BREAKIN' IT DOWN WITH

DOLEMITE

 

I am not going to waste my time schoolin' you new jacks on semi-legend, film actor, film maker, comic, storyteller, and recording artist, Rudy Ray Moore. That is what the interview is for. No more shuckin' and jivin' now... here da intaview.

 

FHF: How is it Rudy?

Rudy Ray Moore: Okay, double A.

 

FHF: Ever been to Miami?

RRM: I used to come down there and work a club... what was it called? I forgot the name cause it was so long ago.

 

FHF: Must have been years. Because there aren't many good clubs now - especially for comedy.

RRM: Well, this was no comedy club. There was no such thing at the time. I come there, and I toe Miami up! I think the fella was named Adams who run that club. Oh yeah, it was called Up Jump the Devil.

 

FHF: This was when?

RRM: Early seventies.

 

FHF: Before my time here. Do you still get around?

RRM: Oh yeah, I'm touring constantly. Stuff with Lady Redd (Lady Reed played Queen Bee in the Dolemite films - ed.) and LaWanda Page (Page was best known for TV's Aunt Ester on Sanford and Son, though a comedian for twenty years prior - ed.) and myself, but I'm afraid I've lost all my contacts in your area. I goes to Atlanta, I goes to Mobile, I goes to Kentucky, New Orleans... all over down there.

 

FHF: I got a couple of your old R&B records from back in the 50s.

RRM: On the Federal label?

 

FHF: Yeah.

RRM: "The Buggy Ride"?

 

FHF: Yeah those. Are you going to re-issue any?

RRM: Hell naw! I also recorded many records as a singer with King Records... uh, Cincinati. I didn't make it as a singer, I think. Pat Boone stood in my shadow.

 

FHF: You mean you were hidden under his shadow.

RRM: Well, naw, I tried to make it the same years as he did. The white artists of these time stole our material and ran away with it. Pat Boone stole Little Richard's "Tooti Frooti" and "Long Tall Sally". He took Fat's Domino's "Ain't that A Shame". He had all the hits. Pat Boone was the one who got all the breaks. I called him the Imitator. There is nothing worse than an imitator and nothing like the originator. So, I turned to comedy.

 

FHF: Were you a smart ass? As a kid, I mean.

RRM: No, I was a quiet child. I always wanted to do songs.

 

FHF: When did your poems and songs change to, "He filled our stockings with pretzels and beer, and a big rubber dick for my brother the queer."?

RRM: Well, when I was in the service i knew i wanted to do comedy. When I sang, one day one of the acts splits, so somebody yelled, "Do something! Tell a joke." I got up there and toe that place up. People was fallin' out! So from that day on... I knew.

 

FHF: Did you tour with your band?

RRM: No. The clubs had house bands.

 

FHF: What kind of crowds did you get? White folk?

RRM: Well, this was a segregated time. The whites would sneak out to black clubs and be a part of the audience, but it was mostly black, though it wasn't strange to see a couple of whites around this time.

 

FHF: Were you always a risque comedian?

RRM: No, that was something that came along with the creation of Dolemite. One thing not a lot of people know is that the first Dolemite record was the first album to ever come out with explicit language.

 

FHF: What was that record?

RRM: My first comedy record, yes, Eat Out More Often featuring Dolemite. Now Red Foxx did those type of records before I did, but not with that type of cussin'. You couldn't go that far at that time. When I did it, it was a bold approach. I wasn't sure I could get away with it, but I did.

FHF: Do you ever feel modern comedians have ripped off your style?

RRM: Eddie has stated that he grew up on me. Pryor never has given me credit at all. Now, I am sure he taken some influences from my career. I had these kind of records out 5 years before Pryor did his first one. I am the beginner of what I called ghetto Expession. I made it a form of art.

 

FHF: Ghetto Expression is what?

RRM: The talk of the streets, but it wasn't done on stage or on record till I did it.

 

FHF: Explain Dolemite.

RRM: Dolemite was a legend told by liquor store and beer joint wisemen. These men sit out front of the liquor store and lie all day. And they come out with all these tales. One of them told me about Dolemite years and years ago. People used to laugh at it so much, I says, if I put that on record what will it do? All I gotta do is rap it and put it on a record with some music behind it. Smash hit it becomes. Instantly. So, the truth is, I got Dolemite from a wino called Rico.

 

 

FHF: I thought you were Dolemite.

RRM: I came to be the character after I developed the character, but Dolemite remains just that, a character.

 

FHF: Oh, so no pimping mad cash and ladies?

RRM: NO... well, I am Dolemite! Rudy Ray Moore, Mista Dolemite himself comes to town. Always, they put Dolemite on any advertisements they put me on.

 

FHF: So the Dolemite movies... documentaries, right?

RRM: Naw, the character was totally on stage. In real life I was a church goin' gentleman.

