Eddie Murphy: Delirious

Eddie Murphy: Delirious (1983) is a stand-up concert film directed by Bruce Gowers, recorded live at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. — watch it online on iFILM. Murphy was 22, already a fixture on Saturday Night Live, and had just finished a nineteen-city tour with this same show.

The set runs about seventy minutes with no breaks. Murphy works through childhood memories from Brooklyn, family cookouts, his impression of a drunk uncle, vocal takedowns of James Brown and Elvis, and a lot more — all at a tempo that barely lets the audience catch its breath. The material is sharp and unapologetic, and that refusal to sand down the edges is precisely what kept it from going stale the way milder comedy specials from the same decade often did.

If you want to understand where Murphy's screen energy came from, this is the document. Everything that made him magnetic in the films of the 1980s is already fully formed here. Stream Eddie Murphy: Delirious online on iFILM.