{"id":2318,"date":"2017-12-01T12:44:08","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T17:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=2318"},"modified":"2017-12-01T13:25:08","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T18:25:08","slug":"comedians-talk-richard-pryors-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2017\/12\/01\/comedians-talk-richard-pryors-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedians Talk Richard Pryor&#8217;s Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Richard Pryor was born 77 years ago today in Peoria, Illinois. His impact on comedy, and culture in general, is immeasurable. I never got to speak with Pryor, but he has come up in a number of different interviews with other comedians, from Dave Chappelle to Elayne Boosler. I\u2019ve taken quotes from some of those interviews to build this essay. <\/em>  <\/p>\n<p>Fifty years ago, in the summer of 1967, Richard Pryor moved west from Ohio to Hollywood, met Paul Mooney, and, according to his autobiography, made his first steps away from mimicking Bill Cosby and toward his own voice. Had he stopped then, he\u2019d have been a footnote. Instead, he turned on and dropped out. No taxes, no driver\u2019s license, no banks \u2013 he stopped participating in the system altogether and started building his legacy. <\/p>\n<p>And Richard Pryor\u2019s legacy sprawls. It starts with the raw nerve of a stand-up comic Pryor became in the 70s when he cemented his place in stand-up\u2019s holy trinity with George Carlin and Lenny Bruce. It reaches past stand-up into acting, directing, and writing for television and film. He showed remarkable emotional depth playing a junkie trying to beat the habit in the \u201cJuke and Opal\u201d sketch in Lily Tomlin\u2019s Lily in 1973. He and Chevy Chase shocked audiences with a word association sketch (co-written by Mooney) that had the pair tossing the words \u201cnigger\u201d and \u201chonky\u201d at each other. He wrote for <em>Blazing Saddles<\/em> with Mel Brooks, starred in the goofy period piece <em>Carwash<\/em>, wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the autobiographical <em>Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling<\/em>, and starred in a series of terrible films like <em>The Toy<\/em> and <em>Moving<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hQI11C4xjoQ\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Wherever else he applied his talents, Pryor\u2019s most important work was his stand-up. Shelley Berman, an important comic in his own right as a member of Chicago\u2019s influential Second City improv troupe, places Pryor in a historical context as a voice railing against an a murky and questionable establishment. \u201cWhen Richard Pryor and George Carlin started articulating the anger of the day by their insolence, that was righteous anger,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that was articulating the anger of the country. It mattered at that time. It really mattered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dick Gregory goes one step further, stretching back his evaluation of American comedy more than a hundred years. \u201cThere\u2019s three comical geniuses that this country has produced,\u201d he said. \u201cOne was Mark Twain. And he was so far ahead, the other two I shouldn\u2019t even mention in the same year. The other was Lenny Bruce, and the other was Richard Pryor. So out there. So brilliant, and all of them self-destructed, except for Twain.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/94qu1rmyxxk\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Gregory was a pioneer himself in the fifties, discussing race as a black comic addressing a mixed audience. He, Redd Foxx, and Godfrey Cambridge laid the groundwork for Pryor, but Pryor undeniably reached a larger audience than any of his forebears. He could be as endearing as Cambridge, as poignant as Gregory, and as profane as Foxx. Unfortunately, says Gregory, a lot of younger comics listen to Pryor and only hear the profanity. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat ruined a lot of good comics was Richard Pryor,\u201d he said. \u201cRichard Pryor is a genius. Red Foxx probably had the most profanity and risqu\u00e9 material of any comic in the history of show business at that time. And when you were sitting around, and they brought out a Red Foxx record, you knew all the Christians was gone. You know anybody that felt anything about spirituality was gone. And then Richard Pryor came along, and we were so into his genius that we didn\u2019t hear the profanity. So we played those records in the family room with the children, because we absolutely did not hear the profanity, we heard his genius. Well, to a five year old child, there is no genius. That five year old child heard the profanity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oddly enough, Bob Newhart mentioned to me that it was his love of Pryor\u2019s comedy that made him relent and actually appear in movies with profanity. \u201cAt first the profanity kind of turned me off,\u201d he said. \u201cI had passed on movies that had the profanity. And then I thought to myself, you\u2019re kind of being a hypocrite, because the guy who you think is the funniest guy who ever lived was Richard Pryor. And you laugh at him. So you\u2019re kind of being a hypocrite.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a later interview than the one already quoted here, Gregory would tell me there were only three comic geniuses in the history of America \u2013 Mark Twain, Lenny Bruce, and Pryor. Gregory also saw a different side of Pryor than did the public. \u201cRichard was a personal friend of mine,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t stand to be around him. He was so bashful and so shy. It embarrassed me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What the generations of comedians that followed Pryor failed to realize, according to Gregory, was that the profanity was not the point of Pryor\u2019s act, it was just one element. The profanity wasn\u2019t the punchline. \u201cIf you go take all of Richard Pryor\u2019s tapes, all his comedy, all his raw, naked comedy, and take the profanity out, it\u2019s just as funny because he never had to use profanity as a punchline,\u201d he said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t hear that. So then you turn on Def Jam and you don\u2019t see nobody on there that ain\u2019t talking about something gross and filthy \u2013 and I have no problem with that, I have no problem with that at all, but not for television. And then they develop, and once you develop that kind of comedy routine, you can\u2019t grow, because you have to top it.