 

FHF: To this day?

RRM: Yes. I don't do all that cursin' and so forth... until I gets on stage.

 

FHF: Was the name always Dolemite?

RRM: Oh yeah. Dolemite is the original name. So id Petey Wheatstraw. Both are the original names from the liquor store tales.

 

FHF: Was all the stuff from the Petey Wheatstraw movie a part of his legend? Marrying the devild daughter and super-powers?

RRM: No, that was all the director. Although the original idea was mine, he came up with a story.

 

FHF: How did the first movie, Dolemite, come about? Did your record label say, "Let's film this record,"?

RRM: Nope, once again I'm totally self-made. I got the money together and made it myself.

 

FHF: Everytime I see it, I'm reminded how much of the film was meant to be serious, but came out comic.

RRM: My idea was to make a comedy movie with violent overtones. I felt this would appeal to the audience moreso than just a chuckle. I didn't have much money though. No real actors were used, just friends. You'll see a lot of flaws in 'em, but let's face it, I was workin' with chump change.

 

FHF: I'd rather see Dolemite than Jurassic Park. Put on a Dolemite flick at a party and everyone's laughing.

RRM: That's right. I even sell these to this day, even to the new generation. People who were three or four years old when Dolemite first came out. They goes to the video sto' and rent 'em and find out. I do well with the youngsters... always.

 

FHF: Next you made Dolemite II: The Human Tornado, which seemed to be a valid comedy.

RRM: It was meant to be that way. The first was funnier than we meant it to be.

 

FHF: You bet that.

RRM: So, the second one was meant to be wild. Like the part where the guy runs up the stairs and I throw him off the balcony and yell, "You should have stayed down there in the first place." It was still violent, but funny.

 

FHF: Why, after these movies did you end it with Avenging Disco Godfather?

RRM: The word 'avenging' was added to resell the seventies' image. The real name was Disco Godfather. No more money was the reason we stopped. It ran out. Dimension Pictures went bankrupt and never paid me. I just had no more money period.

 

FHF: The kung-fu in the movies, do you know it or are you just that good of an actor.

RRM: i was instructed by Howard Jackson. He's a martial arts champion who has staged all my fights. He instructed me for a month at Chuck Norris' school. I never did it off screen or as a professional.

 

FHF: With the popularity of rap, why don't you come out with a new record?

RRM: Well, I did a couple of things with rappers, but nothing on my own. i did something with Easy E.

 

FHF: Oh, "Merry Fuckin' X-mas".

RRM: We did another called "Temporary Insanity". Should be out by now, God bless his soul.

 

FHF: That's right he died of AIDS. Your old comedy albums are sampled on quite a few hip-hop records.

RRM: Every 2 Live Crew has at least five, but the new one has twenty one samples. They had me come down there, to Miami, and record a song for the Two Live Crew Back for the Nine-Trey. Back in 94 I did some stuff and samples for Dr. Dre. I really don't listen to them, I can't get into the new school of rappers. I only do things with them... (pause) ...because they pay me.

(laughter)

FHF: What about Big Daddy Kane?

RRM: Oh God, he copied me to death, and then he called me to do things on his album.

 

FHF: So why didn't you turn him down.

RRM: Well, it was the first time a rapper got dissed on his own record. I got into the studio and right off the bat said, "I'm the Godfather of Rap. I was through with it, before you learned what to do with it."

 

FHF: Will there ever be a Dolemite III?

RRM: A new movie called The Comedy Club is a sort of my Dolemite III. Then there should be one out soon. In that movie I had three boys. In one night Dolemite has three women and all three get pregnant. The mothas want to get rid of them cuz they make trouble. So they say, "I'm sending you to your dad." And they show up to my place all at one time, and they claim to be my sons. It's a nice plot.

 

FHF: What ever happened to your old crew? Skillet and Leroy the Hamberger Pimp?

RRM: D'Urville Martin passed away.

 

FHF: Crap.

RRM: He also played Willie Green in Dolemite. He died in 1984. God bless him. What's the name of this magazine again?

 

FHF: FHF.

RRM: F... H... What they stand for?

 

FHF: Feast of Hate and Fear.

RRM: Woah... God bless.

 

FHF: Yes, God bless. What advice do you have for a 25 year old white guy?

RRM: First thing you gotta do is take the talent you already got. You have to have something to offer, and then you got to go out and you got to give it to the public. Believe in yourself. Develope your talent and reach for the moon, grab a star. Keep on hustling. And sooner or later your day will come.

 

FHF: May it come soon. You're the mack Rudy.

RRM: I'm the mackinest macaroni. Thanks to you and everybody out there. God Bless.

 

This interview appeared in issue #6, 1996. This interview was done in 1995, today Rudy Ray Moore is still runnin' the gambit on the Dolemite business.