Review(s): DVD Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip
Pryors finest hour
Richard Pryor has influenced scores and scores of comedians and theres a good reason why....because hes one of the greats!!! This show which was filmed in Vegas is truly his finest hour. Taped after his infamous freebasing incident, he touches on his cocaine addiction....and as brutal as it was he makes it funny. Also, he talks about gangsters he used to work with and them telling murder stories!! No comedian would dare touch on things like this, and to make these things funny takes TALENT. Of which Pryor has an abundance of.
So if you want a revealing, awe inspiring, provacative and funny comedy show, this is it. Pryors finest hour, the show of himself.
Pryor at his turning point
This is a watershed performance for Richard Pryor. This was filmed shortly after the infamous freebasing fire nearly killed him in the early 1980s. Here, he talks frankly about that incident (the joke with the match is an amazing example of how he could find humor inhis darkest moments) and his need to quit drinking and dope. The tour de force here is the Africa routine. The cologne and body odor gag falls back on some un-PC stereotyping of Africans(of course, PC types aren't gonna watch this anyway), but his announced decision in this piece to never use the N-word again in comedy got a standing-o from me then and still makes me proud of him today. Sadly, this was his last truly great comedic work. From here on in, it would be unbearably bad movies and lackluster comedy like "Here and Now" before he succumbed to MS. So this is truly important as the last great work of Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor. Enjoy.
The Real King of Comedy!
Richard Pryor is the king, no question. He inspired most top comics today, and this stand up shows why. Alot of people forget that most comedy is recycled, and mostly from this man here. It's definitely worth buying, and you'll want his other stand-ups before you know it!
Related DVD's Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip
Watching Pryor go from imitating a drinking deer to a woman debating about going in the woods gives just a hint of the comedic genius of the man. Crude, foul, and real, this is the first and best of his concert films. Pryor does dead-on impersonations of the respective races, cussing, trying to act tough, getting kicked in personal spots. But it's his imagination that elevates him to a different level. He gives his impressions of what animals think, from his own animals (a monkey, a Doberman) to police dogs, and it seems so exact, so prescient. Not to mention the fact that he is self-deprecating in the extreme, and has as much fun skewering himself as any other subject. Still vibrant, still funny. --Keith SimantonMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Pryor Director(s): Jeff Margolis DVD Release Date: Released the 25 August 1998 Usually ships in 6 to 8 days
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There is a long sequence where Pryor plays two roles: one of a wino and one of a junkie. It starts off very funny, but then Pryor gets deep into the psyches of these damaged people, and it is heartbreaking. The piece turns into a brilliant piece of theater. Yes, there are more misses than hits in this 1971 performance, but there is no mistaking what a genius Pryor is. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Pryor Director(s): Michael Blum DVD Release Date: Released the 27 November 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Pryor was brilliant in this set. However, as other reviewers have pointed out, his audience seemed to be composed of the inhabitants of every podunk village in Louisiana, who saw attendance at his show as the crowning moment of their lives, and wanted to make sure Pryor and the rest of the world knew just how momentous it was by announcing it at the top of their lungs, never stopping their celebration long enough to actually listen to Pryor's routine. He had to contend with a constant barrage of drunken heckling but he still managed to weave spellbinding stories and make brilliant impromptu observations about everyday life. In fact, he frequently turned the boorish behavior of the audience to his advantage, and constructed several brilliant bits of business from their sometimes bizarre... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Pryor Director(s): Richard Pryor DVD Release Date: Released the 29 January 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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As you have gethered by now, this is not a complete Richard Pryor stand-up show. I Ain't Dead Yet, originally aired on Comedy Central, is a tribute/biography/documentary of the legendary comedian, showcasing clips of his various acts shuffled in with interviews and opinions from Steve Harvey, Jamie Foxx, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, Dave Chappelle, Denis Leary, Whoppi Goldberg, and Robin Williams among others. The program itself, which is less than 45 minutes long and is here in all in uncensored glory, is worth a look for fans of Pryor who didn't see it when it originally aired, but the DVD features are scant, and considering the price of the DVD, this is a rip-off. All in all, worth a look for fans of Pryor, but for all others, this is worth avoiding. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Pryor DVD Release Date: Released the 16 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The audacious concert film Eddie Murphy Raw rubbed some people the wrong way upon its release in 1987, but there's no denying that between Murphy's more insensitive bits about women and gay men is some of his most inspired material. While the young comedian indulges an unattractive homophobia and rants about the sexual manipulativeness of all females, he makes up for it with an amazing story about being chided by Bill Cosby for obscene humor and does a great impression of Mr. T falling under the spell of a Jedi mind trick. The best stuff comes deep into the show, particularly a long tale of being pressured into a fight at a club, resulting in a phone call to Murphy's drunk father, the latter in the middle of a verbal attack on his wife. The scene is genuinely horrifying and funny,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Eddie Murphy Director(s): Robert Townsend DVD Release Date: Released the 07 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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