Will Eddie Murphy Ever Return to Stand-Up? Here's His Answer
Eddie Murphy (movies and tv series)'s new Netflix documentary, Being Eddie, isn't just a victory lap. It's a look at a guy who's been famous since he was a teenager, still figuring out what's fun to do next. And yes, that includes the question everyone keeps asking: will he ever get back on a stand-up stage?
His answer is simple and very Eddie: "One day it just has to strike me that I would have fun doing it." No tease. No date. Just a feeling he's waiting on.
What the doc is really about
Being Eddie wasn't supposed to be a sweeping life story at first. "This started out being that I was gonna do standup comedy again, so let's do a documentary to show all the different stages of me putting a show together," Murphy says. "We were doing that, and then the pandemic hit."
They kept filming. The result landed at the right moment. "Next year is 50 years of me in show business. So, this is the perfect moment for this documentary. It's to commemorate my 50th year in this world."
He's still a fan, still a dad, still a clown
Murphy laughs about how time flips culture on its head. He told a story about his son and a friend watching a Busta Rhymes (movies and tv series) video riffing on Harlem Nights. Then they saw the actual movie and said, "Oh, this is like Busta Rhymes." His punchline: "They thought that I got my s&$# from Busta." That's fame across generations in one joke.
The film pulls those threads-childhood influences, the comedians he studied, the stuff that kept him out of the messes that took others down-into something that feels personal without being preachy.
Would he really go back to stand-up?
He could. But he won't force it. "All the people (movies and tv series) that I know that do stand-up that don't have to do stand-up 'cause they're rich-it's because they love it," he says, name-checking friends like Dave Chappelle (movies and tv series), Jerry Seinfeld (movies and tv series), and Chris Rock (movies and tv series). "If I get that feeling where it looks like I'd have a ball doing it, I'd get up there and do it."
He's done it at the highest level. Eddie Murphy: Raw and Eddie Murphy: Delirious aren't just hits; they're the yardstick. He knows the bar he set. He's not chasing nostalgia.
The kid who could do every voice in the room
"I just did voices my whole life," Murphy says. The first impression he nailed? His brother, Charlie. Then uncles. Neighbors. The school principal. Even the cool kid and the bully. You can hear that muscle in everything he's done since.
Most iconic Saturday Night Live character? "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood," he says without hesitation. "That one still holds up."
The magic of makeup-and a character who felt real
Ask him about prosthetics and he lights up over Sherman Klump. "The Sherman Klump and the Nutty Professor, that was the most fleshed out of those characters," he says, crediting makeup legend Rick Baker (movies and tv series). "Sherman is like a real person… He's not just funny. He has this heart stuff; he can make you feel sad."
That's Murphy's sweet spot: big laughs with a pulse.
How he outlived the burnout
Plenty of stars didn't make it. He knows that. "They even have a club, the 27 Club," he says, a nod to artists like Jimi Hendrix (movies and tv series) and Janis Joplin (movies and tv series) who died at 27. "I got famous when I was a baby. I'm 19 years old when I get on Saturday Night Live… I love myself. So, I don't have a self-destructive bone in my body."
If you've followed his career, that tracks: long breaks, family life, selective returns. That's how you last.
On Oscars, and a speech you'd never forget
"I think there's too much emphasis on the Oscar thing," Murphy says. "I think eventually they'll have to give me an honorary Oscar… even if I'm 90 years old, I'll take it then."
But he can't resist a bit. If they wait that long, he jokes he'll show up in a sky-blue tuxedo, then "urinate all over myself right on camera" during the speech. And when they try to play him off? "I'm gonna urinate more." It's crass. It's Eddie. It lands.
The next thing he wants to direct
If he gets back behind the camera, he wants to go for pure comedy. "I want to direct this movie called It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," he says, imagining a modern remake. "All I'd be trying to do is see what happens when I try to be funny every second."
Here's what that could mean: less sentiment, more pace. A showcase for comedians who can crush in short bursts. And pressure on the edit to keep the laugh-per-minute high. Risky. Fun if it works.
The legacy, in his words
"I've been funny for a long time in a business where people come and go," Murphy says. He wants younger viewers to know it wasn't instant. No Oprah yet. No hip-hop yet. No Michael Jordan (movies and tv series) yet. "When I got famous, Jimmy Carter (movies and tv series) was the president. That says it all."
Maybe that's the real point of Being Eddie. Not just that he's still here. But how he got here-and why he'll only step back on a stand-up stage if it feels like joy, not homework.
Being Eddie is now streaming on Netflix. If you care about comedy-or you just want to understand how long a run like this really is-it's worth your time.
