You can expect Donald Trump to be a central focus of comedian, actor and former late-night TV host Arsenio Hall’s standup show Saturday, Feb. 18 at 8 p.m., at the Fox Tucson Theatre.
After all, Hall knows Trump in a way that few other comedians do: He won the New York billionaire’s reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2012 and got to spend some one-on-one time with the man who now occupies the White House.
“I’m not surprised at anything he’s done, but I’m surprised that America wanted my old ‘Apprentice’ boss for president,” Hall said last week during a phone call to chat about headlining the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation’s “100 Years of Celebration” fundraising event.
Hall is equally surprised that Trump and Hillary Clinton topped their respective tickets in the 2016 presidential race. Hall also has ties to Clinton; he’s known the former secretary of state and her husband, ex-President Bill Clinton, since the early 1990s when Hall invited the then-president to play his saxophone on “The Arsenio Hall Show.”
“I think it’s a prank from God. For God to ask us to choose between Hillary and Trump? That’s like asking me to choose my favorite Menendez brother” (Erik and Lyle, who are serving life sentences for murdering their parents in 1989), said Hall. “Would you like Lyle or Eric in the Oval Office? It’s two people I did not ever think I wanted as president.”
Hall comes to us two years after returning to standup after an extended leave that started with the birth of his son in 1999. He slowly stepped back in several years ago, stealing five minutes in George Lopez’s show, 10 in the middle of Dave Chappelle’s and Cedric The Entertainer’s.
“When you get back to it, you don’t just jump on and do your old act,” he explained.
It’s like making a quilt, one patch at a time. Five minutes becomes six, then 10, then a half-hour and finally a full hour show.
“I would get these texts from Dave Chappelle. He would say, ‘Me and Cedric the Entertainer and Deon Cole are at a rock club in Hollywood. Why don’t you come on over.’ And I would go. And Chris Rock would call, ‘Meet me …’ and I would go. I would get on stage four, five nights a week and all of a sudden they were letting the old G ride with them again, and I got it back.”
Hall tried to get his longtime friend Eddie Murphy back on stage with him, but with the exception of Murphy doing a joke during the 2015 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremonies at the Kennedy Center, he has resisted doing standup for 30 years.
“Unfortunately what I didn’t think about is Eddie can make a promise, but he’s got too much money to keep it,” Hall joked. “He’s one of the greatest to do it and I know he’s not afraid. I think he’s just too comfortable.”
“I don’t think there’s anything more important than laughter, other than possibly love. But I think it heals. I think it keeps you young,” said Hall, 61. “I just thank people for continuing to buy what I sell, because really at the end of the day, it’s about laughter.”
As for Trump, Hall thinks he’s not likely to hear from his old “boss” any time soon.
“You know eventually Trump will throw shade on everybody if you don’t support him,” the comedian said. “You know what I miss? I miss staying in Trump hotels. That’s one thing I keep tellin’ the brothers. Everybody’s saying, ‘Ah, man, don’t do it. Don’t stay in Trump hotels.’ But if I’m on the road and I have to stay at a Jill Stein Embassy Suite or something, I like Trump hotels. They are gorgeous.”
