Historic comedian dies at 65
By Bill Beene of the American
and George Curry of NNPA
Activist comedian Dick Gregory knew Richard Pryor as well as anyone when Pryor exploded on to the American scene in the late 1960s.
The controversial Gregory literally and figuratively set the stage for Pryor, and he remembers the comedian as a one-of-a-kind talent.
“What he was able to do with his body, with his mentality, was incredible,” Gregory recalled Pryor’s early work in New York.
“He could just walk across that stage while he was getting ready to transition – the movements of his body, people would just laugh.”
Pryor’s hysterical and troubled life came to an end on Sunday in California at age 65. He battled multiple sclerosis for years before a heart attack took his life.
Upon hearing of Pryor’s passing, Cedric The Entertainer yielded his showman’s title, calling him “the true King of Comedy.”
“He was the godfather of all comics of our generation, and it’s such a great loss to the world of comedy,” Cedric said.
“He set trends for stage, film and television and allowed us – myself, Martin Lawrence, Bernie Mac, Steve Harvey, Eddie Murphy and all the others – to identify with the truth of our lives and stories and share them onstage.”
Local comedian Jessie Taylor said, “He was the first to let me know that it’s okay to be myself, because he was the first that told his own personal problems.”
“As it’s been said many times, Richard Pryor was a cheat sheet,” local comedian Darius Bradford said.
“When they say there’ll never be another, it will be true this time. All the greats that came after him still know and have to say he was the funniest comic, and you can’t and won’t say you exceeded him. He was the big tree in the forest.”
Local comedian Arvin Mitchell called the day of Pryor’s death “a sad day in comedy.”
“He was natural, real, vulnerable and child-like. He had this innocence, though he was naughty,” Mitchell said.
“He engaged you and made you feel like his friend. He could talk about real life pains and make people laugh. We had pains in our house, but listening to him was like medicine.”
Local comedians who took stage here on the night of his death, and on Sunday – Taylor, Mitchell, Maurice G, St. Louis Slim and Eric Rivers – dedicated their performances to the late, great comedic genius.
“He paved the way for me – for all of us – so we have to have a moment of silence for the world’s greatest comedian,” said comedian Lil Roc while hosting Tony J’s “Strictly Comedy Show” Sunday at the Roberts Orpheum.
“If you like to laugh, that should be all right with you all.”
Tragedy to comedy
In his autobiography, Pryor Convictions and Other Life Sentences, written with Todd Gold, Pryor recounts: “There was a world of junkies and winos, pool hustlers and prostitutes, women and family screaming inside of my head, trying to be heard. The longer I kept them bottled up, the harder they tried to escape. The pressure built ‘til I went nuts.”
When this son of a prostitute and pimp went nuts, it became research for his stage act.
In 1978, he was fined $500 and ordered to seek psychiatric care after ramming his car into another vehicle that contained his wife and firing bullets at the tires. Pryor would later joke that he killed that car.
Two years, later Pryor suffered third-degree burns over the upper half of his body while freebasing cocaine. After being hospitalized for two months, Pryor returned to the stage with a joke. He would strike a match, wave it in front of his face, and say, “What is this? Richard Pryor running down the street.”
He won five Grammys for his comedy albums, including Bicentennial Nigger and That Nigger’s Crazy. He was an accomplished writer, providing scripts for Sanford and Son and The Flip Wilson Show and winning an Emmy for a Lily Tomlin television special.
At one point, Pryor was the highest-paid black entertainer in Hollywood. He appeared in more than 40 movies, including Lady Sings the Blues, Jo Jo Dancer, Bustin’ Loose, Car Wash, Harlem Nights, California Suite, Superman III and The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings. He also starred with Gene Wilder in Silver Steak, Which Way is Up, Stir Crazy and Another You.
In addition to the gift of his comedy, Pryor will always be remembered for his fearless use of language.
In 1975, Pryor starred in a Saturday Night Live skit that became one of the show’s funniest, edgiest moments. Pryor played a job applicant being interviewed by a bureaucrat played by Chevy Chase. Chase suggested a round of word association.
As each of Chase’s words grew increasingly racist, so did Pryor’s – all the way up to the N-word:
White? Black.
Negro? Whitey.
Colored? Redneck.
Tarbaby? Peckerwood.
Spearchucker? White trash.
Junglebunny? Honkey.
Nigger? Dead honkey.
The skit ended with Chase making Pryor “the highest-paid janitor in America.”
It was a trip to Zimbabwe in 1980 that caused Pryor to quit using the N-word.
“There are no niggers here,” he wrote in his autobiography. “The people here, they still have their self-respect, their pride.”
