BERNIE MAC INTERVIEW 2004, DISCUSSES COSBY

thane krios pop culture TV palace let me tell you something i want you to choke to death when I do come can't call it a you know you just can't do that that's just not to cool [Music] [Music] Bernie Mac has been a stand-up comedian for more than two decades but he came to national prominence in the hit Spike Lee film the original Kings of Comedy lately he has become a bonafide television superstar with his Emmy winning Fox comedy the Bernie Mac show which is essentially a sanitized version of his stand-up routine Bernie Mac is also the author of a new memoir called maybe you never cry again he truly is one of the most successful uncensored comedians working today balancing his message of self-respect and tough love with irreverence and outrageous off-color honesty Bernie Mac welcome to face Klein thank you sir as a stand-up comedian are there subjects you just wouldn't joke about you'd never go to I don't talk about God I don't make a fun of God because I'm scared okay I am truly truly scared I came up in that room I believe that my faith is too strong to deal with that to sit there and make fun of Jesus it kept for you from having sex I read in one of your books yeah have a fear that Jesus would come on because I was told that you know they had an old Southern voodoo stuff going on telling you if you had sex Jesus gonna gonna bust you ha go catch it you know when you get ready to release he's gonna bring you upstairs the Upper Room you know all that kind of stuff that's quite a religious idea yeah but but uh you know I was scared and I was dealing with this girl before my wife our father was a minister and I grew up in the church and she always said that to me that her parents told her that and I respected I never really forced to push that toilet because I always been a fan of respect respect was something that was taught to me and given to me and that was a must and I'm glad it was when you go out now doing stand-up do you get people who come to your shows that maybe just saw you is this nice uncle Bernie on TV and suddenly you're saying these extraordinary things on stage or do you shock people who are new or they do all would might shock somebody but that's okay because it's all it's all the educational plan when my opening that goes out I prepare myself for the whole day when he or she goes out for me they setting up the tone I'm listening on a given show would you go further than other nights because you think oh this audience isn't gonna go for that or this is too raw for this is too raw for them when I first come out I'm hitting and and and as the show progressed I try not to let I want you to choke to death you know I want you to catch your breath I want you to tell me to wait and and and the only way I can do that is by telling something that comes from my soul that's when my jokes are very very funny to my audience I love to see the audience participate go go show this right Bernie yeah then I like to see the couples look at each other you do do that you know it almost started fight about it you know and that means that you're tapping in on someone on a personal level and that's what my comedy is my comedy is real it's personal and I'm a storyteller I deal with the facts and I put a little twist of my perspective on a butt of some identification that everybody that's there in that arena in that circle can identify with is there material are there jokes on the Bernie Mac show that you've cut out thinking that's too rough that Network Fox people have cut out I've been very fortunate when I read the script and I talked to my writers all the time don't practice trying to capture my voice let's stay on the essence of good stories I'll bring me you'll never be able to capture my voice I know what's gonna work from Bernie Mac's perspective verse and that gives me that edge so I don't have to bang on tables and I'm not a howl and screaming oh you're not going in there the little kid who on the show is this effeminate boy then worried about where as in your act you know you say he's a little yeah I mean they say that stand-up yeah it's instead of us up close and personal I couldn't bring that to television you can't call a little kid a you know you just can't do that there's just not to cool without heat you want to have fun you don't want to sit there and be pressured on doing something because you is too is too insulting everything is PC so I made him the mischievious a asthmatic little boy than I used to be you know always in this something diabolical and that's even more funnier you are one of 15 children there was ten of us in one house 12 to pass and it was a barrage of nieces and cousins and we were just one big family everybody called his brothers and sisters but at that particular time I didn't have no idea that we were struggling I didn't have no idea none whatsoever because I had so much stuff surrounding around me that dollars and cents what it was I was the last for my mind you've written in your book about how you decided at an incredibly young age in the age of four that this is what you were going to do you were gonna buy it media right tell me how that happened we had a big chair in the back we had out there's a back room well we all used to look at television yeah we could look your television and stuff in the front that was off-limits and unless we it was special Thanksgiving or something like that and we had a big chair wasn't a lazy boy but there was something similar to a lazy boy and only adults could sit in their chair and my mother was sitting in that chair and she was weeping and I crawled on a lap and I kept asking my mother what was she crying about and she said nothing son she started to rock me kind of sorta and Ed Sullivan came on and he said ladies and gentlemen Bill Cosby but when Bill Cosby started doing his routine she started to laugh and cry at the same time you know like that and I began to laugh so once I started laughing with Bill Cosby got done I saw the relief from my mother face and I told my mom I said mom that's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna be a comedian she saw believe son I said so you're never had to cry again so after that day I just started practice said television we grew up on television what you watch what did you love I loved everything from Lucille Ball to Andy Griffin George Burns Steve Allen I watched a Flip Wilson show all the way up to diag Carol I grew up on Dick Van Dyke the a Beverly Hills ourselves all of us right I grew up on all those shows and then I Stafford Hitchcock I started learning how to dissect stories knowing where the plot will come in I could tell you who did it Perry Mason I used to just bust bust my head