Eddie Murphy: 'Stand-up return is tempting'

Eddie Murphy has claimed that he may one day return to stand-up comedy.

The Coming To America star, who was yesterday named as the host of next year's Oscars ceremony, said that he has begun to think about penning a new one-man show after a two-decade hiatus.

"Some days I'm like, it's right there, I'm going to do it tomorrow," he told Entertainment Weekly. "But then the other side of it is, I haven't done stand-up comedy since I was 27, 28 years old, and now I'll see a show with comedians and they talk about me favourably with people like Richard [Pryor], Lenny Bruce, all those guys. They talk about me in the same breath, so it's kind of like, why f**k with that?"

Murphy went on to assure fans that he still has the "muscle" for comedy and has been compiling material for a potential stand-up return for years.

"I'll tell you what, whatever muscle it is that writes jokes, I still have that," he revealed. "I still say, 'That's funny. If I were doing standup, I'd do that'. I still write jokes and say funny stuff that could be made into stand-up."

Murphy was awarded the 'Comedy Icon' prize at Comedy Central's inaugural Comedy Awards in March.

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