The Original Kings of Comedy consisted of stand-ups Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac. The collective embarked on one of the most successful comedy tours ever, with fans often missing their hilarious chemistry.
Cedric recently spoke to The Huffington Post about plans for a reunion shortly before Mac passed away in 2008.
“We tried. We were very close. We had a couple of scripted ideas, and then we had the idea of just getting back together to do a mini-tour. It was right around the time Bernie [Mac] was ill. A lot of people didn’t know how ill he was. We thought we could squeeze it in, but unfortunately, the timing on that didn’t work out.”
After his passing, the fellas didn’t feel right hitting the road without him.
“Nobody really wanted to do it without him. It was this weird thing: Do we replace Bernie with someone? Do we do it without him? Do we do him as a hologram like at Coachella with Tupac? How weird do we want to go with this?”
The hologram idea was something Ced actually took into consideration.
“The technology was supposedly getting a lot better, and maybe we would do a short bit where we put Bernie up in this hologram situation,” Cedric explained. “It was gonna be an expensive task. MTV still had the rights to the film, and I think they were transitioning into some other things. The idea never manifested all the way.”
While an official reunion tour never took place, it wasn’t solely due to Mac’s absence. Harvey’s busy schedule also took it’s toll on the crew coming back together.
“It just became an idea where eventually Steve [Harvey] took on his 137th show,” Cedric said. “He just couldn’t do it. He’s hosting Family Feud and Little Big Shots and a radio show, and I’m like, ‘OK, Steve, that’s it.’”
