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 antics. Still, it was particularly sad to watch the contrast between the profundity of Pryor's depiction of a broken down junkie and the audience's complete incomprehension of what Pryor was revealing. All the same, Pryor manages to transcend his audience's limitations and create a world of characters and experiences that was fascinating, touching and hilarious. If you can manage to do the same, and overlook the audience and immerse yourself in Pryor's world, it will be well worth the effort. Don't sleep on this one.
PART OF THE BIG 3
Not funny? Huh?!?! How can anyone who enjoys Pryor's humor not consider this funny? Granted, RICHARD PRYOR LIVE and LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP our the two better installments of this succession of three great shows (RICHARD PRYOR LIVE is an absolute classic) but this is nonetheless still great comedy. The only downer of this whole set is the often annoying audience. Pryor answers back to the hecklers with sharp humor but the interuptions are certainly annoying.
Still, this is yet another great example of the most honest funnyman of our time.
If, however, you have not seen any of his stand-up, by all means, look to RICHARD PRYOR LIVE first, then get ON THE SUNSET STRIP. But if those two classics tickle your funnybone, I can't imagine why you wouldn't find much to enjoy here.
Not as good as the others, but 1 star? Please!
Take this as a Warning. I am serious.
This is a warning to anybody thinking of buying this dvd. Here and Now was awful. From the beginning you can see the stupid audience members heckling and bothering pryor. I wish i could invent a time machine to go back and kill those people before they entered the theater that night. I purchased Here and Now because i was at the store hoping to get Live in Conert or Live on the Sunset Strip. They were all out, then i saw this dvd. The price was 20 dollars and i had 20 dollars on me. I thought this must be fate, no it wasn't it was God's and Richard Pryor's way of making a big joke. I had told friends how great Pryor was in the other performance. Live in Concert was genius, just brilliant. So i bought it and showed it to the friends i had hyped him up to, and only one of them even laughed a little and the other's began to criticize Pryor for being so terribly unfunny. And that just made me look like an idiot for recommending him. This is a Warning. Please i beg of you not to buy this; take your twenty dollars and give it to me, I will put it to good use by hiring scientists to build time machines and spaceships to go back in time and smack the coke out of Richard's nose before he decided to do this show. I would only tell you to get it if you have a collection you wish to complete, because there are a only a couple of good parts. Be warned!
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. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Pryor Director(s): Joe Layton DVD Release Date: Released the 11 January 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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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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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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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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Yes, that's right,if Andy Kaufman were a black American, he'd be Richard Pryor. Just like Andy, this DVD set made me happy,sad,angry,confused, and even scared from bewilderment! I laughed at "Star Wars Bar," as well as, his "White Head in a Cage" skit. I cried when I saw the sincere heartwarming love shown in pieces like "Satin Doll" and even more so in the endearing "the Day the Circus Came to the Ghetto" skit. I got angry at his various skits where he uses racial slurs, like the "n" word,etc. But oddly, I almost got a panic attack from watching probably the wierdest thing I've ever seen on a video which was a skit (if you can call it that) where Richard pretends he's Little Richard singing on a piano, then suddenly, we see a sort of pirated signal of an insanely weird monologue(?) of a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Pryor DVD Release Date: Released the 23 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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