Any good comic working today has stolen material from comic icon Richard Pryor. It's true. I'll list a few for you: the late Bernie Mac, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Dane Cook, and Eddie Murphy. Yes, even Eddie Murphy. They all stole from Pryor.
Pryor, who was way ahead of his time, was the first comic to use stories of his own messed-up personal life and incorporate them into his routine. He talked about his womanizing, cocaine usage, his heart attack, his kids, shooting his car, and made jokes about himself when he caught on fire. Pryor didn't just focus on racism and the relations between the races. He also talked about our humanity and the human spirit. His best recordings, in my opinion, are "Wanted" and "Live on The Sunset Strip."
My mother refers to him as that "dirty, foul-mouthed" comic. I disagree. There are comedians out here today who think if they cuss like a sailor that they are funny. There not. True, Pryor used colorful language, but did you hear what he was saying? In many ways, he was a fortune teller. He showed us on his short-lived comedy show what the world might be like with a black president in The White House. He challenged us to think. The only comics that do that now is Chris Rock and Wanda Sykes.
Besides being a comedian, Pryor was a brilliant screenplay writer (he co-wrote with Filmmaker and comedian Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles), a comedic actor, (I love Silver Streak, Car Wash, Stir Crazy, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, Lady Sings The Blues, and Uptown Saturday Night) and he had a good heart. I'm just sorry that his inner demons won and his life was cut short by MS.
His spirit lives on in other comics, but there will never be another Richard Pryor.
Posted By: Marsha Jones
Wednesday, November 18th 2009 at 7:10AM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
