Giving the man the respect that he has earned
Lets take a moment and honor Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III.
Very few celebrity deaths make me stop and think..."Man we really lost someone special today". Over the weekend we lost Richard Pryor and that is excactly what I thought. Talk about a man who not only changed the face of comedy but changed many stereotypes of Black Comedy actors along the way. Chosen as #1 in Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time
Its amazing to feel this way about someone who has rarely been seen in the last 15 years, sans a cameo performance in David Lynchs Lost Highway.
Dick Butkas said in an interview something that applies to Richard and other people of fame.
"The true definition of Greatness is to not remind someone of anyone else...to be truely unique"
Rest in peace Richard.
posted by Goose at 12:41 PM
3 Comments:
Great post Goose, I'm glad someone got to it...now, not trying to burn here, but Pryor was before my generation, but later on understanding a little more about the comedians I watched growing up, specifically Murphy in "Delirous" prior to his comedic labatomy...and then watching bits of Pryor's 1979 Live Preformance there is no doubt that one man shaped the next 25+ years of stand up comedy, continuing today with the popularity of Chapelle...good obit in the NYT also, taught me a lot I didn't know:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/arts/11pryor.html?hp&ex=1134363600&en=02ad2a7e49951ab8&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Funny, I read the same great obit in the NY Times on Sunday morning while waiting for my flight to come home. My favorite part of the article was the quote at the very end:
"I realized that I had more heart than energy, more courage than strength," Pryor said. "My mind was willing, but my feets couldn't carry me to the end zone."
It was a poignant quote after his passing & it reminded me of how we always use sports analogies as sports fan for just about everything. It got a little dusty on Sunday night in Greenlake after watching a tribute to Pryor on CNN.
And Jimbo, I'm glad you cited Eddie's "Delirious" (my favorite comedy video of all-time). But I do recommend "Richard Pryor: Live in Concert" if you want to watch a little slice of Pryor's genius & why almost every comedian cites him as an influence: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079807/
Yeah...I cited the 1979 show, just couldn't think of the name and was too lazy to look it up...its been on Comedy Central late night a couple of times, and when you drunk and cable is allowing swear words...well, it's not HBO its Comedy Central...not good...but great times
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