There he was back in the day, Arsenio Hall sitting on the stoop, pimps coming and going, running numbers at the corner barbershop, little hope for a future beyond the confines of Cleveland. In time, however, he made entertainment history as the first African-American late-night talk show host. Hall’s meteoric climb to the top is rivaled only by his equally rapid descent.
Whatever happened to Arsenio Hall? Well, for starters he’s got a cameo in Michael Jai White’s new blaxploitation satire, “Black Dynamite,” but that’s not all. The former king of late night tells us he just might be engineering a comeback.
You have a cameo as a pimp in “Black Dynamite.” Do all comedians have a pimp character in there somewhere?
My landlord was a pimp. He bought the house we lived in with pimpin’ money. Don King was pimp and a hustler. When I was on the streets of Cleveland as a kid, I knew Mr. King. His hair wasn’t like that, and he ran numbers with my uncle from the barber shop. The first time I saw a Rolls Royce, Don King got out of it.
That must have been impressive.
Most of the pimps I grew up around were kind of serious, not quite as funny, but a bright green suit with a gold tie. I remember looking at these guys, thinking, “Yeah, he looks sharp! He looks clean!” There’s five guys in green suits with green alligator shoes. There’s a flamboyance that comes from the inner city that is what it is.
Take me through how you became the first African-American late-night host.
Joan Rivers gets fired. There were 11 weeks left when she got fired. Fox puts a bunch of people behind her desk and sees who does the best. They chose between me and Suzanne Somers after narrowing it down from like 22 people. They tried Wally Cox, they tried Bob Dubac; they tried everybody.
But you got it…
They gave me her 11 weeks. So, when they wanted me to re-sign, I said, “Let’s do it a year at a time.” They said, “No, we want three years.” I didn’t want to sign for three years, so at the end of my contract I sent a letter to them saying I’m going to move on and try other things. I wanted some balance in my life.
I was reading Joan Collins book every night and watching Stallone’s film every night and preparing and make sure I hear the new Snoop Dogg material, and who’s this Mariah that Tommy Mottola wants me to put on? That was my life.
This every-night thing, you have no idea. As a matter of fact, if I come back now, I want the Wanda Sykes thing, because that five nights works you hard, make you gray. I’m gonna come back and do it one night a week.
What did you do during your time away from entertainment?
Raising my kid, doing it different than my dad did it.
