Robert Wachs — the noted New York comedy club owner, producer and manager who helped launch Eddie Murphy’s career — died in his sleep Monday night at age 73. Wachs was a co-owner of Comic Strip Live on the Upper East Side.
Ironically, he threw Murphy out of the club the first time the future star arrived to audition as a teen (and was still part of a trio with two white comics called The Identical Triplets). Author Jeffrey Gurian — who wrote “Make ’Em Laugh” about the club with co-owner Richie Tienken — told us: “Eddie was a teenager at the time. He was a little cocky and acted impatiently about not getting onstage right away, so Bob threw him out. He told him if he didn’t like waiting he could leave, and he did!”
But Murphy later returned, “all apologetic for his behavior,” Gurian says, and Tienken allowed him onstage.
The club owners later began managing Murphy, and negotiated his getting bumped up from a featured player on “SNL” earning $750 per week to a full cast member making $3,000 in the early 1980s.
Wachs went on to produce a number of Murphy’s film comedies, including “Beverly Hills Cop II,” “Coming to America,” “The Golden Child” and “Another 48 Hrs.” He also produced the classic Murphy stand-up specials “Delirious” and “Raw.” Murphy later discovered another young comic at the club, Chris Rock, when he was just 18.