I came up in the community center. I used to be physical director of the South Central Community Center in Chicago on 83rd. It’s still there. It used to be around there when I was a kid.
BERNIE MACMy comedy comes from pain. I can’t stand to see someone hurting.
More Bernie Mac Quotes
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You can’t be a doctor if you don’t know the entire parts of the body.
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Every time you see a black romance it’s over-the-top. There always has to be extreme hostility between the sexes. He has to cheat. She has to show him how independently strong she is, not just as a woman but as a black woman.
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I came from a place where there wasn’t a lot of joy.
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I can’t build myself by beating somebody down.
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Stand-up is what I am; stand-up is what made me.
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I’m so black, I leave fingerprints on coal.
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I 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.
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When 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.
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Whatever you hear at the barber shop, stays at the barber shop.
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You have to meet all of the challenges, big and small. Because how you start is how you finish.
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I’ve introduced myself with comedy, and once you’ve introduced yourself as something, that’s where people keep you. That’s where people like to hold you.
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I’m an ordinary guy with an extraordinary job.
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I’ve been in training for stardom.
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I get facials. I get a manicure and pedicure every week. I get my hair cut, and I oil myself down from head to toe. I got that from my brother. I was so impressed with how high maintenance he was. When he left the room, you could still smell him for an hour.
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I don’t ever watch myself. By watching, you try to perfect yourself, become a robot.
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If 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.
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They say if you don’t have your health you ain’t got nothing, but the truth is you ain’t got nothing if you don’t have no one to worry about your health.
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I wasn’t disciplined at all. As good of an athlete as I was, I was not disciplined. Had I had the drive that I have in comedy, and acting, and writing, that’s why I knew it just wasn’t right for me.
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I want to play a villain – I can’t wait to play a villain.
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I learned hard lessons in life; I had to because I had so much happen: My mother died my sophomore year in high school. The next year, same day, my brother dropped dead. Two years after that, I got married because my girlfriend got pregnant. The year after my wedding, my father – who I had only recently met – died.
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It was rough being dark. I got heat from my own people more than anyone else. I remember going to my mom and saying, ‘Why am I so black?’ And she said, ‘Because I’m black. You just gotta always work harder than the average bear.’
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I want to do something that people can really say, ‘Hey, man, that was good, I’m proud of you, I’m proud of that.’ ‘Pride’ and ‘Transformers’ and things like that.
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When I go onstage, I want to relieve your mind, your pressures.
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I was a street performer for two years.
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I love my daughter, but there’s a certain feeling, a certain emotion when you got a granddaughter, you know?
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Black audiences are hard. They always think they’re better than you. So you got to come with a little extra to satisfy them.
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