Oh, brothers: Charlie Murphy, Tony Rock

Charlie Murphy has grown into quite the triple threat - as a stand-up comic; as an actor in movies including "Night at the Museum" and this year's "Lottery Ticket" and TV shows including "The Boondocks" and "Chappelle's Show," and as an author and a screenwriter. (He is working on co-writing his third movie with his brother, Eddie Murphy, due out next year.)

But the funny part is that when he was growing up in Roosevelt, Murphy never even dreamed of any of those careers.

"My life was totally different then," he said, adding that he thought he would have a career in the U.S. Navy. "Once I got in there, I excelled. . . . But when I came home and went on tour with my brother and saw how well he was doing onstage and the love that he was getting, I didn't really want to go back to Beirut, Lebanon." 

You didn't really want to go into stand-up comedy because of your brother's success there.

I didn't think I could do it. Some people come to the shows thinking they're going to see what I did on "Chappelle's Show," but that's not stand-up comedy. There are lights and cues and a different rhythm in that. It's a whole different personality. 

What changed your mind?

Doing it. The crowds wanted me to do it. There was a built-in audience for it after "Chappelle's Show" blew up, but I had to develop into a veteran comedian, and that just comes from doing a lot of shows. I've done 280 shows so far in 2010. 

SEE PHOTOSEddie Murphy through the years

Will headlining Westbury be special for you?

Oh, it's gonna be a big deal. Growing up, I used to walk to that place. I saw the Jackson 5 there. Not too many people can get prominent enough to be doing a show at the Westbury theater and talk about sneaking into the Westbury theater. 

Solid as a Rock

Like any good stand-up comedian, Tony Rock doesn't hesitate to make a joke about himself.

"Rock and Murphy! Doing stand-up!" he said, calling from Los Angeles. "OK, it's not quite the show you've been waiting to see, but it's going to be a good one."

Yes, Tony Rock is Chris Rock's brother, but he's been making his own way in the family business for years - even when he took a detour to star on the CW series "All of Us" and did work on "Everybody Hates Chris" - and he would never dream of giving it up.

"There's God and then there's stand-up," he said. "There's nothing like the freedom of being in a roomful of strangers and trying to make them laugh. . . . You either sink or swim. It's like verbal boxing."

Rock is working on a new sketch comedy show, though it won't be like the failed "The Tony Rock Project" for MyNetworkTV in 2008. ("I apologize to everyone for that," he said. "Only time I did something for the check in my career, and it won't happen again. It was the best I could do with the pieces I was left with.") But even that won't take away from his stand-up gigs.

"I talk about everything - politics, the economy, the news will give you more material than you can ever use," Rock said. "But relationships? That's the ongoing battle. You talk about men and women, and across-the-board everyone can relate to that."

WHO Charlie Murphy and Tony Rock

WHEN | WHERE 8 p.m. Friday, NYCB Theatre at Westbury, 960 Brush Hollow Rd.

INFO $60.95-$72.50; 516-334-0800, livenation.com