Martin Lawrence
A wildly physical comic operating at a rolling boil.
6 specials · 1991–2016
Start with You So Crazy, the breakout (1994 · 85 min · Miramax)
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He never stands still. He paces, he points, he drops to his knees. He uses his entire body to act out a frantic scenario, sometimes stretching a syllable or slipping into a deliberate, rhythmic stutter to make a punchline hit harder. He treats the microphone like a prop, shouting into it, whispering, or almost singing his material when he hits a certain groove. You watch him sweat through his clothes as he wrestles a premise to the ground.
Specials
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Martin Lawrence revisits his classic physical routine after a long hiatus.
Showtime · 62 min
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Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat
A combative comeback special addressing his arrests, coma, and tabloids.
Paramount Pictures · 1 h 53 min
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A 1995 Grammy-nominated audio album of completely uncensored stand-up.
EastWest Records · Album · 59 min
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Early club stand-up from the peak of Martin Lawrence's television breakout.
EastWest Records · Album · 47 min
On stage
As the original host of Def Comedy Jam, he effectively set the tone for Black comedy in the 1990s. He stood as the bridge between the stadium acts of the eighties and the arena comics who followed. Standup was the engine that built his massive television and film career, and he used his solo specials to remind audiences that he was, fundamentally, a stage comic who thrived in front of a loud, demanding room.
His material relies heavily on his own public missteps. In Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat, filmed after a string of arrests and a heat-induced coma, he spends the opening minutes litigating his media coverage before turning his frustration inward. He gets his biggest laughs when he drops the defensiveness and acts out the sheer absurdity of a young judge chewing him out. He leans hard into raunch, and while he occasionally lets the sheer volume of his delivery cover a thin premise, he knows exactly how to pace a set to keep a theater engaged.
Raised partly in the Washington D.C. area, he returned to the city to film his biggest comeback special in the same environment where he first learned to handle a hostile crowd.
Turning points
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1992–1993
Hosting HBO's Def Comedy Jam
Serving as the inaugural host gave Lawrence a national platform to showcase his bold, uncensored comedy, propelling him to major stardom.
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Lifetime Ban from Saturday Night Live
After defying network censors to deliver an unapproved monologue on February 19, 1994, Lawrence was banned from NBC, and while the network-wide ban was eventually lifted, he remains banned from SNL.
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Theatrical Release of You So Crazy
Lawrence released his landmark uncensored concert film in movie theaters, cementing his standing as one of the preeminent fearless stand-ups of the decade.
At a glance
- Born
- , Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany
- Style
- blue comedy, observational, physical comedy, storytelling
- Breakout
- You So Crazy
- Influences
- Eddie Murphy
- Topics
- Elsewhere
- Wikipedia
Fans also like
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Katt Williams
Martin highlighted Katt Williams as the modern comedian closest to his own sensibility due to their shared fearless approach and refusal to filter controversial subject matter.
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Dave ChappelleBoth comedians emerged as defining comedic giants of the 1990s and 2000s, combining uncompromising, raw stand-up excellence with high-impact sketch and film collaborations.
Also on screen
- Do the Right Thing
- 1992–1997
- Martin
- Bad Boys
- A Thin Line Between Love and Hate
- Blue Streak
A clip to start with
A clip of Martin Lawrence