Cedric the Entertainer is on his grind.
He has a new television show coming out on NBC called, “It’s Worth What?” and a movie that’s in theatres now called “Larry Crowne,” also starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.
We had the chance to talk to him about working with Russell Simmons back in the day, as well as his views on what the critics had to say about “Larry Crowne.”
Cedric has showed that with the right work ethic, anything is possible.
Check out the interview below and some pictures of Cedric at the Los Angeles premiere of “Larry Crowne.”
GG: You’re a veteran of Def Comedy Jam, what was it like working with Russell Simmons in Comedy?
Cedric: Definitely for me one of the great eras of comedy, those early ’90s when Russell brought out Def Comedy Jam. And it was an opportunity for the urban comedians to find a voice speaking to the core of the African American audience. The show was so popular it was a part of pop culture. And that’s Russell’s thing from early on, from the intervention of rap music, bringing it out in such a real way with Run DMC, the Beastie Boys and all that.
And then to get into the world of television to be a part of something like that, that was such a cultural phenomenon and all of us became stars and we were great at what we did. All of us on “The Kings,” me, Bernie Mac, Steve Harvey. They started to see these faces as we popped up on the screen, we have all have gone on to have great careers. So Def Comedy Jam was the catalyst for sure.
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You’re in the movie “Larry Crowne,” which the critics were brutal towards. Talk to us about how you rebound from something when the critics don’t like it. How could you infuse some comedy in that in order to deal with things like that?
This is when you pass the buck and that’s when you go, that’s a Tom Hanks movie (Laughs). But no, it’s unfortunate because I thought it was a really sweet movie. The movie came out at a different time. When you’re coming out against big 3D movies and with all this technology or special effects, summertime, this what these movies are, people may have just felt that movie was a little sleepy or a little slow for that reason. But I thought it was a great movie. I felt that it fit into times, was an amazing cast, great actors and we had a ball on the set. I think Tom Hanks is one of the best people in Hollywood. His personality, work ethic, humor; he is just a great dude. So of course I wanted it to do a lot better, but when you come out in the middle of the summer against “Transformers,” what you going to do?
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Taraji (P. Henson) mentioned at the BET awards that some of her best scenes were on the cutting room floor. Would you say the same about yours?
Yeah, it was some good behind the scenes stuff. But Taraji and I had some moments where we got to improve, but a lot of it didn’t get put into the movie because it wasn’t just about us. I would agree that we did have some funny stuff that didn’t make it on the screen. But it happens, (that’s the) difference between stand-up, movies and television. Stand up you can get all your stuff off, but with movies you subject to timeline. Then, it’s i’m going to have to lose this joke out and people are like, ‘Oh wow.’
You mentioned the ’90s being a golden era and Russell Simmons picking out greats, all the comedians coming out of there. Who are you looking at as the next to watch coming up as comedians?
I don’t even know if you can put him in the coming up stage because he’s so hot, but Kevin Hart of course. He’s a super funny, young cat. Micheal Prodigy, Malik S., JJ Williams. There are all funny young guys who I think should have next. It’s a lot of cats that have some notary, but a lot of them haven’t had anything pop. Quake, Deray Davis, I think all these guys are really talented comedians and should have the opportunity to be seen at some point in time.
