SFBG: One of the things that really impressed me from reading your book was your longevity- nearly forty years working in Hollywood, and you still have your dignity. I feel like there’s lots of people who would like to know how you swung that.
PM: Isn’t that beautiful? There is a reason for everything. You see that in my book. It all comes back to my grandmother, she told me no one was better than me, that I’d be allright as long as I loved myself. Don’t be in denial about yourself.

SFBG: Speaking of impressive facts from your book, please tell me the story of becoming the nation’s first African-American ringmaster. That is bad ass.
PM: I ran away with the circus. It was the best! They called me Hollywood because I wouldn’t take off my sunglasses, even when I slept. We had all the animals from TV… except Lassie. They really tortured the animals, except the chimpanzees, they couldn’t fuck with them. I loved it. The chimps were smart. You can’t fuck with monkeys. That’s why you never see gorillas in the movies. How are you gonna go in there and make a gorilla act?

SFBG: You’ve always been around these diehard partying superstars, but you’ve never been into the hard stuff. How’d you manage to stay straight?
PM: I don’t do drugs. But I drink champagne. That’s the way my grandma raised me. Back in the 80’s, I got rich off it. They used to pass the drugs around on thousand dollar bills and I’d wipe off the drugs and pocket the bills. By the end they were all broke and I was fat.

SFBG: You say in your book that Chappelle was honored to have you writing for his show, but “running interference” between you and the network bullshit might have added to his stress.
PM: That’s because he had to keep up. Chappelle couldn’t keep up with me. Chappelle stays loaded all the time. I couldn’t keep him working because I kept running out of weed [for him].

SFBG: Now that Chappelle’s off the air, where do we go for incisive comedy on race?
PM: Nowhere. We did it all. We sold more DVDs than anyone else. You know, I set a record for performing comedy when I opened for Marvin Gaye. Five hours. Then one day they called me and said Chappelle had broken my record. He performed five and a half hours at that club[SFBG: I think he was talking about this show]. I told them “Five and a half hours? He didn’t break my record because that’s not a performance, it’s a nervous breakdown.”

SFBG: After the Michael Richards ‘N word’ meltdown, you were summoned to a reconciliation meeting with the comedian, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Why do you feel they wanted you there?
PM: It was crazy. Me and Richard Pryor have made so much money off the ‘n word.’ But with Michael… You know, after that [outburst] everyone wanted to deport him, they wanted to kill him. My family was like ‘why are you helping this man?’ But I’ve know Michael for a long time and he was sorry. When he saw me he was like a drowning man, he hugged me. I was like his saving grace. You know it says in the Bible, he without sin cast the first stone. Michael, he had a nervous breakdown.

SFBG: You said at one point he should go do the same ‘act’ at the Apollo if he wanted to apologize, did he ever get around to it?
PM: (laughing) No he didn’t

SFBG: After that whole debacle, you swore off the ‘N word’- which must have been crazy because you used to use it a lot in your performances. How difficult was it to take that word out of your act?
PM: It was hard. Habit is hard to break and I messed up a couple times. I may start bringing it back because the white people are turning into n-----s these days, like with everything the Congress has been doing. Like that crazy white man calling Obama a liar- come on he’s the president.

SFBG: I read in your book you taught Obama how to fist bump. I was surprised anyone needed to be taught that.
PM: This is a European country- everybody shakes hands here. Let’s be real, everyone here is an Anglo Saxon.

SFBG: Any last words for your audience?
PM: Comedy wouldn’t be what it is today without me. I’m really happy about that, I really am.

Thur/5 - Sat/7 8 p.m. & 10:15 p.m., $20.50-$23.50
Cobb's Comedy Club
915 Colombus, SF
(415) 928-4320 www.cobbscomedy.com