In the upcoming 2018 romantic film “A Star is Born” with Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, and Dave Chappelle, Eddie Griffin plays a pastor.
Now that’s a director’s confidence in the man’s acting ability.
Not that your average pastor wouldn’t say some things Griffin does from the stage during his stand-up show. But, hey, let’s face it, the real Eddie would probably get tossed from the ministry. Or cause the entire congregation to convert to atheism.
Then again, acting is acting, be it Griffin’s screen credits of “The Last Boy Scout,” “Coneheads,” “Jason’s Lyric,” or “Undercover Brother” or his noted four-year TV series, “Malcolm and Eddie,”
for which role he was nominated (1996) and won (2000) the NAACP Image Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.
The stand-up comic Eddie Griffin? It’s all Griffin. And don’t even call it work.
“I don’t have a job,” he said. “If It was a job, I’d quit already. I get paid to be me.”
It was mid-afternoon Tuesday when Griffin was snagged for an eight-minute phone call before he joined Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley, and George Lopez in The Comedy Get Down Tour at the Rio Las Vegas on Tuesday and Wednesday night.
Griffin takes a few days off before tackling Theater 88 in a night of solo stand-up at Cache Creek Casino Resort in Brooks this Saturday at 8 p.m.
Don’t expect vanilla stories about air plane travel or anything equally mundane from Griffin, who banks on the first amendment as much as anyone. Take his routine — a popular YouTube — about waiting for President Obama to mess up so he can put the moves on the First Lady.
Wince-inducing for the squeamish. Hilarious for others.
It’s about reality, this stand-up act, not a free pass from what’s real, Griffin said.
“Truth is truth,” he said. “I don’t think anybody goes to comedy shows for pure escapism. You go there to see how you can find humor. I teach them how they can find humor in the darkest taboos of life.”
Though Griffin feels confident in taking political swipes — his disdain for the current leader of the free word is well-documented — it’s not about being angry, he said.
“It’s not that hard to get angry. You don’t get angry. You get witty. You get smarter. Anger just sits there. It’s coming up with a solution,” Griffin said. “Humor always finds a way.”
Life is way too short to not find the humor, said Griffin, who eased up to age 49 a month ago.
“You have to look in the mirror and laugh at yourself,” he said. “You’ve got a blink of an eye. Enjoy the show and stop taking yourself seriously.”
Raised by a single mom — Griffin graduated from Compton High School in 1984 — the actor and comic denied struggling.
“I don’t have struggles. Never did,” he said. “If you see it as struggling, you’ve missed the lesson.”
And there’s definitely no time for nostalgia, Griffin added.
“If you live in the past, you quit already. You’re done,” he said. “My best is yet to come.”
Not that he didn’t have, uh, fond members of those days in Compton as a teenager.
“It was ‘Singin’ in the Rain,’ ‘Mary Poppins,’ all your favorites,” Griffin said laughing. “It was a blast. I recommend it to everybody.”
Actually, Compton was considered one of the most dangerous cities in America in the 1980s, according to the FBI.
“The height of cocaine,” said Griffin. “Bags of crack and truckloads of guns appear out of nowhere. It was a character builder.”
While Griffin has problems with most presidents the United States has offered, it’s not a position he wants. Ever. Not even for a day.
“(Bleep) no,” he said. “My ego is not that big. Anybody who wants the job is a megalomaniac,” Griffin said. “You want everyone calling you: ‘I need a job! Lower my taxes! I have a nuclear bomb!’”
No, the man is quite content at his place in the food chain.
“I’m perfectly where I’m supposed to be,” Griffin said.
And, who knows, with a few more major pictures, a few controversies, maybe, just maybe, there will be “The Eddie Griffin Story” some day.
And the star?
“I hope it’s me,” Griffin said. “I don’t plan on dyin’ any time soon.”
Eddie Griffin is at Cache Creek this Saturday, 8 p.m. Tickets $59. For more, visit cachecreek.com.