trying to figure out who did it and why they did it and those things are the outer limits and the Twilight Zone and I just started learning how to write I just started practicing it and at that point you were still saying yourself I'm gonna be a comedian and a storyteller I'm gonna do that that's what I and I just live it when I got a little older where I understood what I really wanted to do I actually get the TV Guide on Sunday and I used to listen and read Johnny Carson or Dinah Shore I used to see what comedian was going to be on there and I started beginning to learn how to do material and then I learned how to deliver punchline I used to try to say it with him I tried to see the joke coming before it came and it just became a passion it became so much a part of me that I start getting on peoples nerves and I will get spankings and things like that because I was so dedicated to the joke the love that I had to bring laughter the people it was almost like it was a sickness was it so strict that when you wanted to crack wise or be funny that somebody hit you or could you be funny oh well it was a dependent what were being funny about we had to do things with the utmost respect but we were still kids we mimicked and we made faces and we talked among each other but for the most part I didn't think it was being a strict it was just a family of strong discipline my grandfather was a deacon my grandmother was the matter of the neighborhood my mother she was the educational individual we came home from school we had to do our homework before one outside my grandmother checked it we couldn't do a lot of things that were Street orient we had to do everything together everybody Jesus all the time calls to church family for the most part from where I lived in Chicago they saved our lives [Music] Black's grew up on white shelves you're watching - you love theme month-long obsession every night in February at 9:00 Eastern CEO pop culture TV [Music] you Bailey's please drink responsibly if your family doesn't have health insurance you're paying too much on medical bills well that stops right now welcome to prudent choice prudent choice is a network of premier doctors and hospitals offering huge discount of up to fifty fifty five sixty percent 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help you become a better artist call one eight hundred nine two seven five five four four [Music] [Music] was there a single comedian other than Bill Cosby when you were four years old that that became a model for you like I want to be like him or I want to be so many I don't have a favorite anything I think I had to look at George Kirby I had to look at Don Rickles Jackie Gleason Jack Benny Red Skelton Diane care I mean Carol Burnett Flip Wilson Redd Foxx pigmeat Markham mom's made me so very old-school kind of yeah sit 1560s can because that was that was my arena that what I was introduced to I used to watch Dave Martin you know everybody loves somebody I said listen to that and I said lovely a Red Skelton at the end of the day if he did all these characters how sincere he was when he looked into the camera and say and make our blast that just killed me I fell in love with Andy Griffin how he shared the lands with all those different individuals that made that show what it was from Don Knotts Floyd Ernest T bass the darlings gold man goober and I saw that and it taught me how to really give him myself for the welfare of the show and you didn't feel OH like Andy Griffith is a very white show you didn't hello I'm excluding from that because I'm I'm black no I was funny all right you know blacks grew up on white shows if those things didn't exist until later on we start becoming PC everyone starts saying there's a black show white show The Beverly Hillbillies I didn't even look at it I looked at it was it was a white show well they was from the southern background Jethro Bodine was ignorance day was long but that's what made him funny it had nothing to do with color Jerry Lewis had nothing to do with color Jackie Gleason was one of my favorites how Jackie Gleason can come out and attack the lens but you know he was so over the top Alice let me tell you something all that was so funny to me today you get arrested I love an individual that can go out there it's not afraid to cross the line and tell and deal with the issues from their perspective right wrong and it in a different Don Rickles had a style where everyone knew when they saw Don Rickles that she was part of his act when he came by he was dark dead and sliding under your seat he had no respect to person and if that even at that time what we were dealing with tough issues wounds deal with racism our Luther King and voting and all those sort of thing vid naam was going on and Don Rickles at no respect a person but you knew it was a joke Richard Pryor took stand up to another level Richard Pryor to me was a modern-day Redd Foxx Redd Foxx was said it was called he was blue he was raunchy he was x-rated but ref I've seen priests listen to Redd Foxx and just crack up laughing and Pryor could take that working blue and doing it do it in a mainstream way since he could and he talked about himself that made it unshakable to be able to go out and laugh about yourself all those individuals had something that made me who I am because I've taken a page out of all of their notebook and I give tribute and homage to all of them even from Jack many Jack Benny taught me how the gesture how does just look at the camera and say so much Harpo Marc taught me how to not say a word but say everything so I've learned from all those things you have really studied haven't you yeah I've been a student of the game all my life and I and I say that with love and with passion because in order for you to be what you say you are you got to go to school obviously in your stand-up act you go one way and as I say raunchy you know bad language very funny you have to do something very different on a fox broadcast show is that is that tough for you to try to sort of clean it up and keep it so tightly under control for television no and I take I tell you why I looked at with your pride I let the dial Rickles and I looked at Jackie Gleason I looked at all the few people that I named and I solved to me Don Rickles and Richard Pryor was the funniest two individual on two legs but I saw what television did to them television handcuffed them it watered them down television kind of took the audience away because they didn't want to see Don Rickles as Jeff Snyder the architect or Richard Pryor's are Mike Bullard the bus driver they wanted to see Richard Pryor they wanted to see Don Rickles and this is the this is the key element that that really made me successful