Tracy Morgan is back. The garrulous East Coaster, who played the exasperating Tracy Jordan on the Tina Fey–led sitcom 30 Rock and was a longtime Saturday Night Live cast member (1996-2003), has spent much of 2015 recovering from a 2014 six-vehicle accident caused by a Walmart truck driver that claimed a friend’s life and nearly his own. Morgan received an undisclosed, substantial settlement from Walmart but of course that pales in comparison to the emotional and physical suffering the 47-year-old comic actor has had to endure.
Santa Barbara’s 85-year-old Arlington Theatre will be the third stop on the comedian’s Picking Up the Pieces tour — his first creative endeavor since the accident sidelined him from the entertainment business. “I’m really grateful to be doing this tour!” said the excitable Morgan. “I feel funnier than ever. It feels good to be back onstage. I didn’t know whether I was going to have a tour; it was bigger than show business.”
On a recent Howard Stern interview, the shock jock satellite radio host inquired about his recovery: everything from his spiritual experiences exiting a coma to using his penis again. Morgan laughed, Morgan cried, Morgan shared many explicit sexual details…but don’t suggest that Stern may have been exploitive. “Howard [is] a friend,” Morgan said. “He wasn’t pushing my buttons. This was a different interview. I was ready to talk about it with Howard because he’s my friend!”