| Richard
Pryor: A Tribute To A Legendary Comedian And A Likely
Successor
by Bob
Lowe
December 19, 2005
With the passing of Richard Pryor, the question is who can
be considered to be the funniest, most original and most
influential comedian in America today?
My choice is based on a highly subjective criteria. It is
the comedic personality who can make me laugh so loud that
my belly hurts, my sides split and tears flow out of my eyes.
First,
let ’s rule out the usual suspects. It is not
Chris Rock, George Carlin, Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy,
Margaret Cho, Drew Carey or Jerry Seinfeld. It is not Robin
Williams, Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, Damon Wayans, Rosie
O ’Donnell, Sam Kinison, John Leguizamo, Chevy Chase
or Jim Carrey.
It
is not HBO ’s Bill Maher, nor is it Martin Lawrence,
D.L. Hughley, Queen Latifah or even Cedric the Entertainer.
And no, it is not David Letterman or Jay Leno, as popular
and prominent as they might be.
So
who is that person that can tickle my funny bone more than
anyone else? I will reveal my choice later in this article.
For now, I would like to pause to pay a special tribute to
Pryor, one of my generation's most accomplished comedic
performers.
When I first got the news on TV that Pryor, 65, had died
of a heart attack at a hospital near his home in the San
Fernando Valley in California, I spent a great deal of time
reviewing clips of his past shows and reflecting on the impact
his turbulent life had in the entertainment industry.
A
local newspaper described Pryor in a teaser headline as
a “foul-mouthed
comic (who) gained wide following with his humor.”
What an unfortunate way to sum up the life of such a pivotal
figure. Fellow comedian Bob Newhart describes Pryor as the
single most seminal, comedic influence in the past 50 years.
That assessment is more on target. To suggest that the only
thing significant about Pryor was his use of four-letter
words is not only terribly inaccurate; it oversimplifies
and denigrates a groundbreaking comedian who has won high
accolades for his extensive body of work.
Many
comics who thought there were imitating him by spouting
a flood of filthy words discovered they did not have anywhere
near the impact or success of Pryor. That ’s because
they lacked his substance, his comic imagination, his underlying
humanity and his incisive ability to understand the social
conditions that make us who we are.
“What I ’m saying may be profane, but it is
also profound, ” Pryor is quoted as saying in the book, “Richard
Pryor: Black and Blue. ”
Pryor pioneered a new form of in-your-face brutally honest
humor. He held a mirror up to society and exposed its flaws
and frailties. He broke down racial barriers by uniting black
and white audiences. He made people see the stupidity of
racism. And he did so by making us laugh, sometimes at himself,
sometimes at ourselves and often at the absurdities of life
in general.
But
he also made us think about issues many would prefer to
avoid like race, inequality, injustice, the battle between
the sexes and our own shortcomings
He
lived a life of drama that began almost from the day he
was born. Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III grew
up in Peoria, Ill., in a brothel run by his paternal grandmother,
who raised him. His tumultuous life included outbursts of
violence, six marriages, quadruple bypass heart surgery,
domestic disputes and an addiction to alcohol and cocaine.
He sustained third-degree burns to more than 50 percent of
his body after he set himself on fire while free-basing cocaine
in 1980. He suffered from multiple sclerosis, a degenerative
disease of the nervous system that limited his activities
in his later years.
Despite
his pain, he always found ways to make us laugh -- as a
stand-up comic, TV and movie scriptwriter, actor, social
commentator and author (his autobiography, written in 1995,
is titled “Pryor
Convictions and Other Life Sentences”). Five of his
comedy albums won Grammy Awards. He won an Emmy for best
writing in a comedy-variety program, “Lily. ” He
played Las Vegas as well as Sunset Strip and the so-called “chitlin’ circuit” of
black nightclubs.
Feeling
confined by TV censors and the Hollywood establishment,
he abandoned “safe” humor to pursue more daring
comedy ventures. He explored new territory, giving voice
to many of society’s outcasts like pimps, bums, prostitutes
and Mudbone, a fictional wino-philosopher character he created.
While his edgy material included liberal use of four-letter
words and the forbidden N-word to describe blacks, they were
not used gratuitously. He stopped using that latter designation
after 1980, following a trip he made to Africa.
Pryor
appeared in 40 movies, including “Lady Sing
The Blues ,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Uptown
Saturday Night,” “Silver Streak,” “See
No Evil, Hear No Evil” and “Stir Crazy,” and
the autobiographical film, “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life
is Calling.”
He
made numerous memorable appearances on television programs
and was a writer for the sitcom, “Sanford and Son” and “The
Flip Wilson” comedy-variety show. Pryor received the
NAACP Hall of Fame Award in 1996 and the Mark Twain Prize
for Humor in 1998.
Now, who is my choice as the comedian who best fills the
iconoclastic mold Pryor represented?
My choice is Rob Bartlett, who makes regular appearances
on The Don Imus radio program, broadcast locally on MSNBC
from 5-8 a.m. Monday-Friday. He is especially hilarious as
the impersonator of pop therapist, Dr. Phil McGraw, former
President Bill Clinton and current Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales. He also plays Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys,
conservative icon Rush Limbaugh and the Godfather of Soul
James Brown
Like
Pryor, he is irreverent, cutting-edge, iconoclastic, perceptive,
offbeat, imaginative unconventional, creative and yes,
at times occasionally profane – in both English
and Spanish. But above all, he is outrageously and hilariously
funny. And he does his routines with a deadpan facial expression
that just cracks you up. He is currently appearing on Broadway
in “The Odd Couple,” winning rave reviews. If
you have not yet seen him, check him out. I consider him
a worthy successor of Richard Pryor.
For
comments or questions, contact boblowe@juno.com or
by phone at (920)-731-4603.
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