richard pryor

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..."

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.

i should read this.

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

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.

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.

is the saul book god, morbs?

bought a VHS of this entire special off ebay years ago, but i think i've since lost it

it's probably the definitive book, for now, on Pryor in the '70s and his early life.

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.

i'll definitely check it out, thanks for the tip-off

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.

should i read the saul book first, or his autobiography?

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.

ok thanks, i'll do that

that bit was great but network dudes otm about it not being funny

xp

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.

lol idk where you would even put the "laughs" in that sketch

you underestimate TV lifers

from the NBC show

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

Robin Williams as the "classy" and (I'm assuming) Nazi guns?

“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/

blech

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