Bernie Mac, originally named Bernard Jeffrey McCullough, began as a stand-up comedian in Chicago.
Born on October 5, 1957, he became a father early and took various jobs to support his family.
His big break came after winning a comedy search in 1990.
Bernie later joined TV shows like “Moesha” and worked with other renowned comedians in the “Kings of Comedy” tour, which became a hit documentary by Spike Lee.
In 2001, he started “The Bernie Mac Show”, depicting family life challenges. While he acted in several films, his significant roles were in the “Ocean’s” series.
He authored books, including a memoir in 2003 and retired from stand-up in 2007. Bernie Mac passed away in 2008 in Chicago.
I have listed the best quotes by Bernie Mac below.
Best Bernie Mac Quotes
Bernie Mac just says what you think but are afraid to say. ~ Bernie Mac.
I was a street performer for two years. ~ Bernie Mac.
Fear is not one of my attributes. ~ Bernie Mac.
I think a lot of TV insults the audience. ~ Bernie Mac.
Suffering is a good teacher. It keeps you in its grip until you’ve learned your lesson. ~ Bernie Mac.
Whatever success I’ve had, I always like to top it. ~ Bernie Mac.
It’s a pleasure to work with someone who is just as strong as you are. ~ Bernie Mac.
My humor had changed from foolishness to making sense. ~ Bernie Mac.
I hate to let people down. I was like that in sports and I was like that in comedy. I was like that at work. When I worked at General Motors and stuff like that, when I say something, I mean it. ~ Bernie Mac.
The Bernie Mac Show’ is my life. It’s the truth, and I’m not ashamed of a minute, an hour, or a second of my life. ~ Bernie Mac.
I don’t ever watch myself. By watching, you try to perfect yourself, become a robot. ~ Bernie Mac.
You’re never going to see me playing a buffoon. ~ Bernie Mac.
They say if you don’t have your health you ain’t got nothing, but the truth is you ain’t got nothing if you don’t have no one to worry about your health. ~ Bernie Mac.
Whatever you hear at the barber shop, stays at the barber shop. ~ Bernie Mac.
When you’re offstage, that’s the footprint. That’s the man God’s gonna judge. ~ Bernie Mac.
I’m not a star, I hate that word, and I’m an entertainer. Stars fall, you know, I’m an entertainer. I want to be known as an entertainer. ~ Bernie Mac.
I get facials. I get a manicure and pedicure every week. I get my hair cut, and I oil myself down from head to toe. I got that from my brother. I was so impressed with how high maintenance he was. When he left the room, you could still smell him for an hour. ~ Bernie Mac.
Top Bernie Mac Quotes
Stand-up is what I am; stand-up is what made me. ~ Bernie Mac.
I love who I am. I love what I’ve become. ~ Bernie Mac.
I ain’t running for office. I ain’t running for nothing. ~ Bernie Mac.
Okay, first rule of this carpool. No breaking wind in my car. The only gas that Bernie Mac want to be smelling is unleaded. ~ Bernie Mac.
I know doing movies is where I need to be. That’s where my audience wants to see me. ~ Bernie Mac.
I’m an ordinary guy with an extraordinary job. ~ Bernie Mac.
I’m not ashamed to tell the truth about what happened in my family. I think that’s what makes my comedy different. ~ Bernie Mac.
I’m very much disciplined because I’m more mature. When I was young I just wanted to live, I could jump, I could run, I was quick and I was relentless. ~ Bernie Mac.
I can’t build myself by beating somebody down. ~ Bernie Mac.
My daughter was a beautiful child. ~ Bernie Mac.
Funny Bernie Mac Quotes
Sometimes when you lose you win, son. Failure is just life’s way of preparing you for success. ~ Bernie Mac.
It was rough being dark. I got heat from my own people more than anyone else. I remember going to my mom and saying, ‘Why am I so black?’ And she said, ‘Because I’m black. You just gotta always work harder than the average bear.’ ~ Bernie Mac.
I want to speak directly to the audience, to say, ‘I’m like you – I’m frustrated, I’m not an expert, I don’t have a manual on parenting, I make mistakes, I’m selfish too.’ ~ Bernie Mac.
