By Charlie Murphy with Chris Millis
Simon Spotlight Entertainment
When I picked up Stand-Up Guy to read, I thought it would be a fun read filled with many stories a la the True Hollywood Stories on the Chapelle Show, but what I got was the true story of Charlie Murphy. Charlie and I come from two very different worlds. Although we both come from Long Island, I am from an über suburban town of Smithtown, while he is from the violent town of Roosevelt (ask Howard Stern about it). The closest I ever came to Roosevelt was seeing NKOTB at Nassau Coliseum in nearby Uniondale. I never had a gun put to my head, joined a gang, or went to jail, yet, I totally identified with his story. I know what it is like not to know what you want out of life. When I was in college, everyone seemed to know what they were going to be…they took the right classes and got to work after graduation. I used to joke that I just want to be a Jeopardy champion, because all my classes, although educational, were very random. I chose my major by looking at my credits to see what I had the most classes in at the time to declare. I was aimless and wandering. Making me feel even more lost, like Charlie, I also had that sibling who always knew what they wanted to do. My sister, Kara, had known she wanted to be a fashion designer since she first got Fashion Plates as a child. She had a natural talent, but she worked her ass off to make it happen. She is hugely successful now while I am unemployed. So I now find myself asking the same questions Charlie Murphy was asking himself when he realized he didn’t just want to be looked at as a hanger on. Who am I? I have been saying for years that I want to write, yet do not have the cajones to declare “I am a writer!” Instead, I am afraid of what I have to say. I choose to write cheesy cover letters begging for a shitty job that I really don’t want all to avoid it.
Sometimes inspiration comes from the most unlikely source; for me, that source is Charlie Murphy. I was inspired from the moment I read the opening words of The Making of a Stand Up Guy, “Anyone who has given up will never know just how close they came to winning…” So today, prepared to do all the work involved, I am ready to declare that I am a writer.
