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After meshing amiably with Murphy in Coming to America (in which he played multiple roles, ranging from a grizzled barber-shop customer to a fiery evangelist), Hall seems poised for a movie breakthrough. In Harlem Nights, which Murphy wrote and directed, Hall is onscreen for only a few minutes, as a gangster who "hates Eddie's guts." He is currently talking with producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer (Beverly Hills Cop) about starring in an action-comedy, which would probably be shot next fall. "By then," Hall says, "either I'll have a grasp on what I'm doing or be sharing a condo with Dick Cavett somewhere."
No sweat; he already seems to have a pretty good grasp on the success that has engulfed him. Hall claims he would be happy doing his talk show forever, but he seems fully tuned in to the precariousness of fame in a medium that chews up stars like M & M's. "One bad show, and I'm mentally packing a U- Haul," he says. "But I don't want to start playing it safe. I accept the fact that I can't have it forever. Ali was the greatest, but someday someone beat him, and someone beat the guy who beat him. When I was in high school, J.J. Walker was the hottest. Recently I saw a ((cable)) special in which people walked by him and joked, 'That's Arsenio Hall.' Because I'm hot, and he's not.
"It's scary," he muses, glancing at the rock video playing silently on the TV screen overhead. "Someday I'll be the punch line."