You know, every time it comes, every time that light comes on or every time that camera comes on, every time that microphone comes on, the Mac Man seek and destroy. ~ Bernie Mac.
You can’t be a doctor if you don’t know the entire parts of the body. ~ Bernie Mac.
I’m an entertainer and I really enjoy entertaining. I think if you’re going to really be what you say you are, you have to really live it, work it, practice it, and think it. ~ Bernie Mac.
The two sides of Bernie – that’s a quiet weapon that I have. ~ Bernie Mac.
I love my daughter, but there’s a certain feeling, a certain emotion when you got a granddaughter, you know? ~ Bernie Mac.
I’m funny. I’m a comedian. I’m not a clown. ~ Bernie Mac.
I’ve been in training for stardom. ~ Bernie Mac.
I don’t have no story. Everybody wants this Hollywood story, but the world don’t owe you nothing, man. It’s what you owe the world. ~ Bernie Mac.
I was born October 5, 1957, on the South Side of Chicago, in the Woodlawn area, a neighborhood that hasn’t changed much in forty-five years. Our house was on 66th and Blackstone, but the city tore it down when the rats took over. ~ Bernie Mac.
My comedy comes from pain. I can’t stand to see someone hurting. ~ Bernie Mac.
I came from a place where there wasn’t a lot of joy. ~ Bernie Mac.
When it comes to raising children, I believe in give and take. I give orders and they take ’em. ~ Bernie Mac.
My girlfriend Rhonda, who’s now my wife, I graduated from high school, she got pregnant. My grandfather said, ‘You’ve got to do the right thing.’ ~ Bernie Mac.
Popular Bernie Mac Quotes
The success of my comedy has been not being afraid to touch on subject matters or issues that everyone else is politically scared of. ~ Bernie Mac.
I’ve always been a reserved cat. When I play sports, there’s people used to get mad at me because I didn’t hang out and things like that. I’ve never been that kind of person. Nothing has changed in that regard. I’ve never been posse, and all that. I’m a quiet storm. ~ Bernie Mac.
Comedy has been so good to me. ~ Bernie Mac.
When I started in the clubs, I had to work places where didn’t nobody else want to work. I had to do clubs where street gangs were, had to do motorcycle gangs, gay balls and things of that nature. ~ Bernie Mac.
When I go onstage, I want to relieve your mind, your pressures. ~ Bernie Mac.
Bernie Mac don’t sugarcoat. ~ Bernie Mac.
Every time you see a black romance, it’s over-the-top. There always has to be extreme hostility between the sexes. He has to cheat. She has to show him how independently strong she is, not just as a woman but as a black woman. ~ Bernie Mac.
I can act. I’ve been acting for a long time, but like anything else, don’t nobody owe you nothing. You’ve go to pay your dues. You go from A to Z; you don’t go from M to Z. ~ Bernie Mac.
Why I was so intrigued with Red Skelton was because he was able to make you cry and laugh and the same time. That was power. ~ Bernie Mac.
If you mess something up, remember who got you there. Don’t be pointing fingers, even if finger-pointing is called for. Only one you got to blame is your own self. ~ Bernie Mac.
I don’t need a church. I carry my church with me at all times, inside my own self. ~ Bernie Mac.
When I hit my 20s, I struggled to make it. I got married at 19, and my daughter, Je’Niece, was born a year later. I worked blue collar jobs during the day and comedy clubs at night, and I was earning about $25 a year doing stand-up. ~ Bernie Mac.
Hugs aren’t like pieces of pie. Plenty of hugs to go around. ~ Bernie Mac.
If I can tell someone a story that makes them bend over and laugh, that’s bigger than anything else. ~ Bernie Mac.
I don’t need to pat myself on the back until my arm breaks. I don’t need any of that. ~ Bernie Mac.
I’ve introduced myself with comedy, and once you’ve introduced yourself as something, that’s where people keep you. That’s where people like to hold you. ~ Bernie Mac.
I always wanted to scuba dive. I used to scuba dive undercover like black Aquaman. ~ Bernie Mac.
