Your Favorite Richard Pryor Standup DVD(s) (and why)?

I'd like to hear what they are and why.

I've loved the movies I have seen him in and would like to get into some of his standup.

Thanks!

 

My favorite is "Live on Sunset Strip" (1982), probably because it was his first standup performance I had ever seen and to a 13 year old it was hysterical... I haven't seen it in many years so I don't know how it "stands up" over time.

 

Live In Concert and Live On Sunset Strip are extremely funny.

If I had to choose, In Concert by a nose. But get them both.

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Thanks! I have done some reading around the net and folks seem to agree that In Concert is his best.

 

'Live in Concert' is prior to his burning and is hysterically funny('Macho Man'). 'Sunset Strip' has its moments but here and there he seems to be trying to cop a plea on the coke use.

 

In Concert by a mile - He was never the same after the self-immolation (either physically or mentally). Yet another example of wasted potential thanks to cocaine.

 

Thanks!

I guess that I choose to be grateful for the good things that addicts have been able give us, despite their addictions and the suffering that lies behind them. But I get what you mean.

 

My favorites are the three most commonly available on DVD:

Live In Concert - the first one I saw and was blown away by the whole damn thing. Non-stop classic comedy and his observations were oh so true. My favorite parts - the bedroom scene with "your life beeping away", shooting his car, the malmutes, and the "dick in the ear" skit.

Live On The Sunset Strip - Despite what he did to himself, he could come back and poke fun at himself.

Here And Now - A favorite of mine partly due that it was filmed in my hometown and in a classic theater(Saenger). Mudbone is classic. His take on New Orleanians not needing a reason to second line(or one for a funeral) is great. Shocking, but VERY true.

 

View all 3 equally here. Have them on VHS-off-cable years ago...and while I haven't watched them in a long time, I'm neither willing to upgrade to DVD, nor part with my tapes.

 

Right now, "Live" is a single DVD. Sunset Strip/Here and Now are bundled as a two-fer.

 

How so? At great length and detail he explicity tells about being an addict, rejecting efforts by others to help him quit, and the freebasing accident that nearly killed him. He makes no excuses of any sort that I can remember, accepts full responsibility. He manages to find humor in telling the story, but to my ear it's a heartfelt confession.

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Pryor was a highly visual comic. You can have all the albums, but you need the full picture by watching the videos. The sequence of describing his increasing drug use is classic. The Jim Brown "discussions", him being brought to the hospital, him reacting to the recovery, him seeing the report that he was "dead". Then for the finale, the jokes people made about him after the incident. Pryor didn't pull any punches.

 

I was very fortunate to do some shows with Richard Pryor. Being a monitor mixer, there was not much to do with a comic but sit on the side of the stage and enjoy the show, and boy did I.

I also did a bunch of shows with Cheech & Chong, George Carlin, Marty Allen and a few other comics. Working those shows was like stealing money.

 

I would have loved to see the show filmed in New Orleans over 3 days(Here And Now). Some said they continually had problems with the audience being "over anxious".

Doug - you lucky dog. Working with sheer genius. The stories you could tell!

 

That's why I don't like that concert film. Audience was rowdy, rude, unappreciative. At one point Pryor even whispered to them "Shut up!"

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Ditto. As great as he was in the mid-'70s, he was at his peak in the fall of 1978 when this show was filmed.

The other two concert films have plenty to recommend them, but some crucial, intangible part of his spirit was lost in that fire. Still funny, still poignant, but no longer transcendentally so.

I'm glad that his widow Jennifer is being careful about how she handles his public legacy, but I would love to see more (either audio or video) from his 1973-78 halcyon days as a comedian.

 

Saw Live and Smokin' and Live in Concert. What a difference 8 years makes! In Smokin' he seemed to be still finding his way. By In Concert he had his act down pat. Very, very funny stuff.

 

Pryor whispering? Doubtful. Probably all the gutter scum filtered out of the Iberville Project to see the show( across the street from the Saenger).

 

Okay, maybe not whispering, and I might not even have the right film. I only saw the video once, and that was a long time back, but here's what I think I remember:

During his performance, which had already been disrupted by the rowdy audience, someone (from the audience) came up to the stage and handed Pryor a small live crab.
I don't remember why RP even took the offered animal, but he did, and riffed on it for a little bit. At one point he had the crab on the seat of a stool and was pretending to interview or talk to it; possibly in a attempt to quiet the crowd down, Pryor was talking very softly to the crab. As he got quieter, and paused for a moment, the yahoos in the audience starting yelling again, and Pryor very quietly, in an almost pleading tone of voice, said "Shut up." It didn't work.

Fire away. If I got my memories mixed up yet again, I shall fall on my sword.

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I probably phrased it awkwardly, by 'coppin' a plea' I was more referring to his explaining his drug use, etc, which for the most part I just didn't find so funny. YMMV.

 

That's OK Skip.. Nobody's memory is what it used to be. I just remember talking to some who went to the show(s) and what made the film was mild opposed to what happened over the multiple days of filming.

Another striking thing about the movie was(according to Pryor) the choice of his clothes. In fact, he pokes fun during the concert. Live and Sunset had him dressed in colors. For this, some ridiculous drab grey suit. Looked like a burlap sack on Richard.

 

Because of that audience, I never watched that video a second time. I'd be interested to know the story that surrounded it. Second and third-hand information would be fine. What'd you hear about it?

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