Richard Pryor (1940–2005)

Interesting that only 140 LT members have read this book (as a the time of writing this review) of which only 4 felt moved to have submitted a review about a story of the life of a man that was a legend and ground breaker in comedy. Prior to Pryor (see what I did there) comedy was of the tell a joke with a punch line followed by a rim shot variety. He was the man that took it to the next level by talking about life, growing up, racism, sex and all the other difficult subjects that that is fodder for hilarious standup comedy. All the greats of the modern-day era of comedy recognize Richard as their role model for their work however his style and pizazz is yet to be eclipsed. Now far be it for me to paint a rosy picture of a man that had many faults that he talks about openly in this book about his drug addiction, alcoholism, womanizing, DUI and being a woman beater but we all have our faults, and this also has to be taken in context of the 1970's and 80's which had very different norms and standards from today. He did not make excuses for this behavior but did explain the kind of upbringing he had that contributed to the man he became. For me it was an epic read, disturbing as well but epic none the less. I will never forget Stir Crazy directed by Sidney Poitier (who sadly passed away earlier this year) and starring Gene Wilder as Richard's partner in crime so to speak, the hilarious antics and outrageous behaviors had me in stitches. Having said all of this here was a man who faced a rough upbringing, faced terrible racism and rose above it all to become arguably the greatest comedian of his time and only 140 people on LT read about it all. Tells me a great deal about how as much as things have changed over the years, there is still a whole lot that needs to be done to bring parity to society. Happy reading.… (mehr)

As a youngster I truly enjoyed watching movies on television late into the night, and I can still remember all the laughs I have had every single time this truly funny man and comedian appeared on the screen with another truly funny man and comedian whose artistic name was Gene Wilder. I would laugh out loud when one of them was pretending to be deaf and other one was pretending to be blind for the script and for the camera. Truly good and truly great memories, that shall remain with me forever, and probably with all of you who have enjoyed that truly funny motion picture as much as I have.… (mehr)