Meaning like being at the character name with Martin, and they saw how you acted on the show, they expect you to be like that in everyday life. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, because every time I've been around you, it seem like you very reserved, laid back.
Yeah, I'm nothing like the Martin on exactly. You know, people do ask me that you like Tomorrow on TV. Sometime I tell them, hell yeah, I'll throw your ass out.
But I think that's a lot like a lot of times people see you when they think something's wrong. But I'm like number one, he's older, Number two. How did we ever know that was told us that was him?
Yeah, nah, that was my energy.
That was me just projecting, just just just being big, just you know, giving you a bigger version of Martin and you know, just.
Just having fun, just having fun.
But I'm not like that in real life. I'm I'm mature. You know, it's that's my job. You know, you don't want to be on all the time. That gets annoying somebody people don't take you serious.
Was it exhausting having to be on all the time?
Because you did a really good job at that job, Like I would have never known that that wasn't how you were in real life.
Thank you.
Yeah, it g's exhausting, but when you're having fun with it, you don't feel it.
And that the reason you had to whip ass because people they.
You said that the reason.
Because they thought they could play with people, thought they could play with you, so you have to show them.
Oh yeah, yeah, you.
Ever had somebody just laid out on the floor, They just like Matt just got sucked up by Martin.
I don't have.
Some And what do y'all know what it is to you got a lot of different comedians on there. You got just hilarious of course, Adele Givings, be some Mom, Chico being DC, Young Fly, Dion Cole, just to name a few. How do you pick who you want to be on the roll? Because that's such an honor for a comedian to be on the roll with a Martin Lord.
Because they fire, they fire many. They're so talented there, they're the next ones, you know, the next uh comedy stars, you know, and uh to for me to just have a little piece of helping them out, get them some exposure or whatever, you know, I'm honored to do that. That's what I'm supposed to do. Knowing my position, and uh so I love it and I love working with them.
Well, call it one o five right now.
If you want to sit in the front row eight hundred five eight five, one oh five.
One, you have to be in New York. We ain't flying you, we ain't paying for a bus ticket. We just got your tickets. If you're in New York.
Or you can make it to New York, call it one o five right now. Eight hundred five eight five, one oh five one. You're gonna be at the ball plays tonight, so you get those tickets tonight, Saturday. He's gonna be in Atlantic City. February eighth, Houston, Valentine's Day. He's gonna be in your neck of the wood, South Carolina, Greenville.
No, it's not my just South Carolina.
Just it's the low country.
In February fifteen, Charlotte, North Carolina. Say, if you haven't got your tickets, get your tickets, and we appreciate you for joining.
Usways, man, thank you all for having me. Man, I'm glad I came in. Man, it's been a minute.
You see you on the wall.
Yeah, I see yeah, man, thank.
You, that's what it is. It's Martin Lawrence it's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, wake that ass.
Up ear in the morning. The Breakfast Club
