Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mike Epps: Ready To Sell Out’ On Netflix, But First The Comedian Has To Choose Between His Two Voices

In olden times before the digital comedy boom blew up all conventional wisdom, you wouldn’t think a stand-up tour that hits the casino circuit would be worth celebrating. And yet here we are, finding Mike Epps in a very happy mood as he recorded his fourth Netflix special at the Wild Horse Pass Casino on the Gila River Indian Reservation, outside of Phoenix. Or as Epps says repeatedly, Phoenix. Do the details even matter to a comedian who acts like he’s pretty much a wild horse himself?

MIKE EPPS: READY TO SELL OUT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: You may know and love him from his many movie appearances over the years, which include Next Friday, Friday After Next, The Hangover, and most recently The Underdoggs and Madame Web. He also plays up his starring role in the Netflix series, The Upshaws. Plus there are his three previous Netflix specials: 2015’s Don’t Take It Personal, 2019’s Only One Mike, and 2022’s Indiana Mike.

And yet it’s all About The Benjamins, and Epps’s C-notes went up in smoke, or rather, likely were used for snorting as he jokes he was high as a kite filming his scenes. “I know you guys see me in the movies, but the money’s gone,” he says.

He describes how he sunk money into drugs and child support over the past three-and-a-half decades, from age 17 to 52, and what he has learned about how to deal with romantic relationships, going to therapy, and whether he should worry more about his own cheating habit or his partner’s “work husband.”

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Epps has often been attached to biopics over the years to portray the late great Richard Pryor, and he’d be great at it. They also share some common problems when it comes to drugs and women, although Epps rarely reaches the same levels of comedy catharsis that Pryor did.

Memorable Jokes: After some crude early bits about physical hygiene and prison sex to spark both groans and laughs, Epps turns the attention back to himself.

He jokes about his supposed racism, offering: “I’ve been acting like I don’t like white people for 40 years. I only do it in front of black people,” adding, “When black people ain’t around, I am white.” Epps notes that white Americans can speak in their natural voices, while black Americans have to code-switch and speak in different tones according to whichever race they’re around.

Epps tries to make the case that “black women are bullies,” backing it up by claiming Harriet Tubman forced men into the Underground Railroad, Coretta Scott King forced MLK to march and protest, and that Jada Pinkett Smith forced Will Smith to slap Chris Rock. “Black women been bullies since the beginning of time,” Epps claims. He jokes if he were Rock in that Oscars scenario, he would’ve faked a seizure and taken Smith to People’s Court to get some money, or at least some roles in Smith’s future movies. Now he also feels that some black men deserve to be pushed around by their women, but only if they’re unemployed, alcoholics, or have cheated on their women.

Epps also brags that he has “never missed a payment” of child support, having to pay out since he was 17. Weird flex, but OK.

Our Take: Do you really need to hear another opinion on Jada, Will and Chris Rock’s Oscar incident from 2022 two years later in 2024? Of course not.

But people don’t buy tickets to show up for Epps for his topical observations. They come for the vibes. And come, they do. Although Epps didn’t release a Netflix special last year, he still managed to rank 38th among all of the stand-ups on Netflix for combined total viewing minutes in the first six months of 2023, with subscribers watching 1.5 million hours of his three previous specials on the platform.

His vibes have slightly darkened, though. From his confession that he’s only touring and filming this because the money’s gone, to the revelation that “Most of the movies you’ve seen, I was on coke in them.” For real? “All About The Benjamins? Shiiit,” Epps says. “I had been up for three days” when he filmed the lottery ticket scene.

There’s a wealth of possibilities, however, in topics such as whether and how Epps dealt with his cocaine addiction (his bit about how you feel when you only have two lines of coke left to snort certainly speaks to an addict’s frame of mind), and how he’s willing to seek out therapy and a psychiatrist to deal with his issues, which is where Epps divulges that he’s willing to tell “this white lady” things he’d never ever mention to another black man. How much has the therapy helped Epps deal with his insecurity in relationships, which not only has led to his frequent cheating but also contributes to him worrying about getting cheated upon? Does this have anything to do with why Epps considers almost all black women to be bullies? We’ll have to wait to find out.

And there’s a potentially explosive bit where he decides to single out his gratitude for LGBTQ fans of The Upshaws, even if he describes them with the wrong alphabetical designation on purpose. Where it really gets going is when Epps declares: “If you’re homophobic, you’re hiding something…it’s always a red flag when you some guy mad at gay people. That anger is stemming from somewhere. Come on out, live free.” If only there were any examples of this within the comedy community that Epps could name. But no, he’d rather use an unnamed drug dealer as an example.

Epps does reference his previous call-outs of Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx, for having accused them of “selling out” to gain widespread fame and adoration. But that’s also just in service of his closing line, which gives his hour its title. Epps could dig deeper and deliver something much more profound and timeless. We’ll just have to wait and see if that comes in his next set?

Our Call: Once again, as I’m wont to do with comic actors such as Epps, a SKIP IT for his stand-up does not nullify and should not take away from his sometimes surprising on-camera roles in TV and movies, several of which are worth streaming. It feels like he’s on the brink of leveling up in this, his fourth Netflix hour.

Late in the hour, Epps offers up some potential wisdom and advice as he reaches his middle-aged years: “The older you get, the more you realize it’s OK to live with yourself no matter who the f- you are.” At 52, Epps is almost old enough to tell us who he really is, and most likely old enough to not care about my reviews any longer, if ever did in the first place. I suppose to answer his final question, which wonders if he’s in fact “ready to sell out,” I’d suggest that he take a page from one of his opening routines and stop trying to speak to audiences in two different voices, and speak more from the heart. Like Pryor did.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.