richard pryor

search immediately: And It's Deep Too!, Rhino's 9CD set of Pryor's Warner Bros. albums. really amazing from beginning to end, one of the great comic ouvres ever. few writers dig as deep as him, and make it seem so offhand.

Discuss.

Donut Christ recently said he picked up the DVD set of The Richard Pryor Show from the mid-seventies and indicated it's as great as rumor had long had it.

the best video of his stand up routine is the live and smokin one i think. there is one that was recently made that people made a big fuss over - but its one from almost a decade later, and not as good. its more crowdpleasing and less edgy.

an episode of Pryor's Place can be seen on that Sid and Marty Krofft dvd set, it's not that good.

I couldn't find a CD or digital copy of Richard Pryor's classic, That Nigger's Crazy, so I got a cassette and digitized it myself and uploaded it for listening here:

http://boomp3.com/listen/ej6ks1v/richard-pryor-that-nigger-s-crazy

I wouldn't normally share a file like this, but it appears to be otherwise (digitally) unavailable, so I hope it's ok with ILX policy to post it.

That's on the box set, actually.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:aifpxql0ldde

Oh, well. Go ahead and delete that post, then.

I still listen to the Pryor box set regularly.

Pryor would even admit he owes a lot to Lenny Bruce, but I don't go back and re-listen to Bruce all the fucking time like I do with Pryor.

(anyways, I know there's an RIP Pryor thread, but for the record here, R.I.P. Funniest Man Ever)

WHAT?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/27/eddie-murphy-to-play-richard-pryor

...in "Harlem Days and Nights: The Docudrama"

will suck

Pryor couldn't even make his own biopic a good one.

I admit I am sorta lolling at the idea of Eddie Murphy refusing to do any dicksucking scenes tho

r u referencing RP's stage confession "I tried homosexuality, and I didn't like it?"

also, Eddie is crowding 50, is he going to play Pryor from 25 on? This could be Spacey as Bobby Darin all over again...

the dicksucking when dude was a kid and unless they were going to do some ill-advised Wayan's brothers Little Man shit there I assume Eddie Murphy wouldn't be portraying the part.

there's a word missing there but you get the gist.

This might not be awful. Eddie Murphy can sort of act when he puts his mind to it.

r u referencing RP's stage confession "I tried homosexuality, and I didn't like it?"

hmm don't remember that one - there is an onstage moment from some mid-70s perf I have where he acknowledges having sucked dick as a lad. Dude was raised in a whorehouse, remember.

megalolz if they go the Little Man route! haha

I've read his autobiog and it's this horrible child abuse moment when dude forces him to suck his dick. He mentions meeting the guy when he was older and the guy was totally unapologetic and just like excited to meet him like "hey, you're famous, I knew you when you were a kid!" kind of thing.

whoah

dude is straight up one of the greatest performers ever but man so much pain in his life

of this NYC film retro, the titles I am least familiar with are Some Call It Loving and Dynamite Chicken.

http://www.bam.org/film/2013/a-pryor-engagement

Oh man, would love to see Live In Concert on the big screen.

yeah, the concert movies and Blue Collar are p much the essentials of what I've seen. (I did see him do standup -- more like dramatic monologue by that time really -- once, at Radio City Music Hall on the tour that became the Here & Now film.)

he was badly served by a lot of his film material, unfortunately. agree about the concert movies + Blue Collar. the rest is pretty expendable.

and his linkage bits in Wattstax.

(are hilarious, i mean)

oh yeah. love that whole doc

is this by C0l1n B. from here?

http://brooklynrail.org/2013/02/film/the-uses-of-richard-pryor

I am curious to see Which Way Is Up?

NYT piece on this retrospective was interesting. (oddest detail was the bit about the Comedy Store picket line and who did/didn't cross it - wtf)

http://theseconddisc.com/2013/03/28/shout-factory-to-release-nine-disc-richard-pryor-box-set/

Following the idea of Shout! Factory’s terrific The Incredible Mel Brooks box, No Pryor Restraint will feature an exhaustive look at Pryor’s career with seven CDs and two DVDs, including two hours of previously unreleased content on top of his most classic albums. “The best material from Pryor’s classic albums for the Laff, Stax & Warner Bros. labels” will be featured, as well as compilation-only material, including tracks from:

