Tracy Morgan cancels book signing in Huntington
Photo credit: Handout/Handout | Tracy Morgan performs at Manhattan's Carnegie Hall on November 6, part of the New York Comedy Festival. ( Handout )
Videos
Season Preview: 30 Rock
Galleries
Photos: Tracy Morgan
At last year's Golden Globes, Tracy Morgan declared he "is" the new black ("Deal with it, Cate Blanchett"). The "30 Rock" star and "SNL" alum has appropriated the title for a bio chronicling his rise out of the Brooklyn ghetto. He had been scheduled to sign "I Am the New Black" at Book Revue in Huntington, but cancelled at the last minute. Here, seven things you didn't know about the unpredictable funnyman - one for each year he was on "SNL."
1 Morgan takes comedy cues from Richard Pryor, who "exposed everything about himself and didn't care who liked it." When "30 Rock" creator Tina Fey asked Morgan if his DWI-imposed ankle bracelet could be written into a script, Morgan said: "I never had a problem with writers taking anything from my personal life and using it for plot lines. We call that 'Having your dues up.' "
2 Tracy is named for a young Irishman who sat next to his father, Jimmy, on the army transport plane to Vietnam, and who died within a day of arriving. "I was sad to hear that story, but glad, too. Because let's face it - Tracy Morgan? That's an Irish female's name," Morgan writes.
3 Tracy was conceived under a set of metal bleachers on a local high school field in East New York. His dad once showed him the spot.
4 Tracy's bond with his mother was forever altered the day, as a teenager, when he removed his two youngest siblings from her home and brought them to live with his father in the Bronx.
5 Fresher are the wounds from his split with wife of 20 years, Sabina. "I'm gonna say something to all you people in relationships," he writes. "If you feel like something is wrong, do not bother holding on - break up now. . . . If you get back together, there's a damn good chance it's just because you're having a hard time saying goodbye."
6 Morgan was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 1996, but he did little to keep it under control. By 2007, the illness had progressed to the point where he was shooting "30 Rock" during the day and spending every night in the hospital, where he'd be put on an IV to regulate his blood sugar.
7 Morgan does not see himself "as" Tracy Jordan, even though both are famous black actors who've endured public scandal. "Tracy Jordan is based on everybody that ever wigged out, myself included. People close to me have struggled with all kinds of mental instability. All the paranoia and delusion and imagination that you see in Tracy Jordan is my interpretation of them."
