CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER King of comedy

Part of the star's success is due to his ability to hang onto his Midwestern values.
By KEVIN C. JOHNSON
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
HOLLYWOOD -- Cedric the Entertainer lives in a sprawling, 7,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style home with six bedrooms, six bathrooms and a parklike back yard that has a pool, Jacuzzi and waterfall.
He has George Clooney, Shaquille O'Neal and David E. Kelley as neighbors. Denzel Washington is a workout buddy, and Samuel L. Jackson is a chum.
He has his pick of six vehicles: a Range Rover, a GMC Denali, a Mercedes-Benz 500 SL, a Corvette, a '58 Lincoln Mark III and a Volvo. He gave his mother, Rosetta Kyles back home in St. Louis, two Jaguars; his father, Kittrell Kyles, got the Lexus.
He has a manager, an assistant, a publicist and a bodyguard to help get him through the day.
Clearly, Cedric the Entertainer has made it. But for the comedian and actor, it's not about excess, it's about success. The hits keep coming.
As executive producer on the new Fox TV variety series bearing his name, "Cedric the Entertainer Presents ...," he has control over scripts, casting, wardrobe and sets.
His movie "Barbershop" was the fall's surprise crossover hit, largely thanks to his character Eddie's controversial lines (you didn't hear what Eddie said about Rosa Parks?).
Cedric is featured on skits on this summer's hot CD, Nelly's "Nellyville." He authored a book, "Grown A$$ Man." The movie "Intolerable Cruelty," which he filmed with Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones, is due early next year. And in March, he'll begin filming "Johnson Family Vacation" his first starring movie role.
The common touch
Cedric the Entertainer, holder of one of show biz's most auspicious and, yes, unusual, names, loves to say he's hasn't changed a bit -- that he's still Cedric Kyles, the 37-year-old former State Farm Insurance claims adjuster and 1982 Berkeley High School graduate.
Of course, we don't have to believe it.
"Other than having people address me as 'Your Excellency' and not looking me exactly in the eye, I'm a regular dude. When my maid turns down my bed and my bath is drawn, and the nanny puts the kids to bed and the gardener is gone, we're all the same," says Cedric, all smiles as he sat in his official "Cedric the Entertainer" chair on the Hollywood set of his TV show one recent evening.
It had been a busy day, in the middle of a lot of busy days. Cedric and his television team just wrapped rehearsals on a number of skits, including one featuring the popular breakout character Cafeteria Lady.
Just as viewers are clamoring for more of Cafeteria Lady, Hollywood is clamoring for more of its portrayer, Cedric, the clean funny man of the racy "Original Kings of Comedy" troupe.
Cedric's latest schedule had him filming bits for "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Extra," "Access Hollywood," "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
Still, he's willing to go deeper and talk about the differences between the real man Cedric Kyles and the creation that is Cedric the Entertainer.
"I walk in that same space most of the time. They're very similar," he says. "Kyles is the home man. I enjoy being at home. I'm more of a family man than anything. I work and go home for the most part. I enjoy more thought-provoking conversations and intellectual encounters.
"Cedric the Entertainer is gregarious. He's having a good time."
That doesn't mean he wants to be Mr. Black Hollywood.
"You're not going to see me running around with Chris Tucker, out ballin' with him, or walking into a room with Jamie Foxx and Morris Chestnut. But when I see those guys, it's always cool," says Cedric, looking noticeably trimmer thanks to his "sexy for the summer program" that includes those workouts with Denzel and a diet of no red meat or carbohydrates (don't ask his weight; he's not telling).
'Everyman'
The normal side of Cedric might be the key to his success.
"What you see is what you get," says Eric Rhone, Cedric's longtime manager, friend and TV producer. The pair left for Los Angeles in 1994 in search of Cedric's fame. Rhone says part of his job is to help his partner keep those Midwestern values.
"People view him as an everyman, one of them," Rhone says. "Lots of people say he reminds them of their cousin or uncle or dad. He's been able to maintain a very humble, approachable mystique."
"I don't go out just to be seen on the red carpet," says Cedric. "It has more of an enigma aspect when people don't see you like that, and then you show up. I like to call them Cedric the Entertainer sightings."
Slowly, Cedric is winning respectability as an actor. His winning role in "Barbershop" probably will open doors, despite the controversy that surrounded it. His character Eddie unleashed a number of scripted lines, bashing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson and others.
Cedric says the role of Eddie was written to be over the top, but the character is true to life.
"Inside the barbershop, there's plenty of things that could be considered inappropriate for different sets of ears," says Cedric.
"But [the controversy] never really got personal as far as people having an opinion about me. I was an actor. When they yelled cut, I was back to being Ced. When they yelled action, I was Eddie. That's what you have to do as an actor."
"Barbershop" was a strategic movie for Cedric. He knew going into the movie could knock his career out the ballpark.
"I had the choice of two different movies at the time. The other one was a big-budget movie. But I decided to do this one that everybody thought was a little movie," says Cedric. "I set myself up to win bigger."
"Do I have to turn into Martin? Is that necessary?" Cedric screams at his co-stars on the set of "Cedric the Entertainer Presents ..." Someone has flubbed a skit and Cedric, in his way, is threatening to pull a Martin Lawrence, the actor with a reputation as holy terror on the set.
No one is threatened. Instead, they laugh at him.
About his show
That's the way it goes on this show. The cast members joke, make faces at each other, and throw in the occasional unscripted, dirty line that they know will never make it past censors. "It's a lot of work, but it's something I've trained for, that I'm built for," says Cedric.
"But it's also a lot of fun."
The half-hour program, which airs Wednesday nights after "The Bernie Mac Show," opens with the flashy, fleshy Cedsation Dancers, then goes into a handful of skits. Sometimes they hit. Sometimes they don't.
This rehearsal day saw skits on an inappropriate sexual harassment facilitator, an overly obvious cat burglar, an ex-con who treats his college roommate like a cellmate, a lawyer unfamiliar with law terms and a job candidate tormented by his inner personalities. The most promising was a skit featuring Cedric as one of two dance instructors trying to one-up each other.
Some critics say the show should be topical, but that was never the plan. Cedric says it makes better business sense not to be topical.
"That really dates your show. We thought we should have sketches not related to the biggest stars or their run-ins with the law so we'd have a show that's more timeless. And we didn't want to compete with 'Saturday Night Live' and 'Mad TV' in doing sketches that had a mean spirit to them.
"We wanted to come from a good-natured sense of humor."
His show positions itself as a more family-friendly alternative, combining the best of sketch comedy classics including "The Carol Burnett Show," "The Flip Wilson Show" and "In Living Color."
"I took all of that and blended it into something nice. We even went back and reviewed Jackie Gleason's early work when he had a variety show. I'm able to play different characters and different parts of my personality, find myself, test myself."