Richard Pryor (Dove/Reprise, 1968)
‘Craps’ (After Hours) (Laff, 1971)
That N—–’s Crazy (Partee/Stax, 1974)
…Is It Something I Said? (Reprise, 1975)
Bicentennial N—– (Warner Bros., 1976)
Wanted: Richard Pryor Live In Concert (Warner Bros., 1978)
Live on the Sunset Strip (Warner Bros., 1982)
Here and Now (Warner Bros., 1983)
…And It’s Deep Too! The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings 1968-1992 (Warner Bros./Rhino, 2000)
Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years 1966-1974 (Warner Bros./Rhino, 2005)

The box will also contain the concert films Richard Pryor Live in Concert (1979), Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip (1982) and Richard Pryor Here and Now (1983). There will also be a book inside the package, featuring “rare photos, multiple essays, exclusive celebrity tributes, a discography, a filmography, and a personal note penned by Richard’s widow, Jennifer Lee Pryor.”

Those who pre-order from Shout! Factory directly get a tenth bonus disc – the unreleased Live At The Comedy Store, October 1973 CD – and will see it ship in mid-May, well ahead of its June 11 street date.

Arrg, already have most of that (everything pre-burn), really want just the 1973 disc.

possibly NSFW even tho it aired on NBC in '77

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kJkhEcQ44k

Arrg, already have most of that (everything pre-burn), really want just the 1973 disc.

^^^^this. the And Its Deep Too box is one of my most cherished possessions. am coveting this new box, but there's no way I could justify the expenditure.

we'll see how many beatings, by grandma and RP, make it in

ditto blowjobs

ditto blow

it IS Lee Daniels, ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN

would have been 75 today

here's the 1966 Merv Griffin Show discussed in the Saul book (whereafter he was cornered by Groucho Marx at a party at Bobby Darin's (!) and asked, "Young man, do you want a career you’re proud of, or do you want to end up a spitwad like Jerry Lewis?").

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x31pmoy

Probably being played up for the cameras, but interesting tension between Pryor and Lewis there. Fascinating footage, thanks Morbs.

wow never seen that before

lol'd at Merv/Jerry "Am I Jewish now?" exchange

Pryor in Regular Showbiz Land is a fascinating era.

he seems understandably nervous, almost shy

well showbiz was still an essentially segregated affair, and he was meeting one of his idols

he bridles at some moments with lewis though. fascinating footage.

Try if you will but you'll never be able to unpack Richard Pryor into any sort of 21st century understanding of a "problematic" artist. The pain and suffering he endured/caused can't be grasped in today's digital screen-world of virtue-signalling & Nazis. pic.twitter.com/zC1S74mHFU

— K D R (@kdr_2020) February 8, 2018

People acting surprised about the Pryor thing when dude made the most true, beautiful short film about interracial same-sex love that I've ever seen: https://t.co/lQU1oIsvIn

— BANDZ STACKHAGE (@NickPinkerton) February 8, 2018

The Scott Saul biog from a little while back - which is mostly brilliant - is explicit about Richard's sexuality being fluid.

Luv thread revives that talk around a thing without ever making explicit mention of the thing they're talking around. Luv them.

I figured everyone knew! Pryor and Brando got it on, per Quincy Jones and Pryor's widow.

I'm always the last to learn about secret celebrity fucking. Sigh.

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https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jan/11/richard-pryor-great-meltdown-racist-hollywood-bowl

i read this last night, seems relevant

yep (posted it 3 years ago -- I again recommend the book)

Best film criticism of 1959: Teenaged Richard Pryor, in the Army, stabs a fellow soldier for laughing at Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life.

— BANDZ STACKHAGE (@NickPinkerton) December 18, 2012

Thx Quincy Jones for giving me the opportunity to share a light-hearted Marlon Brando-Richard Pryor story that suggests why they were birds of a feather @jasondashbailey pic.twitter.com/6fPH2EYsjs

— ScottSaul (@scottsaul4) February 7, 2018

more champagne!

Can I just say once more what a fabulous read that Scott Saul biog is? I've read a number of Pryor-related tomes over the years, including his own memoir, and this is the best.

from the AOC thread (never mind)

Blue Collar is the only movie Pryor is in that isnt bad

Some Call It Loving
Uptown Saturday Night
Car Wash

And Superman 3.

