Currently on tour promoting his new reality television show, Eddie Griffin: Going for Broke, which airs on VH1 Monday, September 14th at 10pm EST, Griffin is fired up and ready. I caught up with Eddie to ask a few questions, and this is what was said:
StopBeingFamous: Before you step on stage, where do you have to be mentally? Is there a ritual or thought process you have to tune into, in order feel one hundred percent?
Eddie Griffin: I say a prayer, and then I hit the stage.
SBF: Are you ever nervous?
EG: Oh, hell yeah! It's an anxious, nervous energy. Richard Pryor told me a long time ago, when you stop gettin' nervous before you go on—quit.
SBF: You probably haven't been acting and doing stand-up your whole life, what was the worse job you ever had?
EG: Naw, half of it. I've being doing comedy half my life. I've been doing this since I was 18. I'm 40 now.
SBF: Before you were 18, did you have any jobs?
EG: I was in the Navy. I worked for a supply and garden company. You ever cut a football field with a non-electric mower in 90-degree weather?
SBF: [Laughing] No, I haven't.
EG: And then rake that mothafucka in 90-degree weather?
SBF: [Laughing] Earning the money, I take it.
EG: Hell yeah. Shit.
SBF: You grew up in Missouri. What was your old neighborhood like?
EG: Uh. Let's see. 23rd and Bellefontaine, Kansas City, Missouri. Let's see—houses, housing projects. Broke-down cars up and down the street. That nasty mothafuckin' family that wouldn't cut their damn yard. You know, everybody's ol' hood.
SBF: When most people think of Eddie Griffin, they probably think of your stand-up and movies; people have no that idea you're also a musician. Could you talk about some of the projects you've worked on and your creative process?
EG: Right now, musically, I had to set the band on hold for a minute. I'm getting ready to go into a film project, and I'm out on this comedy tour. I don't like to convolute the creative flow by doing too many things at once.
SBF: You have the reality TV show as well.
EG: Yeah, that drops September 14th.
SBF: What is it like to have a cameraman follow you every day?
EG: A mothafucka following you around with a camera? That shit gets old real quick.
SBF: You got tired of it?
EG: Hell yeah. Who the fuck wants a camera in their face 24/7?
SBF: [Laughing] I've heard that after awhile, you forget the cameraman is even there.
EG: Yeah, you forget about him and then you see him.
SBF: [Laughing] Okay, let's switch it up. A huge part of the black experience in the U.S. centers on its struggle to attain equality. Now that a black man holds the highest office in the land, do you think it will change this struggle?
EG: The story is still being told. It's hard to put an ending to a story that's being written as we speak. It's cool having a black president. The main thing that has changed is the inspiration that it gives to black children. Now, children can actually see that they can attain the highest office in this country. We’ll have to see if he can actually do something with the office, or if he's just a puppet on a string. That's the part that's still being written, on how much pull he's really got. As it stands right now, all of Bush's policies—as far running over there in Afghanistan and Iraq—are still being exercised. Obama said when he got in that he would stop the war, but the war is still goin'. We need to get the fuck out of there.
SBF: What role has religion played in your life?
EG: Religion hasn't played a major role in my life at all. I pray to God, but I don't believe in religion. Religion is man-made, so they can get tax-free dollars; it's called tithes. It's the reason why white folks left Europe in the first place─taxation without representation. I don't subscribe to religion. God never said go listen to this nigga with a jheri curl and a sparkling outfit on and shit. I didn't know God was a clothing designer. Or if you're going to have a choir, make sure they're a bunch of fat bitches. Build me a house on a big-ass hill, and I only like stained glass windows.
SBF: Are you challenged with being a celebrity and answering expectations of everyday people who expect you to spread the wealth?
EG: Um, naw. I don't trip on that. Ten fingers, ten toes down, mothafuckas treat you like they treat anybody else. It's all about if you protect your celebrity. A lot of mothafuckas bring that shit upon themselves.
SBF: How important is your privacy to you? Do you feel that stars who end up in tabloids want to be in them?
EG: Nah, they don't want to be in the tabloids. The paparazzi are some renegade mothafuckas, I got jumped by 'em yesterday. There should be laws against whippin' out a goddamn camera and shootin' yo' ass, you understand me? If I'm at a movie premier, goddamn it, alright, then this is work, but if I'm out with my mothafuckin' kids at a gas station, like I was yesterday─leave me the fuck alone. With that goddamn camera—who the fuck are you? And who knows─the camera might be a gun, and I bust a cap in this mothafucka, and all he had was camera. Nigga, that's stalkin'; that's invasion of privacy. You can be a fan, but the root word is "fanatic," or a mothafuckin' lunatic.
SBF: What has been your worse experience with paparazzi? Does anything stick out?
EG: You know, man, if it's six o'clock in the morning and I’m at the airport, how the fuck do they know I'm at the mothafuckin' airport? Somebody that works at the airport gave out the list, and called the paparazzi and tells 'em such-and-such is going to be here at this certain time─and getting paid. It's always an inside job. It's not like these mothafuckas just happen to be at the airport.
SBF: I've talked to celebrities who say it's the places you choose to go and cities you choose to live that determine the amount of paparazzi coverage. What are your thoughts?
EG: Oh, now, what—I gotta go hide in the woods? Because there's a mothafuckin' nut with a camera? They can kiss my ass. I can live where I want to live.
SBF: Do you have any business advice for aspiring actors and musicians?
EG: Yeah, success is something you work for. Over-prepare, and mothafucka, when it happens you be ready. Everybody is gonna get their shot. If it's really something you want to do, you ain't sitting back thinking about how long it's taking. And if you're really good at what the fuck you do, you don't have to worry about if it's gonna to happen; it's gone happen. End of Interview.
