Rudy Ray Moore

Back in the 1970s, it was mostly all-black audiences coming into the theaters. So, we presented stories they could relate to.

When I first realized that I wanted to be a stand-up comedian was when I was in the service.

Luther Campbell is the only person that has ever paid me for sampling me. I'm out for the rest of 'em, but the young man paid me.

I never was in favor of doing this. No, no, no. I was never in favor of cursing on records and so forth. I wasn't brought up like that. But I needed to survive and make money and get me a piece of show business. So when I found I could hit with this, then I turned to it. And in order to turn to it, you must do it well.

These guys Steve Harvey and Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac claim they're the Kings of Comedy. They may be funny, but they ain't no kings. That title is reserved for Rudy Ray Moore and Redd Foxx.

My childhood was all about going to church, singing in church. And later on, after I got a little older, my mother taught me how to do poems for Easter and Mother's Day, recitals and so on. I got attached to that, so as I got older and older, I began to recite poetry.

I am a spiritual, God-fearing man just playing a ghetto expressionist.

I opened the door for one of the great stars of today, Mr. Ernie Hudson. I put him in 'Human Tornado.' It was the first film he ever made. I put him in the film and gave him a break.

I have to thank my mother for this. When I was a little boy she used to teach me poems. I would go in church and tell the poems in church for the Easter program, and again for Mother's Day and any occasion she felt would fit. I was very energetic with delivery at that time as a boy, so it stuck with me.

I've been sampled at least 71 times. Me, James Brown and George Clinton, we're the ones who've been sampled the most.