Hugs aren’t like pieces of pie. Plenty of hugs to go around.
BERNIE MACHugs aren’t like pieces of pie. Plenty of hugs to go around.
BERNIE MACI’m funny. I’m a comedian. I’m not a clown.
BERNIE MACIf I can tell someone a story that makes them bend over and laugh, that’s bigger than anything else.
BERNIE MACI can act. I’ve been acting for a long time, but like anything else, don’t nobody owe you nothing. You’ve go to pay your dues. You go from A to Z; you don’t go from M to Z.
BERNIE MACI want to speak directly to the audience, to say, ‘I’m like you – I’m frustrated, I’m not an expert, I don’t have a manual on parenting, I make mistakes, I’m selfish too.’
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’m so black, I leave fingerprints on coal.
BERNIE MACYou know, every time it comes, every time that light comes on or every time that camera comes on, every time that microphone comes on, the Mac Man seek and destroy.
BERNIE MACI 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 MACI’ve never been no superficial cat.
BERNIE MACI 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.
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 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.
BERNIE MACYou know you poor when you eatin’ breakfast food late. You fryin’ toast? At nine o’clock at night? With bacon? You’re broke.
BERNIE MACI want people to say at the end of my day, you know, like I used to say about Sidney Poitier and James Cagney and Joan Crawford and Red Skelton and those guys and Bill Cosby. They did quality and substance. You always remember them.
BERNIE MACYou can’t change what happened. Just like you can’t change the future by worrying about it. You just have to keep moving.
BERNIE MAC