Given the popularity of
rock-concert movies in the ’70s, it was only a matter of time before some
producer tried releasing a stand-up-comedy concert movie. Luckily for
audiences, the canary in this particular coalmine was Richard Pryor: Live in Concert, which captures one of the greatest
comedians of all time at the height of his powers. Shot at a theater in Long
Beach, California, with the simplest possible visual style—mostly just one
camera tracking Pryor as he bops around the stage—the picture is 78 minutes of
pure foul-mouthed pleasure. Not every bit or line kills, but the overwhelming
majority of the material is at least solid, energized by Pryor’s boundless
energy, imagination, style, and talent. Few comedians painted more effective
word pictures or slipped as gracefully in and out of characters as Pryor did,
and few have found such a perfect synthesis of medium and message. For, while
Pryor’s myriad jokes and monologues about race were not overtly political, per
se, it’s no accident that at one point during Richard Pryor: Live in Concert, he gives a heartfelt shout-out to
audience member Huey P. Newton. Similarly, the mildly subversive nature of
Pryor’s act is plainly evident during the opening moments of the concert, when
he skewers white people scrambling to their seats and marvels at the novelty of
a black man performing in a decidedly pale-faced municipality just north of
Orange County.
Amazingly, Pryor manages to come across as endearing even when
he’s at his most incendiary. In addition to making light of his then-recent
arrest on drug-related charges, Pryor takes himself down a notch for moments in
life when he stupidly succumbs to machismo. Yet not everything in Pryor’s act
is edgy. He also gets tremendous mileage out of animal psychology, of all
things, and he’s sincere—but still hilarious—while discussing the heart attack
that took him out of circulation for a while in the late ’70s. All in all, Richard Pryor: Live in Concert stands as
a testament to the man’s genius and honesty, even though it frankly references
Pryor’s tragic penchant for self-destructive behavior. The comedian released
two more concert movies, Richard Pryor:
Live on the Sunset Strip (1982) and Richard
Pryor: Here and Now (1983), both of which are darker than Live in Concert. (In Live on the Sunset Strip, for instance,
Pryor talks about his notorious freebasing accident.) Thanks to its brevity,
consistency, and simplicity, Live in
Concert is arguably the best of the batch.
Richard Pryor: Live in Concert: GROOVY
3 comments:
Still the best stand up I've ever seen. Effortlessly, he moves from one bit to the next...and seems to be thinking it up as he goes along, but it's so carefully structured.
I watch the film at least once a year, always showing it to people who only know Pryor from his later film work. They roar with laughter, as do I. It's simply amazing.
Amazingly hilarious! Really holds up to repeated viewings.
The greatest hour (or so) of stand-up comedy I've ever seen. Pryor is a virtuoso here-- outrageous, of course, but unexpectedly humane. A master, at the top of his craft.
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