Comedian Chris Tucker on his new tour ahead of tonight’s show at the Music Hall

Chris Tucker. // photo courtesy the artist

Comedian Chris Tucker is an absolute legend. Be it his appearances on Def Comedy Jam or his roles in Friday and the Rush Hour franchise, Tucker is imminently quotable. With his instantly-recognizable voice and cadence, along with his sharp wit, he’s made his living cracking you up for three decades.

Tucker brings The Legend Tour, his first nationwide standup tour in ten years, to the Music Hall tonight, November 8, and we were lucky enough to hop on the phone with the comedian ahead of his appearance.

The Pitch: You’ve been doing standup for 30 years now. What are the audiences who come to your shows like these days?

Tucker: Oh man, you know what? They’re hungry. You know, people are hungry. They laugh. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to do this tour–because people were saying they want to laugh. They want to get out and have some fun, and they’re just hungry, man, and I love it, man, and they’re more intelligent. They’re smarter these days because there’s so much entertainment out there, so you gotta come with your – game which I love. The energy is great.

What’s the preparation that you have to do for your first big tour in ten years?

Well, I’ve been on the road. I’m constantly on the road doing club dates or doing casinos so, I’m putting together a show, putting together what I want to talk about and what the people want me to talk about– my point of view, what I want to say, and everything, man. The last 10 years, trying to put a lot of that in and what’s going on right now in the moment, and what’s going on in my life. So, it’s great.

Since your material has changed over the years, do you find that your fans have rolled with the changes in how you approach stand up?

Yeah, you know, a lot of my fans have grown up with me. And if they’re younger, their parents have introduced them to me through my movies and stuff like that by watching them in their houses and homes and stuff. They definitely have grown with me and probably know about what I’ve been through in my life, a little bit of what I’ve been through. It’s great, man, just to have them to see me and then me to see them growing up.

Given that your shows these days are a little bit different than what people might expect from knowing you from Def Jam, how has that been for you? What are the challenges for you as a performer in working not clean, per se, but clean-ish?

It just made me better. I’m just better able to expand on things more. It’s just who I am. It may be still definitely edgy but it’s just much better when I was younger, because when I was younger, all I had to talk about is when I was younger, but now I’ve had so many different experiences–grown into a man now–I’ve got so much to talk about my point of view in the world. People are really getting a lot when they come to my show.

Totally. Now, you are a parent. You have had a life. What are the things that you like to address when you’re on stage?

Oh man, definitely that. Being a father, how that changed my life. What I want to say in the world. And just everything, man–being an entertainer all that stuff and how you gotta deal with those type of things. It’s so many different things. So it, it’s awesome. You come to my show, you get to know what I’m gonna do next. People wanna know if I’m gonna do another Friday or Rush Hour. I talk about it in my show. You gotta come to my show to find out that.

Speaking of acting, you made your comeback after a good long while not having been in films in Air this year. How was it for you coming back to acting after so much time away?

It’s the perfect role. It was something that I believed in, stuff that I love, Michael Jordan–who don’t like Michael Jordan?–sports, love NBA, love business, love family and Howard White is a friend of mine who I portrayed in the movie. It just had all those great elements. And I know Howard, so I was able to pick his brain to, to hang out with him, talk with him on the phone to find out little things about Nike and all that stuff. So it was just a perfect, God-sent role, and I had so much fun doing it. What a great cast.

Are there challenges when it comes to portraying someone you know, or does knowing them make your job as an actor easier?

Knowing them definitely makes it easier because you’re able to talk with them directly and get information that you wouldn’t normally have unless you read it in a book or found out through somebody else who knew them. So, it was a blessing.

Can we talk a little bit about your beneficial work? You’ve done stuff for the church you’re a member of, but you’ve also done work for Heal Los Angeles. Is this a case of you wanting to use your name and star power to uplift and help organizations which you’re a member of?

Yeah. I was traveling all over the world doing humanitarian trips and delegations and stuff. My mom saw me doing it and she said, why don’t you start your own foundation, you can do more. So we started the Chris Tucker Foundation and man, it’s the best thing I ever did. We do a golf tournament every year to raise money for anybody in need: homeless ministry, scholarships for kids that want to go to college. Man, it’s the best thing ever did. It’s so much fun giving and asking all my rich friends for money.

Chris Tucker is at the Music Hall on Wednesday, November 8. Details on that show here.