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LRcNswirGUY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>John Witherspoon remembers just how far over the top Pryor could be. The popular character actor was a bit player along with Marsha Warfield, Sandra Bernhardt, and Robin Williams on the short-lived <em>Richard Pryor Show<\/em> in 1977. Witherspoon and company say they needed what little money they were paid at the time, and needed the exposure even more, but they could only watch as Pryor self-destructed, letting drugs and fame go to his head. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cToo wild not only for the network, he was overboard, you know, with his attitude and everything \u2013 wasn\u2019t serious work ethics,\u201d he said. \u201cHe could work anywhere, that\u2019s his problem. If a guy could work anywhere\u2026 But we couldn\u2019t continue working. We wanted him to be cool. We want to make that money. That was a great job for us. Richard was all high and cursing.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bE1f4awlxVc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Pryor was struggling with NBC to keep the show on the air and stay true to his stand-up voice, but Witherspoon saw it wasn\u2019t going to work. \u201cI think they were bickering so much about the subject matter at that time, and plus his work ethics weren\u2019t a hundred percent, either,\u201d he said. \u201cHe would come in high. You can not work high. At eight o\u2019clock, you can not curse, and he would curse. I mean, hilarious stuff. I mean, if they had HBO today, it would have been a top show. It would have been like <em>The Sopranos<\/em> today. Let him curse and let him go. But they tried to tame him, and you can\u2019t tame him.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>But who would Pryor have been if he hadn\u2019t gone to these extremes? He was admired for the fact that he would stand onstage in front of thousands of people and report his life exactly as it was, from setting himself on fire to shooting his car in an argument with his wife. While those close to him suffered to see Pryor plunge himself into turmoil, he made us laugh reporting from the eye of the storm. <\/p>\n<p>And Pryor\u2019s audience knew where he was coming from. No matter how far out he traveled, he was tethered by something real, something relatable. Dave Chappelle found that inspiring. \u201cI like the idea of being understood,\u201d he said. \u201cRichard Prior was doing that show in Long Beach, and he was talking about the police, trying to figure out if the rules said they could break a nigger. And the crowd was hootin\u2019 and hollerin\u2019. Their laughter is like a mutual validation. That means he\u2019s saying something that all of all these people can relate to, and then these people laughed at this comedian\u2019s feelings, is being validated as well. It\u2019s a real nice part of the exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s most fascinating is that you can watch Pryor take that trip. After he walked out of a Las Vegas casino in 1967 in a meltdown, he moved to California, fell in with a more politically active crowd, and shed his clean cut sweater and a smile persona. He wasn\u2019t comfortable with it at first, as evidenced on <em>Live &#038; Smokin\u2019<\/em>, taped at the New York Improvisation in 1971. Pryor constantly references the cameras taping the evening, and even shrinks at times, if just for a moment, between bits. But his bravado grows, building into a brilliant rendition of his \u201cWino Preacher &#038; Willie the Junkie\u201d routine. The attitude was still developing, but the details were there \u2013 when Pryor mimes Wino Preacher taking a tug from his flask, he not only puts the cap back on afterward, he tightens it and places it snugly in his back pocket while moving on to his next point. <\/p>\n<p>Compare this to the polished Pryor of 1983\u2019s <em>Here and Now<\/em>. All his tentativeness is long gone. When a fan stands up in the middle of the show to ask for an autograph, Pryor turns it into a routine that could have been a rehearsed bit. Unflappable, unstoppable, it was always onstage in front of a live audience where Pryor showed why he was important, and just how powerful he could be. <\/p>\n<p>The dramatic elements in Pryor\u2019s act helped change how a comic functioned onstage. In an interview about Billy Connolly, Eddie Izzard revealed the influence that Connolly and Pryor had on his comedy. \u201cThe acting out of characters stuff that he does, which Richard Pryor does, I was very influenced by Richard Pryor and Billy on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>To comics like Elayne Boosler, Pryor the stand-up comic had the best job in the world. The fact he was an innovator was almost gravy. What mattered was that he could captivate a live audience and be completely in the moment every night. \u201cMy goal was to be Richard Pryor,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then I found out too late that there is a Richard Pryor. But my goal is still to be Richard Pryor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To any working comic, that should mean a lot.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Pryor was born 77 years ago today in Peoria, Illinois. His impact on comedy, and culture in general, is immeasurable. I never&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[493,1583,1586,1142,1587,1588,305,1590,1584,1582,1589,1596,1597,1592,1585,1591,1581,1594,1593,1149,59,1595],"class_list":["post-2318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedy","tag-billy-connolly","tag-bob-newhart","tag-dave-chappelle","tag-dick-gregory","tag-eddie-izzard","tag-elayne-boosler","tag-george-carlin","tag-godfrey-cambridge","tag-john-witherspoon","tag-lenny-bruce","tag-lily-tomlin","tag-live-smokin","tag-live-on-the-sunset-strip","tag-marsha-warfield","tag-paul-mooney","tag-redd-foxx","tag-richard-pryor","tag-robin-williams","tag-sandra-bernhardt","tag-second-city","tag-shelley-berman","tag-the-richard-pryor-show"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/DOT_RochardPryor-copy.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7lGwW-Bo","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2318"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2323,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318\/revisions\/2323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}