Bernie Mac
By Cedric the Entertainer, as told to TIME
Nobody wanted to go onstage after Bernie Mac. You were always thinking, Can I do these things to the same audience? Mac, who died Aug. 9 at age 50, had this freedom, this edge--one minute he was saying funny material, then he was cutting you deep, and then he was saying something that made you think. There was a frenzy to it. If you went on after him, even if you were funny, they couldn't laugh anymore; it hurt. Bernie killed them. Each night you could bet he was going to jump off the page in a way that no one saw coming. He was never trying to edit himself. As a comedian, that's the freedom you're looking for onstage, to be as honest as you can be and say something that's so relevant, you're either going to be shocked or you're going to laugh your butt off.
Cedric, an actor and comedian, starred alongside Mac in The Original Kings of Comedy tour