i know he talks about childhood sexual abuse in his memoir, can't recall a specific anecdote re: virginity but it likely comes up in there as well
― da croupier, Wednesday, 14 January 2015 21:19 (nine years ago) link
have begun the Saul book. He idolized Jerry Lewis and Sid Caesar, as a kid growing up in the '50s reasonably would. (And he became a great physical comedian, doing standup.)
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 18:45 (eight years ago) link
(that physicality is what made the concert films a more complete experience, in some ways, than the LPs.)
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 18:46 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, as brilliant as the records are, there's always moments of "[silence] [explosive laughter]" where presumably he did some hilarious physical comedy.
One of my favorite moments in Richard Pryor Live In Concert doesn't come across on record too well:
"...snake..."
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 19:14 (eight years ago) link
The opening 30 pages or so about his family background and Peoria in the first half of the 20th century is just so bleak and heartbreaking. The roots of everything that inspired and traumatized him are completely laid bare.
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 June 2015 19:29 (eight years ago) link
i should read this.
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Friday, 5 June 2015 19:57 (eight years ago) link
a key sketch from a 1973 CBS Lily Tomlin special (Alan Alda pops in too). It's totally character-driven, and per the Saul book, Lily had to fight to get it on over the course of a year; the network said it "wasn't funny." Pryor connected with Tomlin, loved her work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKi7myNZb4o
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Monday, 17 August 2015 02:37 (eight years ago) link
I'd never heard of this before a few months ago and thankfully found it on youtube. I watched it several times over the course of the day. It's unlike anything I've ever seen on television, and though she had to fight with the network to get it on in 1973, it would never get out of a pitch meeting in 2015. It's astonishing.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 17 August 2015 02:41 (eight years ago) link
Pryor's mockery of the social-work types is deft and not at all heavyhanded. He won an Emmy for co-writing one of these Tomlin specials, not sure which.
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Monday, 17 August 2015 02:45 (eight years ago) link
is the saul book god, morbs?
― Credit: howtokeepapositiveattitudedotcom (stevie), Monday, 17 August 2015 08:21 (eight years ago) link
bought a VHS of this entire special off ebay years ago, but i think i've since lost it
― Credit: howtokeepapositiveattitudedotcom (stevie), Monday, 17 August 2015 08:22 (eight years ago) link
it's probably the definitive book, for now, on Pryor in the '70s and his early life.
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Monday, 17 August 2015 11:29 (eight years ago) link
It makes clear RP was ambivalent at best about his crossover vehicles, eg Silver Streak, his breakthrough hit film, which he nearly quit the day before the "Gene Wilder blacks up with shoe polish" scene. Fortunately Wilder and Arthur Hiller let Pryor essentially rewrite and take over the scene.
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Monday, 17 August 2015 18:31 (eight years ago) link
i'll definitely check it out, thanks for the tip-off
― Credit: howtokeepapositiveattitudedotcom (stevie), Monday, 17 August 2015 21:57 (eight years ago) link
Thanks for posting that clip, Morbs; just got to that point in the book yesterday and was about to seek it out.
And Morbs otm re: the new bio. Absolutely definitive, and Saul's take on "That N-----'s Crazy" is spot-on where he talks about the multiple layers revealed with each listen. I've practically got that record memorized and I still hear something new every time.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 17 August 2015 23:46 (eight years ago) link
should i read the saul book first, or his autobiography?
― NI, Tuesday, 18 August 2015 02:00 (eight years ago) link
I actually found his autobio a little thin, but the excerpts in Saul's book make me want to revisit it. That said, I'd still read Saul first.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 18 August 2015 15:33 (eight years ago) link
ok thanks, i'll do that
― NI, Tuesday, 18 August 2015 17:39 (eight years ago) link
that bit was great but network dudes otm about it not being funny
xp
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 18 August 2015 18:23 (eight years ago) link
it has some rich HUMOR along with the pathos and slice-of-life, but the obv question would be is it trying to be ha-ha funny.
