Tracy Morgan sat with UPROXX to discuss his upcoming Comedy Central special, comedic influences and the classics. He opened up with a few words on how he got in to comedy in the first place, chalking one up to Martin Lawrence's revolutionary appearances on Def Comedy Jam. Then he spoke on the roster of greats that influenced him early in his career, putting forth a few names that might take you back a bit. He also discussed his motive for doing Rio 2 and the importance of a strong imagination in doing voice-overs. Morgan's special Bona Fide airs this Sunday April 20th at 10pm, so be sure to tune in. You can read a few excerpts from the interview below, catch a glimpse of the program after the jump and head over to UPROXX for the full script.
On his influences:
"My uncles were very funny. All my uncles were funny. I come from a very funny family. But then when I got older I got introduced to the works of Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence and George Carlin. And Bill Cosby — I can’t forget Bill Cosby. But also I’m the biggest Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball fan, ever. So seeing all of these people talking about the things they were talking about and being funny at the same time, it just really inspired me to try to go for it. Growing up in high school, I was always a funny guy and people were asking me to be funny, so here I am."
On the difficulty of VO work for Rio 2:
"It’s definitely a challenge. You’re not getting any energy coming back to you, so you have to use your imagination. So I got to use my imagination. When I was young and first starting out in show business and in comedy, a lot of my material was based on my imagination. As I matured and got older, a lot of it became based on my observations, things that I see every day. So a lot of my standup now is more mature. It’s much more informed. It’s based more on my experiences and my life."
On what he would cook Barack Obama if he came over for dinner:
"Some hot dogs and tater tots. A public school lunch. Chocolate milk, hot dogs and tater tots."
