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Richard Pryor

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Jermaine Jenas
A comedian I rated above Eddie Murphy (in their prime). Thought this was an interesting piece:


I'm a bit dismayed by comedy nowadays - did we go through a purple patch in the 80's?
 
I liked him, the are a few good comedians around today but it is almost as they all share material because I think all comedians today have one good set and that is it, where as someone like Pryor would always come back with good material.

Also on comedy and no one likes a laugh more then me, has anyone ever found these panel shows funny? eight out of ten cats??? I watched it the other day jesus it made me worried for the future if people think that stream of tinkle is funny. The wife was watching a show with the wheelchair kid from Glee and the audience were laughing but me and her just kept looking at each other. Utter rubbish and not one funny story, reference or joke to be seen.
 
lazy cheap telly, all scripted, the writers get £250 a broadcast gag

I will say HIGNFY and Mock the week are exceptions to the rule, I'm sure writers are used but they are still sharp
 
My favourite ever standup. I think I've seen/listened to all of his shows that were recorded. Long beach is his peak, but I love the one in the tiny venue, it looks like a pub (I think it was called 'Live and Smokin') where he almost has contempt for his audience and they aint sure how to take him. Really raw, fudgein brilliant. His autobiography is a decent read too, particularly when he switches into Mudbone to impart some wisdom.
 
I think " live and smoking" was his first ( or one of his first) gigs in 71, as I say I was at the Long Beach gig and I have never laughed as much in my life he was brilliant.
 
Also thanks for that documentary link, I will watch that later. On the subject of writers, Pryor also had some help. A guy called Paul Mooney wrote some stuff for him, I did have a gig of his (it's prob on youtube) and he was very funny.
 
I think " live and smoking" was his first ( or one of his first) gigs in 71, as I say I was at the Long Beach gig and I have never laughed as much in my life he was brilliant.

I have that on DVD somewhere, you lucky b*stard being there! Brilliant mate.
 
Also thanks for that documentary link, I will watch that later. On the subject of writers, Pryor also had some help. A guy called Paul Mooney wrote some stuff for him, I did have a gig of his (it's prob on youtube) and he was very funny.

Indeed, in fact he was the head writer on the tv show that Pryor did.
 
Indeed, in fact he was the head writer on the tv show that Pryor did.

I never really liked that show, the odd sketch aside. But I don't think Pryor or his team were allowed to make the show they wanted to make, it had to be watered down coz yank TV was very conservative at that time iirc (I think that's what they said on an old documentary I watched about Richard Pryor).
 
I never really liked that show, the odd sketch aside. But I don't think Pryor or his team were allowed to make the show they wanted to make, it had to be watered down coz yank TV was very conservative at that time iirc (I think that's what they said on an old documentary I watched about Richard Pryor).

I agree about that, the only TV show at the time on yank tv that was worth watching was "Saturday Night Live", and even that was watered down.
 
Pryor was an absolute genius.
parklane1, I am actually a tad jealous ;-)...I would've LOVED to have seen that set in person. I saw Eddie Murphy's RAW in 87 live, and whilst great, no American comedian matched Pryor. The only one today who has his guile and gumption (IMO) is Dave Chapelle (who ironically used Mooney on his shows). If you have not seen Chapelle, I wholly encourage it; a properly dangerous comic.
But yeah...Pryor...my favorite. The 'dipped my cookie in the milk' riff is absolute genius.
As a side note, See No Evil, Hear No Evil's first hour has me in tears every single time...
 
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Pryor was an absolute genius.
parklane1, I am actually a tad jealous ;-)...I would've LOVED to have seen that set in person. I saw Eddie Murphy's RAW in 87 live, and whilst great, no American comedian matched Pryor. The only one today who has his guile and gumption (IMO) is Dave Chapelle (who ironically used Mooney on his shows). If you have not seen Chapelle, I wholly encourage it; a properly dangerous comic.
But yeah...Pryor...my favorite. The 'dipped my cookie in the milk' riff is absolute genius.
As a side note, Hear No Evil, See No Evil's first hour has me in tears every single time...

I like Chapelle, the Chapelle Show was brilliant too. One of my favourite black American comics of recent years was Patrice O'Neil (he' dead now).
Here's a link to Patrice O'Neil 'The Elephant in the room':

 
A comedian I rated above Eddie Murphy (in their prime). Thought this was an interesting piece:


Wow man, I clicked the link expecting a 5 minute comedy clip, and got a 2 hour documentary about his awful life, his parents being a pimp and a who.re, his exploitation, his mental issues, failed marriages, freebasing crack cocaine and setting himself on fire... jeez man.

After he set himself on fire they had a one second clip (at 57:40) of him being taken into hospital, burned... was that from the semi-autobiographical film he made a couple of years later?

I always knew of Pryor the standup and from films, but had no idea about the rest of it.

I guess that is where a lot of genius' come from, a dark, dark place drives them on.

What a horrible waste. And then he gets multiplt sclerosis. Jeez, what else.

Seems like half of people that make multi millions end up spiralling into drug abuse and hangers on bleeding them dry. Frightening really.
 
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