The book says it ran with canned laughter on the broadcast.
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 August 2015 18:30 (eight years ago) link
lol idk where you would even put the "laughs" in that sketch
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 18 August 2015 20:30 (eight years ago) link
you underestimate TV lifers
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 August 2015 21:13 (eight years ago) link
from the NBC show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sunsLde_ZWY
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Friday, 28 August 2015 15:05 (eight years ago) link
Robin Williams as the "classy" and (I'm assuming) Nazi guns?
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Monday, 31 August 2015 13:39 (eight years ago) link
“Oprah Winfrey will play Pryor’s grandmother, who ran a brothel and raised the iconic comic there; Eddie Murphy will play Pryor’s father, Leroy ‘Buck Carter’ Pryor. Kate Hudson is set to play Pryor’s widow, Jennifer Lee Pryor.”
http://deadline.com/2015/08/richard-pryor-oprah-winfrey-eddie-murphy-mike-epps-kate-hudson-lee-daniels-harvey-weinstein-1201509601/
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 September 2015 16:34 (eight years ago) link
blech
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 1 September 2015 17:00 (eight years ago) link
we'll see how many beatings, by grandma and RP, make it in
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 September 2015 17:23 (eight years ago) link
ditto blowjobs
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 1 September 2015 17:33 (eight years ago) link
ditto blow
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 1 September 2015 17:33 (eight years ago) link
it IS Lee Daniels, ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 September 2015 17:41 (eight years ago) link
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
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 12:54 (eight years ago) link
Probably being played up for the cameras, but interesting tension between Pryor and Lewis there. Fascinating footage, thanks Morbs.
― I don't have the time or energy to make a counterargument (stevie), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 22:22 (eight years ago) link
wow never seen that before
lol'd at Merv/Jerry "Am I Jewish now?" exchange
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 22:34 (eight years ago) link
Pryor in Regular Showbiz Land is a fascinating era.
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 22:37 (eight years ago) link
he seems understandably nervous, almost shy
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 22:40 (eight years ago) link
well showbiz was still an essentially segregated affair, and he was meeting one of his idols
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 2 December 2015 03:28 (eight years ago) link
he bridles at some moments with lewis though. fascinating footage.
― I don't have the time or energy to make a counterargument (stevie), Wednesday, 2 December 2015 09:58 (eight years ago) link
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
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 February 2018 16:43 (six years ago) link
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
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 February 2018 16:45 (six years ago) link
The Scott Saul biog from a little while back - which is mostly brilliant - is explicit about Richard's sexuality being fluid.
― "Taste's very strange!" (stevie), Thursday, 8 February 2018 19:38 (six years ago) link
Luv thread revives that talk around a thing without ever making explicit mention of the thing they're talking around. Luv them.
― I'm very active in the pegasus community (Old Lunch), Thursday, 8 February 2018 19:44 (six years ago) link
I figured everyone knew! Pryor and Brando got it on, per Quincy Jones and Pryor's widow.
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 February 2018 20:01 (six years ago) link
I'm always the last to learn about secret celebrity fucking. Sigh.
― I'm very active in the pegasus community (Old Lunch), Thursday, 8 February 2018 20:09 (six years ago) link
subscribe to my newsletter!
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 February 2018 20:50 (six years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jan/11/richard-pryor-great-meltdown-racist-hollywood-bowl
i read this last night, seems relevant
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 8 February 2018 22:20 (six years ago) link
yep (posted it 3 years ago -- I again recommend the book)
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 February 2018 22:41 (six years ago) link
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
― Simon H., Friday, 9 February 2018 00:39 (six years ago) link
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
― omar little, Friday, 9 February 2018 00:53 (six years ago) link
more champagne!
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 9 February 2018 01:19 (six years ago) link
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.
― "Taste's very strange!" (stevie), Friday, 9 February 2018 09:10 (six years ago) link