Bill Murray’s Berlin Comedy Tour Day 2: Riffs On Work & George Clooney Questions
Bill Murray, aka “The Murricane,” is blowing through Berlin this week on what’s become a sort of one-man comedy tour — and a fun distraction from a thus-far quiet market. Yesterday, he was out in support of Wes Anderson’s opening-night film The Grand Budapest Hotel, riffing that he worked for “low wages and stale bread,” and today he was tickling buyers’ funny bones at a brunch for Rock The Kasbah. Murray shared a stage this morning with QED International’s Bill Block and director Barry Levinson, who were clearly pleased that the movie sold to Open Road for the U.S. just last night. But busy Murray wanted to make something very clear, “I don’t like to leave my house. I am a lazy person and I don’t like to work. But when I work, I work very hard… Did I mention I don’t like to work? I don’t like to be here right now. I like you all very much, but this work thing is crap.”
Related: Berlin: Open Road Acquires ‘Rock The Kasbah’
Regardless, shooting starts June 2 in Marrakech on the pic that also stars Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson, Danny McBride, Shia LaBeouf and Zooey Deschanel. Murray plays a has-been rock manager who takes his last remaining client on a USO tour of Afghanistan. When he ends up abandoned in Kabul, penniless and without his passport, he discovers a young girl with an extraordinary voice and manages her through Afghanistan’s version of American Idol. The collaborators said this morning that an authentic Afghan singer is being sought for the part of the girl while there will be a lot of Cat Stevens songs and the classic eponymous Clash tune, natch.
Murray was serious for a moment when he likened Rock The Kasbah to M*A*S*H which explored war through “truth and humor.” Then it was time for him to leave, but not before he had the assembled crowd in stitches with this riff: “I have to go back to the hotel to answer questions about what it was like to work with Wes Anderson. And then tomorrow, I have to answer questions about what it was like to work with (his Monuments Men co-star and director) George Clooney. And you thnk you’re bored! Answer those questions and see how you handle it? See if you’re not drinking at the end of the night!”
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