The comedian and actor talks to Dave Itzkoff about returning to television and good health — and letting his daughters in on his past.
Your new FX series, “Partners,” stars you and Kelsey Grammer as mismatched lawyers working together. Had you ever met him before this project? I first met Kelsey at a Christmas dinner over at Tim Allen’s house. We just met in passing and said hello. I had no idea we would ever work together, because we’re more of an odd couple. I never saw us together.
Have you found that television has changed since the ’90s, when you were making “Martin”? Well, yeah, the demands are greater now. It’s not as easy to get on TV. Just to get ratings, it’s very hard. The paychecks are not the same anymore.
Do you think that “Martin” helped create opportunities for other black performers to get shows? Maybe. I don’t know that it’s gotten better. I think we’re in a hole right now, and so whoever is working — black or white or whatever — there are many more people that ain’t working, that just don’t have a job, that are struggling, that are just trying to get their hustle on.
And even at your level, you’re feeling that? Can’t you just go take your fortune and live in the Hills? I mean, if I had to just live in an apartment and, you know, drive a dune buggy, that would get me by. I don’t have to live in the Hills.
Given your history — you’ve been hospitalized for exhaustion and dehydration, you were in a three-day coma in 1999 — did FX want a clean bill of health before hiring you? They didn’t require that. They see me in every meeting. I was a standing bill of health. I run on a treadmill. I do weights. I get exercise at least three times a week. I play basketball at least two times a week.
When do you find time to make a show? When they call, I’m there.
In your stand-up comedy film “Runteldat,” you tell a story of being confronted by the police while under the influence of a powerful substance you call “ooh-wee.” Do you ever regret being that candid about your life? No, I don’t. I want my daughters to hear that story. I want every kid in the world to hear that story, so they know they have choices and not to make the same choices that I made. I have no problem with telling the truth.
There’s a lot of very blunt sex talk in your stand-up as well. Are you comfortable letting your daughters see that too? I let my oldest watch it. I don’t let my two other daughters watch it. My oldest just watched my first stand-up film, “You So Crazy,” the other night.
What did she think? She loved it. She said: “Daddy, I couldn’t believe it. Wow.” I told her, “I wanted you to see it because you have a boyfriend now, you’re getting ready to start college and these are things that you need to arm yourself for this world.” Daddy tells it like it is: rough and raw.
Have you made an effort to take it easier in recent years? It was good for me to pull back and just not be so hard on myself and not think the world is out to get me. To grow up from that, it’s like a weight off my shoulder.
Did you really feel that the world was opposed to you, even when you were that successful? You do, when things don’t go your way, when you see the stress of the world, the hatefulness of the world, the meanness. To see it from that level, I was like, Man, this is not what I thought it was.
What helped you reach a more positive frame of mind? Going through the coma and getting arrested and things like that. Troubles that I had never gotten in before. That changed my life. All I wanted was to right the ship. But when you’re young growing up, you think you got it all figured out.
In “Runteldat,” you say, in effect, that people should ride life until the wheels fall off. Do you still feel that way today? Yes, I do. Live life to its fullest, to its grandest, and ride it until the wheels fall off, man. You only get one.
Even in spite of everything you’ve been through? I feel that way even more now after what I’ve been through.
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