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From the Archives: Eddie Murphy Live

The razor-edged king of late-night comedy, profiled in 1982.

virtually by himself since the show lost the entire original cast of John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Glinda Radner, et al. His first album, Eddie Murphy, is selling well, and he has just finished acting in his first movie, 48 Hrs., for which he received co-star billing with veteran actor Nick Nolte. In an age of assembly-line, middle-class comedians who try to squeeze humor out of Quaaludes, Pac-Man, and the reigning TV commercials of the day, Eddie Murphy is an original, razor-sharp fast mouth. Murphy zips through his routines (“Guy who shot the pope wants to go straight to hell”) and then puts on sunglasses and staggers sightlessly around the stage, doing a cruelly accurate — and funny — impression of Stevie Wonder, complete with a rendition of the blind singer’s wandering smile.

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