On Dec. 6, Comedy Legend Mike Epps took the stage at the NYCB Theatre in Westbury for his After Dark tour.
We spoke with him backstage exclusively after his hilarious show. Read what he had to say below:
Tell us about your new stand up tour.
The reason why I call it the After Dark tour is cause the material that I do is kind of like after dark. You know what I mean? It’s grown!
What is your joke writing process?
My joke writing process is I that have been doing certain jokes for a long time, but I like to freestyle because I get new material all the time – you know off the internet and stuff like that, so I mix it in with a lot of current events as well as jokes I have been doing for a long time. People come to see certain jokes and then I give them new current events stuff, too.
What do you love about stand up?
My favorite thing about stand up is I get that instant gratification of laughter cause when I do movies, it’s a process. It takes a year for it to be in post-production and edited. So when I do stand up, I really get to feel that instant laugh cause people are right there in my face. It’s a different adrenalin.
How excited are you to play Richard Pryor?
I’m really excited and I’m really nervous too but in a humble way because this is an iconic guy, who is a legend. You talk about Richard Pryor, you talk about the bridge of hip-hop, this is a dude that was saying the stuff that people in hip-hop were saying in the 60′s and 70′s. He was saying that then, so to play him is to service two groups of people. I’m servicing people who were my mother’s age and further up and I’m servicing people like my kids who don’t know who the f— Richard Pryor is.
Has Richard Pryor influenced your comedic style?
Oh yes!
Have you started filming?
We go into production probably around March or something like that.
What has it been like working with Lee Daniels who will direct the Richard Pryor biopic?
Lee Daniels is a perfectionist. And working with him is a learning experience because I have done other movies, but I have never worked with an A-list director like this, so his process is really like schooling. I never had a script or been in a movie where I really had to pay attention to the script and read the whole script because I just understand acting. Lee Daniels is the truth.
We saw the photo of you and Kate Hudson on Instagram. What has it been like working with her?
Kate Hudson, she is a great actress. She is the real deal. Like I said, I am really humbled to be working with this group of people because that’s the next level above what I’m doing. I’m a student to it. I’m not coming into it like “yeah, I’m ready.”
Are you nervous?
Yeah. Because a role like this can make you or break you in your career.
So what was it like when you met Jennifer Pryor?
Jennifer Pryor is good people. I had to get her blessings to do the movie. Much respect to her because she kept Richard Pryor’s legacy going for so many years and was able to put all this together and give Lee, myself and everybody that’s involved in the movie a great map – a treasure map for this movie.
Was it hard to get Jennifer Pryor on board?
No, she was open to it.
Is Oprah producing and starring in the film, as well?
As of now I think she is. You know her and Lee Daniels have a great relationship with each other. Oprah is usually in Lee Daniels’ movies a lot like “The Butler” and stuff like that, so I met her. She was real cool. She was a nice lady.
Tell us about working on Starz “Survivor’s Remorse.”
Survivor’s Remorse – what I really like about the show is that the roles and material are real, we get a chance to play real characters and we get a chance to do real material. I’m playing the uncle and everybody knows I’m really the uncle.
Tell us about your AOL web series “That’s Racist.”
I’m excited about it and it’s right on time because we have so much going on and so it’s a way to lighten it up. It’s about stereotypes of racists like why do black people like chicken, who do people say Chinese people can’t drive. So the show is light.
You have been expressing your sadness on social media about Ferguson, Michael Brown and the Eric Garner cases. Can you speak about that?
Yeah it’s just sad that our black men are dying in the hands of justice like that because it’s just unfortunate … this is something that has been going on for years, but a light is on it now and now it’s really showing that we are victims and we are singled out and pointed out and really being victimized by the law.
On a lighter note, what are your holiday plans?
I’m thinking about going to Aspen, Colorado. Taking my kids and family there. That’s a cool place, you get a cabin and they have ski resorts.
You can check Mike Epps out on tour below:
| 12/12/14 | Boston, MA | Orpheum Theater | United States |
| 12/13/14 | Wallingford, CT | Oakdale Thater | United States |
| 12/31/14 | Detroit, MI | Fox Theater | United States |
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