Wattstax

i've been meaning to check out Which Way Is Up? for a couple years, since I saw The Seduction of Mimi (its origin)

as I posted in the AOC thread:

Wild In The Streets
Lost Highway

also The Muppet Movie, and iirc The Mack is entirely capable at what it's aiming to do

I should have been more specific, limited it to films he stars in.

The Mack counts then, and I'm prepared to believe that Blue Collar (by Schrader) and Silver Streak (d. Arthur Hiller, w. the writer of Harold & Maude) are non-terrible

saw See No Evil, Hear No Evil when I was a kid bcz Wilder/Pryor were supposed to be good, and that was definitely fuckin awful

Any way you cut it, the disparity between Pryor's talent and the quality of his films is off the charts. Hard to think of many people who were so poorly served by their choice of material.

Blue Collar probably is his best starring role.

God only knows how many times I watched the horribly offensive The Toy as a kid.

Blue Collar was good. Others I tried, I couldn't stay awake. I read the bio "Furious Cool" that makes it sound like a miracle he managed to make any films.

Thread reminds me to give his "semi-autobiographical" film "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling" a try. Anyone seen that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUIKBlT_Ef8

Hard to think of many people who were so poorly served by their choice of material.

You can only do what you're offered! Hollywood had no idea what to do with him.

Thread reminds me to give his "semi-autobiographical" film "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling" a try. Anyone seen that?

It's a mess, but a brave and fascinating mess.

Watched Which Way Is Up? last year, following that great biog that came out the year before, and it is really hard to watch, especially as the Pryor character's romantic approach is to stalk the female lead in a really creepy way, and then she inexplicably falls in love with him. It's a bad movie.

I recently read Jenny Lee Pryor's memoir from the 90s, which I'd owned for years but never cracked open. It's not very well written, but vivid, and it's a gruelling read, as Pryor basically abuses her terribly and she keeps leaving him but then going back to him, and then getting psychologically and physically abused by him again. He seems to have been a real horror-show to be around, a towering inferno of self-doubt, paranoia and anger, onto which he poured the gasoline of drugs. It reminded me of that thing on the internet a bunch of years ago written by a scriptwriter working on a movie with him, where he basically came into writing sessions completely out of it and raging with paranoia and violence.

I had no idea about this material - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution/Revolution

Was relistening to this on a long drive recently. The first disk is fascinating and well-titled, as you hear Richard morph from gifted Cosby/Allen copyist into his own sublime thing. The later stuff is great too, mostly taken from the releases Laff put out alongside the LPs Richard was doing concurrently for Warners, and very much of a piece (if not sonically as clear or clean). The comp is up for streaming IIRC, if you don't fancy tracking down a CD.

Soz, I meant the Laff stuff was released at the same time as the Warners records, but the material and recordings often date earlier, before he was signed to Warners iirc

Seem to recall a (silent?) sketch where he plays a whiskey doctor. He needs to have a drink to steady his hand for what one expects is going to be dealing with a bullet wounds but instead the joke is he delivers a baby. Hard to google, wonder if I dreamt it.

Some Call It Loving
Uptown Saturday Night
Car Wash

The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings

https://www.criterion.com/films/30975-jo-jo-dancer-your-life-is-calling

Have never seen this, and have always been curious to.

Richard Pryor: Live in Concert is still the best film he's ever done, and probably the greatest film of a stand-up performance ever (including HBO specials broadcast for television).

Agreed.

For curious stateside viewers, Jo Jo Dancer is on Tubi rn.

All three of the concert films that I've seen were amazing---the audience in New Orleans gets pretty out there at times---one guy brings him a goldfish---can't remember if it's in a bag or a bowl, but he holds it and improvises from the goldfish's POV, while looking a bit stunned, but then it is NOLA, so I guess he was kinda ready for something like that, as much as he could be. Unless I pipedreamed it, that's in Richard Pryor: Here and Now(1983).

Good in everything I've seen, which is most of it, as far back as 1968's happenin' Wild In The Streets, about a rock star leading a Youth Revolt,which includes dosing Congress with LSD (Congress loves it);his Keith Moon-like drummer is RP.
Also great in Lady Sings The Blues, as Piano Man: a composite character, apparently, since at least one of her pianists, Jerome Hopkins, long survived her, also came back to hometown Tuscaloosa, still playing, in the 70s, when I was there (and saw a lot of Pryor movies).