Quote of the Day (Vinson Cunningham, on Tracy Morgan’s Voice)

“Morgan tends to play characters who, like him, speak in energetic, irreproducible rhythms, jumping from one topic to the next along logical grooves that are not always apparent to his interlocutors…. Morgan's voice is thick and textured, almost syrupy on longer syllables, with an old-school black Brooklyn accent. He erodes consonants, turns simple vowels into unpredictable diphthongs, and takes each new sentence as an opportunity for rococo improvisation. ‘What are we here?’ he asked a crew member, who had no clue what he was talking about until Morgan fixed his lips to form a word that clearly started with the letter ‘F.’ ‘Oh, a family,’ the crew member said.”—Vinson Cunningham, “Profiles: What Are You Laughing At?” The New Yorker, May 13, 2019

A few weeks ago, I heard the distinctive voice of Tracy Morgan that Cunningham captures so perfectly in his New Yorker profile, in, of all places, a drug store in Bergen County, NJ. Searching for an item on the shelves, I was startled by rumbling tones, but couldn’t immediately place this.

I glanced up. Of course! I should have known. The man who made me guffaw through seven seasons of 30 Rock, playing a character not far removed from his own persona, “Tracy Jordan,” an actor-comedian on a late-night weekend variety show, was standing by the counter, chatting with the store’s manager. It wasn’t the first time Morgan had been there, I gathered, since he was asking after a cashier not there at the time.

I have yet to catch Morgan’s latest venture, The Last O.G., nor what sound like his ribald stand-up appearances. But based on Cunningham’s piece—not just the comic’s discussion of his near-fatal highway accident several years ago, but his difficult childhood and youth—he already has the makings of a fascinating memoir, whenever his career slows down enough for him to write it.

In the meantime, I’m awed by what he’s already overcome and hopeful he’ll be able to get through whatever else his life and career may have in store for him.

(Photo of Tracy Morgan taken at New York City's Union Square Barnes & Noble to discuss his book I Am the New Black, Oct.22, 2009, by David Shankbone.)