Richard Pryor’s career careened with his drug usage. Despite his successes, Pryor continued to make dubious decisions. The PBS documentary Richard Pryor: Icon presents an accurate summary of Pryor’s life. Omit the Logic focuses on Richard Pryor’s development as the most successful comic of his time. Richard Pryor: Live on Sunset Strip–cited by Michael Che of Saturday Night Live as the funniest stand-up performance ever–is both hilarious and tragic. Taped just after Pryor almost lost his life when he set fire to himself during a drug session, Pryor displays both his vulnerability and his classic humor.
I liked Richard Pryor, both on TV and in the movies. But it became clear Pryor was on a trajectory leading to his eventual crashing and burning…literally. Are you a Richard Pryor fan?
Richard Pryor: Live On Sunset Strip GRADE: A
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic GRADE: B
Richard Pryor: Icon GRADE: B+
I like Pryor. More his stand up rather than his movies. Not my favorite stand up. That would be George Carlin.
Steve, Diane and I have seen Jerry Seinfeld perform live twice in Buffalo. Very funny. I saw George Carlin once in the 1970s when he performed in Madison, Wisconsin.
I liked him too. I do remember that Sunset Strip routine where he actually talked about setting himself on fire. What a waste.
Jeff, when Richard Pryor talks about setting himself on fire in LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP, I was fascinated…and horrified!
For me Pryor was one of the best stand up comics ever, but I can’t say much for the movies. I couldn’t remember a single title, and had to resort to IMDB to refresh my memory. Although I’m pretty sure I’ve seen at least 5-6 of them I can’t remember a thing about them.
Michael, Pryor’s STIR CRAZY (1980) made over $100 million–Big Bucks in those days. But Pryor’s Super Power was stand-up comedy.
Best standup in concert: Rodney Dangerfield. Also Robert Klein. Steve Martin back when he was still funny. Lewis Black.
Jeff, all excellent stand-up comics! Diane and Katie went to a comedy event in Montreal three years ago and saw John Mulvaney.
Steve Martin was, to my sense of humor, never funny. Shelly Berman was funny.
Rick, I’m with you on Steve Martin, but millions of people love his brand of comedy.
Pryor was a co-writer on “Blazing Saddles” and I believe at one point was going to play Sheriff Bart (the role eventually went to Cleavon Little). I think you can watch “Blazing Saddles” now and figure out which jokes were Pryor’s contributions. My favorite line from Pryor: “I met Ronald Reagan once. He looked at me like I owed him money.” I can totally see that.
Deb, Pryor expressed some bitterness at the way he was treated in Hollywood. It was justified.
I really enjoyed Richard Pryor – very edgy for his time.
I read his daughter’s (Rain Pryor) book – Jokes My Father Never Taught Me. He had a very sad life and his final years were heart-breaking.
Beth, the drugs wore Richard Pryor down. His last years were a nightmare.
He was brilliant but a light too bright to last long.
Patti, Pryor’s talent and light was dimmed, then extinguished, by drugs.
Or too wounded by his childhood to ever escape all the things that made it “necessary” to stick with his most self-destructive habits. The literal burning probably didn’t hurt him as much as the cumulative effect of the self-obliteration behavior.
Pryor and Lenny Bruce a Lot alike in most ways, from the dramatic sketches most of their routines were, to the depth of their resentment of their own lives. Maria Bamford strikes me as closest to the on-stage multi-character dramatization they did, among today’s well-known comedians. She, too, has had mental health crises, but she does tend to seek medical help for hers. As opposed to pharmaceutical self-prescribed.
Bamford, Jackie Kashian, Jake Johannsen, Roy Wood, Jr., Sarah Silverman, Jena Friedman, Steven Wright, Nichols and May, Bruce, Dick Gregory, Cathy Ladman are just a few of those I’ve liked the most intense and/or the longest…
Or, try intensely…
Todd, I’ve been a Jerry Seinfeld fan from the beginning. I think his comedy is cerebral and clever. I’ve never heard him swear, either. Too many stand-up acts spray invective and f-bombs without being funny.
He’s, for me, not bad, but can tend to whine (as when he complained about college audiences not finding him funny).
Bill Cosby was funny. Shelly Berman, Bob Newhart, Bob Hope, Jack Benny. All funny. Prior was funny in his time, as stand up, but not movies.
Though there were funny bits of SILVER STREAK, when the sitcom schtick wasn’t Too thick.
Todd, Richard Pryor battled with NBC censors constantly. He finally gave up on TV and went to movies.
Though Pryor bounced back and forth throughout the ’70s, do the SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE which introduced me (and not a few others) to Gil Scott-Heron, and the fine THE RICHARD PRYOR SHOW (what got past the censors was pretty solid). And BLAZING SADDLES preceded both of those.
Or, Did the SNL…I am even more than half-asleep this afternoon.
Rick, one of my favorite comedy albums is Bill Cosby’s WHY IS THERE AIR? It’s still funny today despite Cosby’s later transgressions.
Fred Allen was very funny. As was Benny. And Newhart is remarkably still with us, though in his recent interviews, the weight of the years is telling…not impaired in wit or perception, but it’s clear it isn’t as easy for him to speak as it was previously.
OK. Hmm. This keeps getting erased after appearing on the blog, much as Jeff’s message the other day…to follow…
Todd, WORDPRESS plays a lot of games. I’ve had trouble with my posts since I started using this software. Occasional problems with comments occur, too. I have no way of dealing with these aggravations!
Wow, Jackie…I foresee doing something like that after my own eventual knee surgery. As it is, I have to do it to a degree with Alice’s Lexus, much as I had to a little less with her previous Toyota, as most of my height is in my torso rather than my legs (among other things, putting more weight on my knees even if was a trim 6′ 1″, which I am not). I can barely get into a lot of sedans without scraping my head on the door jam; hence my last two cars have been a Ford Escort wagon (after they remade them as Tauruses [Tauri?] with taller cabs and slightly cheaper parts) and, after a kid turned left in front of me and totaled both our cars, a Toyota Matrix. (Basketball players in Jeeps and more expensive versions isn’t All Swank.)
Oops! Wrong blog! Posted on yours, George rather than Patti’s this go-round!
Two words for you, Todd: Subaru Outback.
Thanks! If they didn’t cost the Earth, I would’ve picked one up after the totaling of my Escort wagon. I’ve always been inordinately fond of station wagons, except perhaps when parallel parking.
Todd, I have no trouble getting in or out of my Nissan Rogue. SUV’s are my preference.
Todd, I figured that out!!! See you over on Patti’s blog!
I remember liking him in THE BINGO LONG TRAVELING ALL-STARS & MOTOR KINGS.
That, too, was a good and often underappreciated film.