Eddie Murphy showed his appreciation for receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center on Sunday night by doing something he hasn’t done in almost 30 years.
He did a mini stand-up set, telling a few jokes and even doing his impression of disgraced comedian Bill Cosby.
“Bill has one of these,” he said, looking at the bust of Mark Twain with an exaggerated, embarrassed smile. (Cosby was honored in 2009.) “Did you all make him give it back?” he asked, before adopting the persona of Cosby.
“I would like to talk to some of the people who feel like I should give back some of my [expletive] trophies,” he said to the delight of the sold-out crowd.
Murphy had declined to do his Cosby impression at the 40th anniversary celebration of “Saturday Night Live” earlier this year. But he looked exuberant to be back in his stand-up element as he told jokes onstage for the first time since 1987.
He riffed for about five minutes. He asked whether the Twain honor is an award or a prize.
“When it’s a prize, there’s usually money involved,” he said. “I thought I was going to get paper. . . . For future recipients, if you don’t want to call it an award, you could call it a surprise — the surprise being you ain’t getting any money.”
Flashing his trademark impish grin, the comedian looked pleased by the applause and riotous laughter.
Murphy decided a few weeks ago to perform at the ceremony, his friend Arsenio Hall said after the show. He practiced Saturday in a hotel room with Hall and fellow comedian Chris Rock.
Throughout Sunday evening, every Eddie Murphy you’ve ever known and loved showed up at the Kennedy Center: the streetwise Mr. Rogers, the fat-suited Nutty Professor, James Brown prancing around a hot tub, the wisecracking donkey from “Shrek.” They all appeared in video tributes while the man who embodied those characters — and many more — sat in a booth reserved for the prize recipient. His entourage included six of his eight children, his mother, and his girlfriend, Paige Butcher, an Australian model.
More than a dozen friends and colleagues saluted his brilliance, comparing him with the trail-blazing Richard Pryor — a previous Twain Prize recipient — and thanking him for paving the way for their success.
Credit:Wash.Post
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