I want to play a villain – I can’t wait to play a villain. ~ Bernie Mac.
It took me a long time to get to where I’m at, in my career and as a man. I was going through my trials and tribulations in life, and it gave me the strength to tackle things that have come my way. ~ Bernie Mac.
I’m so black, I leave fingerprints on coal. ~ Bernie Mac.
I became the storyteller of South Side Chicago. I used an old Kiwi liquid shoe polish as a microphone. I’d go around the house interviewing everybody, telling stupid jokes, doing voices. I mimicked Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr., people on ‘Laugh-In,’ Flip Wilson. ~ Bernie Mac.
I want to have fun. Life ain’t no dress rehearsal. I want to have fun. I’m a comedian; I ain’t no politician. So everything I do is with humor, with love. ~ Bernie Mac.
I want to do something that people can really say, ‘Hey, man, that was good, I’m proud of you, I’m proud of that.’ ‘Pride’ and ‘Transformers’ and things like that. ~ Bernie Mac.
Famous Bernie Mac Quotes
When I get a chance to play golf or go on a boat with good people, take the boat out and put some lobsters on the grill, get the ice-cold beer and the cigars – that’s heaven here on earth. ~ Bernie Mac.
I’ve never been no superficial cat. ~ Bernie Mac.
I hate to compare anything, especially while I’m promoting. I feel that’s another disrespect, but ‘Ocean’s 13’ is the best movie I’ve ever done in my life. No question. ~ Bernie Mac.
Making people laugh is what I’ve been doing since I was like four or five years old. I still have a lust, I still have a passion. I don’t care about how I look, I’m dedicated to the laughs. ~ Bernie Mac.
Only way you can you get upset is when you expecting something. ~ Bernie Mac.
As I got older, I got into all kinds of things in the streets – but for some reason, I never got caught up with the gangs growing up. Everybody dug me, man. I never had problems. ~ Bernie Mac.
Witty Bernie Mac Quotes
The one thing about comedy, making it become a part of you, the audience loves it, because you become part of them. ~ Bernie Mac.
Why do people love Richard Pryor so much? ‘Cause he had problems. ~ Bernie Mac.
Black audiences are hard. They always think they’re better than you. So you got to come with a little extra to satisfy them. ~ Bernie Mac.
Jealousy and envy are just like anger, she said. The most hurt you’re doing is to yourself. ~ Bernie Mac.
I wasn’t disciplined at all. As good of an athlete as I was, I was not disciplined. Had I had the drive that I have in comedy, and acting, and writing, that’s why I knew it just wasn’t right for me. ~ Bernie Mac.
When you see people in terms of race or religion, that’s when the trouble starts. I don’t understand why people work so hard at pointing out our differences; we should be celebrating the things we have in common. ~ Bernie Mac.
I’m not afraid to fail. Sometimes when you lose, you win. Sometimes when you win, you lose. ~ Bernie Mac.
That’s the whole key to anything: Don’t be afraid to fail. And is not afraid to fail. ~ Bernie Mac.
I have so much respect for what’s funny. ~ Bernie Mac.
My grandmother always told me how you start is how you finish. ~ Bernie Mac.
I took my sports experience to my life on stage. That’s why I’m so disciplined. Playing sports, I was always underestimated. I was never picked first to do anything. This always helped me. It taught me how to push myself. ~ Bernie Mac.
My family are police officers, detectives. My brother Mitch is FBI. Mitch is like that – a stern enforcer. ~ Bernie Mac.
You have to meet all of the challenges, big and small. Because how you start is how you finish. ~ Bernie Mac.
I was good at keeping my mother from crying. ~ Bernie Mac.
You can’t change what happened. Just like you can’t change the future by worrying about it. You just have to keep moving. ~ Bernie Mac.
I don’t care about how I look; I’m dedicated to the laughs. You know, I used to be a clown, so – my name was Smoothie the Clown. All the training I had, all my training is geared toward making people laugh, and I didn’t care about being cool. ~ Bernie Mac.
So these were the 93 top Bernie Mac quotes from the American Comedian on life and acting.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Mariah Carey quotes and Russell Wilson quotes.
