Eddie Murphy is reportedly set for a huge payday from Netflix who are eager to sign him to their comedy roster.
According to TMZ, the actor, 58, is eager to return to his stand-up comedy roots and is negotiating a deal worth around $70million for an undisclosed number of specials.
Such a large sum of money is in line with what other top-dollar comedians have been paid by the streaming giant in the past.
The Nutty Professor star recently recalled the last time he spoke with late comedian Don Rickles, saying Rickles went ‘on and on and on’ to push him to ‘do stand-up again’ just days before his passing.
He shared the moment with Jerry Seinfeld in a teaser clip of Netflix’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee released Thursday.
Jerry opened the clip asking Eddie ‘You know that you not doing stand-up drives people crazy – you know that, right?’
Eddie responded: I’m going to do it again. Everything just has to be right. You have to get up there and start working out. [I] still gotta go to the comedy club.
Eddie’s stand-up specials Delirious (1983) and Raw (1987) put him on the map as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after comedians.
But by his late 20s, Eddie found the craft had ‘stopped being fun’ for him, as he told The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast in 2016.
‘The reason it stopped being fun was it was harder to write – and this was before the internet – it was harder to write new stuff. It had gotten so crazy,’ he revealed.
After a while, the audience needs a break. And you need a break, too. You start taking each other for granted.
‘I’m like, “I know what you all like!” And the audience is like, “Oh, yeah, I know what he’s gonna do!” ‘
