Bernie Mac to quit stand-up

The comic, who became a big star in the States on the back of the stand-up film The Original Kings Of Comedy, says he finds life on the road too gruelling now he’s 49.

He will bow out with a farewell tour, The Whole Truth, Nothing but the Truth, So Help Me Mac, this autumn – which he also plans to release as a movie.

Man – real name Bernard McCullough - told talk show host David Letterman: ‘It's going to be 30 years for me, and I'm going to call it.

‘I want to enjoy my life a little bit. I missed a lot of things, you know. I was a street performer for two years. I went into clubs in 1977.'

Letterman, himself a former stand-up, said: ‘It's a great way to make a living but it also, it takes a toll, doesn't it? It's tough.’

"Oh, man, you miss out on so much, you know, and you live in all these hotels I was on the road 47 weeks out of the year.

‘Comedy has been so good to me. And that's all I ever wanted, watching you guys. I had great mentors Jackie Gleason, Flip [Wilson], Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Buddy Hackett. I had so many people to watch, that today you don't have that any more.’

Mac has had his own TV series and appeared in a string of movies including Ocean’s Eleven and its sequels, Bad Santa and Head Of State.

Watch Bernie Mac talk about the word 'motherfucker' on Original Kings Of Comedy.

Published: 21 Mar 2007