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Eddie Murphy Rejuvenated by 'Dolemite'

Associated Press

   TORONTO - Eddie Murphy is very fond of his couch.

   He talks about it a lot. It's where, according to Murphy, he's spent
   much of his last few years, in a happy retreat from the public eye.
   He's a natural homebody, content to stick close to his Los Angeles home
   with his family (he has 10 kids) around him. One of the funniest, most
   electric comedians ever -- the leather-suited dynamo of "Delirious,"
   the street-wise rebel of "Beverly Hills Cop" -- just lounging.

   But after a decade of relative relaxation -- a time of half-hearted
   comebacks, movies that fizzled and occasional music projects -- Murphy
   is back. He is -- and this is big news -- feeling it again, decades
   after he last performed stand-up.

   "When I'm being funny, there's this spirit that comes up," Murphy says.
   "That spirit comes up in me a lot now. Stuff's just been coming out of
   me like it used to. This movie has got my spirit up. This movie got me
   off the couch."

   The movie is "Dolemite Is My Name," which opens in theaters Friday and
   arrives on Netflix Oct. 25. In it, Murphy plays Rudy Ray Moore, the
   iconic comic performer whose pimp persona, Dolemite, spawned a
   long-running stage show, a series of profane comedy records and the
   shambling 1975 classic Blaxploitation film "Dolemite."

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