in my television when you have those individuals I study them so going in the television I knew what not to do I knew what I wanted to do I did not want to lose my audience because the audience that I built being on the road 15 to 16 years 43 weeks out of the year going to places that I didn't even know exist those places was sold out I did two or three shows a night three thousand seven thousand seats those people made me had I gone on television and done anything contrary to what got me here those people would have been disappointed so the character a Bernie that you play on television is a version of what you've done for 20 years is it is it's a version but it's also stand-up is a different different beast hmm stand-up is different from television so I can go out and I can talk about relatively anything I want to do because it's up close and personal people pay whatever amount of money they want to come see me to hear me make a joker whatever issue this on my mind I could talk about the war Bush or whatever it is television you have to be a little bit more discreet it's a time and place for everything I know I on television I can go out there and I can't tell and what I normally will say on my stand-up but funny it's funny Bill Cosby was the guy that you saw and that's all prompted you to go into comedy do you feel any obligation that he obviously is felt for his whole career of being and you know a good representative of the black race to all of America is that is that something that you think about no but that's guess if that's over well I don't know if it's over I think that's that was Bill Cosby way of dealing with I think you can go on so I've said a lot of community go onstage and say one thing and do another I mean I call that a lie meaning I mean I've seen a lot of comedians go out and say you can't do this and you don't do drugs and you got to treat your women like this that another and they go out and do contrary what they say to me from my perspective that's a lie I don't use the word I don't use that since Richard Pryor started saying in his in his act it has become almost a routine thing is that a bad thing is that a problematic thing when when that becomes so kind of free and easy in the in the in the comedy culture well being a black guy I've been black a long time and uh I hate that word more so for my own that I ever had you know any place else Richard Pryor made it a joke he made it a tag I don't use the word I don't use that Richard Pryor was a master at it it was a time where you can go and talk about drugs and he talked about being on fire and it was Alerus I see a lot of comics try to take that same path I don't think personally speaking I can't knock him you know because they had to learn for themselves but what Richard Pryor did that was for him let me ask you some things that that are if there's humor in them for you mm-hmm Oh Jay Simpson yeah but everybody was doing so I didn't tap on it I don't like to do what everybody else does not out of solidarity with this poor black man uh affirmative action general uh perminov actually has his place I'm not a political guy I don't deal with politics do you tell jokes about Michael Jackson uh I've told a joke about Michael Jackson I have told jokes about Michael Jackson recently more recently than not I did something on Oprah about Michael Jackson after his interview I made a comic response and I didn't plan it it was spontaneous she asked me about Michael Jackson and I said that uh when you asked black people about Michael Jackson black people had two sets of rules where rules for us and rules for everybody else and he led to cross street it would be a problem he might be hurt you were quoted well in the in the Kings of Comedy you said in that part of your act I want to have a sitcom I want to be on television and you were quoted I think very humorously saying before you had this show I'm not I'm not you know gonna gonna make do with UPN or one of these you want a real network do you feel like you've gotten with Fox and with this show that kind of broad American exposure rather than being stuck in the sort of african-american ghetto on UPN well well not when I did when I did that that was a joke Spike Lee asked me because all the other players was a part of a sitcom and he said Bernie give me something about you not having a show and I went right into character I ain't got no show three they ain't got no sugar they scared of me I went into that little routine that I apologized at the end I'll take anything I take USA TT you know it was a joke but I always said to myself whatever I do I'm gonna be top-notch about whatever I do I didn't want UPN a WB and that was no disrespect to them but if I'm gonna play I'm gonna play with the majors it must please you that you are doing so well in general with the show you're the number one show most weeks as I see it in the Nielsen ratings among black audiences and now you're you're up there in the top 20 regularly among all audiences have you very consciously designed this show to appeal to not just the black audience but everybody I sure did I mean because you know that's gold goes back to hearing the voices you know because I heard so up so often the Bernie Mac as a black comment was Deb to him coming and that was only reason because they didn't know me you have to understand Hollywood just not really getting introduced to me so what I better about it no I'm not a bit of man nothing bothers me I bought it it gives me something to shoot forward so I have no pressure on me I can go out and I have fun still to this day I have fun I look forward to shooting Monday through Friday like a movie because I fell in love with a 150 some people if you become a movie director and continue to be a movie actor will you keep being a comedian is comedian the the constant for the rest of your career do you think I hope I truly hope so and I feel in my heart that it is the only way that I can really see myself not doing a stand-up anymore is when I just personally burned the hell out I ain't got nothing else to say and the audience is tired of me but comedy is something that from the old school I can go to Vegas I can go and do my little thing and play golf in the morning you haven't figured out in this very 1960s jackie gleason yeah wait oh yeah I can go to Vegas and do my set man for five months out of the year you know it push coming chef I'm just trying to organize my career that's all I'm trying to do I'm not trying to sit there and I had to work the rest of my life so I have a plan always had a plan clearly you know and

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Length: 25min 9sec (1509 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 27 2016