Comedian and actor Tracy Morgan is not shy about pushing the boundaries of stand-up and going against cancel culture and political correctness.
“You have to be able to say what you want to say, and I created a lane for myself where you can’t cancel me,” Morgan said after telling some jokes that would definitely test the limits of cancel culture. He’s currently traveling across the county to support his No Disrespect Tour, which includes a stop at Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Cabazon on Friday, Sept. 29.
“All you’re going to see is funny,” Morgan said. “It doesn’t matter what I talk about because I’m bringing it to you. You don’t have to worry about material because God didn’t give me material. He gave me a sense of humor, and material is right in front of me.”
The 54-year-old Brooklyn, New York native began his career in stand-up comedy by performing at various clubs throughout New York City and made it onto the “Def Comedy Jam” stage, which helped launch the career of several stand-up comedians in the ’90s. Before landing major roles, he appeared on the sitcom “Martin” and the sketch comedy show “Uptown Comedy Club.”
In 1996, Morgan joined “Saturday Night Live” after television writer and film producer Lorne Michaels picked him over Stephen Colbert. He was a regular on the show until 2003. He later teamed up with “SNL” castmate and writer Tina Fey on the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning NBC sitcom “30 Rock,” which scored Morgan an Emmy Award for the character role Tracy Jordan, an impulsive movie star. His most recent work in TV comedy was his four-season run of “The Last O.G.,” which aired on TBS from 2018-2021. His latest stand-up special, “Tracy Morgan: Takin’ It Too Far,” premiered in August on Max.
Before heading to Cabazon, Morgan talked with Southern California News Group about his style of comedy, what it’s like hanging out with other comedians and why we should laugh through hard times. The following conversation was edited for space and clarity.
Q: When did you first realize you could be a comedian professionally?
Morgan: When my mother’s water broke in 1968 at five in the morning. I was born this way. You don’t realize it. You just do it. It’s my personality. My father was funny and did stand up in Vietnam, so I’m going to say it was following in my dad’s footsteps like most sons do. I didn’t make money off of it until ’95-’96. That’s when it really turned into a business.
Q: How would you describe your style of comedy? How did you go about presenting it in your performances?
Morgan: The spirit got into me when I saw Def Jam. I got on stage, and I was just being me. I said the things that I understood and was funny with it. I rolled the dice and took a chance, and then four months later, I was on Def Jam. I don’t think I had anything to do with it. It was the people that recognized the funny that put me on stage.
Q: Do you have any comedian friends you spend time with, and what that’s like?
Morgan: Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy are like my family. They showed it to me, brought it out of me, and are big influences in my life. You’ve got to understand that I don’t just love Eddie and Martin on a comedic level; I love them on a human level. So when we’re together, we talk about human things, not funny things. We talk about real things. Some people stay in the comedy zone all day long, and that’s all they know. That’s why I don’t have a lot of friends in show business. They don’t know how to come out of character. They think if they’re real for one minute, their comedy will go away.
Q: How much of that do you think that comes with being a product of that environment?
Morgan: I don’t know that environment. I don’t go to comedy clubs. It’s been years since I’ve been inside a comedy club. I’m with my family. When you don’t deal with reality, you leave your family and yourself behind. Now your kids don’t have a dad, they have a comedian. You leave them back in reality. The other day, someone asked me if I’d go into space.
Q: Would you?
Morgan: Why would I go into space? Why would I want to go down to the ocean in a submarine? Why would I want to go see the Titanic? Do you know how many people died on the Titanic? They’re like the people who like to go to graveyards and picnic. Why do you want to have lunch with dead people? You’re a weirdo.
Q: How do you feel when you reflect on your previous work compared to your newest material? Do you ever notice things you found funny before that you no longer find funny as time passes?
Morgan: Absolutely. You know, you’re grown. You’re not a child, and you’re seeing things from a different perspective. If you do the same things you did when you were 17 or in your 50s, you wasted about 30 years. You have to grow. You see things like love, heartbreak and all those other things that humans go through from a different perspective as you get older.
Q: How do you continue to find the funny in all these different facets of life as you get older?
Morgan: I see things in my own way. I think of things in my own way. I smell things in my own way. I hear things in my own way. Everybody has a different way of seeing and hearing things. I express myself and that’s all I’m doing. Sense of humor is the highest form of intelligence on the planet. That’s what God gave me. That’s the gift, my sense of humor to help me get through my heartbreak, pain and suffering. That helped me get through it. You’ll cry if you don’t laugh about it, and I’m done crying.
Tracy Morgan
Where: Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, 49500 Seminole Drive, Cabazon.
When: 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29
Tickets: $49-$79 at Ticketmaster.com
