JOHN WITHERSPOON

Over the past four decades, Witherspoon has been part of so many seminal moments in comedy, particularly AfricanAmerican comedy — starting with Richard Pryor on his short-lived but much-talkedabout ’70s TV show, to films with Robert Townsend and Eddie Murphy, and projects with virtually every other important black comic, from Martin Lawrence to the Wayans Brothers to Tracy Morgan.

“The similarity with all those guys is they’re all very nice people,” Witherspoon says. “Even Richard Pryor in his heyday and doing his thing, he was the nicest guy you ever want to meet. All the people I’ve worked with, we respect each other because we know how hard it is to be where we are. The other thing they shared was that like Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy, when the camera wasn’t rolling, that’s when they were the funniest. When they were being themselves, that’s when it was really hilarious. Eddie Murphy — oh, my God, if you talked to him you would die laughing. Chuckles Comedy House, 1770 Dexter Springs Loop. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 8 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets: $32.50. Available at chucklescomedyhouse.com Call 901-421-5905 for more information.

Now working with Charlie Murphy, it’s the same thing. I enjoyed being with them all.”

Comedy was not necessarily Witherspoon’s obvious path. He grew up in Detroit, the son of a preacher/piano player father. Though there was some showbiz around — his older brother was a songwriter for Motown — Witherspoon wasn’t the typical class clown. “No, I was more serious than that. I was a pretty boy. I was trying to be pretty for all the If you captured me trying to talk to a pretty lady, that would’ve been funny.”

A career on the dramatic stage came first for Witherspoon. “I was working at the Cadillac factory and living with my brother. And he would go to the theater every week, and that caught my attention,” he says. “I said, ‘Boy, I’d like to be an actor.’ I looked in the Detroit News the next day, and I saw an ad for an acting class. So I called them up and got lessons. I was a dramatic actor first, doing Shakespeare. I was messing up Shakespeare’s words. Tearing them up! ‘

Eventually, the company put on a comedy revue, and Witherspoon found his calling. “I used to do impressions of Johnny Mathis and President (Lyndon) Johnson. Got me a 10-gallon cowboy hat and would answer silly questions as the president. I closed with my impression of Mathis, and everybody went crazy. I said, ‘Hmm, I could make some money at this,’ and that’s how I became a comic.”

For much of the ’70s and ’80s, Witherspoon was making guest appearances on sitcoms such as “Good Times” and “What’s Happening,” but major success eluded him. “It was frustrating in the beginning. People used to always say, ‘Well, you know it takes 20 years to make it.’ But my friends made it a lot faster than that. Tim Reid and Shirley Hemphill and Robin Williams and David Letterman — I saw them all working on these hit shows and films and becoming successful.”

Witherspoon finally found his fame with scene-stealing roles in a series of late-’80s and early ’90s movies, developing his ’Spoon persona in Townsend’s “Hollywood Shuffle,” Murphy’s “Boomerang” and the Ice Cube/ Chris Tucker vehicle “Friday.” “It took me 20 years to get there, but it’s so sweet now ... especially when you get that check,” he says, laughing. “I finally started to enjoy that later in life, and I still enjoy that right now.”

Many of Witherspoon’s most famous screen moments and catchphrases — the signature “Spoonisms” — were improvised. “For example, my role in ‘Boomerang’ was all ad-libbed. Eddie Murphy said, ‘I want Spoon to play David Alan Grier’s father.’ I was a country bumpkin from Mississippi, and everybody thinks because of (Grier’s prim and proper character) that his father is gonna be like President Obama ... but I came in like Redd Foxx,” he says. “That’s where I came in with the line about how

wearing my mushroom suit, mushroom belt and jacket. That was all stuff I came up with on the flight over to do the job.”

Nowadays, Witherspoon incorporates all his experiences — his reflections of life and growing older, his impressions (including a spot-on Mick Jagger) and those signature characters — into his act, playing for audiences that run the gamut in age and background.

“I get a lot of black folks saying that I remind them of their uncle or their daddy or granddaddy,” he says. “But I get people from every race enjoying me and congratulating me and wanting me to say my lines, too. My fans, it’s all across the board now. It’s pretty much everybody, which is great.”