My grandmother always told me how you start is how you finish.
BERNIE MACMy grandmother always told me how you start is how you finish.
BERNIE MACMy daughter was a beautiful child.
BERNIE MACI think a lot of TV insults the audience.
BERNIE MACI’m not ashamed to tell the truth about what happened in my family. I think that’s what makes my comedy different.
BERNIE MACAs I got older, I got into all kinds of things in the streets – but for some reason, I never got caught up with the gangs growing up. Everybody dug me, man. I never had problems.
BERNIE MACI’m not a politician, I’m a comedian. I know my limitations.
BERNIE MACBernie Mac don’t sugarcoat.
BERNIE MACI became the storyteller of South Side Chicago. I used an old Kiwi liquid shoe polish as a microphone. I’d go around the house interviewing everybody, telling stupid jokes, doing voices. I mimicked Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr., people on ‘Laugh-In,’ Flip Wilson.
BERNIE MACWhen I hit my 20s, I struggled to make it. I got married at 19, and my daughter, Je’Niece, was born a year later. I worked blue collar jobs during the day and comedy clubs at night, and I was earning about $25 a year doing stand-up.
BERNIE MACIf you mess something up, remember who got you there. Don’t be pointing fingers, even if finger-pointing is called for. Only one you got to blame is your own self.
BERNIE MACI’m funny. I’m a comedian. I’m not a clown.
BERNIE MACBlack audiences are hard. They always think they’re better than you. So you got to come with a little extra to satisfy them.
BERNIE MACI have so much respect for what’s funny.
BERNIE MACWhen I get a chance to play golf or go on a boat with good people, take the boat out and put some lobsters on the grill, get the ice-cold beer and the cigars – that’s heaven here on earth.
BERNIE MACI was born October 5, 1957, on the South Side of Chicago, in the Woodlawn area, a neighborhood that hasn’t changed much in forty-five years. Our house was on 66th and Blackstone, but the city tore it down when the rats took over.
BERNIE MACMaking people laugh is what I’ve been doing since I was like four or five years old. I still have a lust, I still have a passion. I don’t care about how I look, I’m dedicated to the laughs.
BERNIE MAC