All language subtitles for I Am Richard Pryor 2019

Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen.

Downloaded from
YTS.MX

My name is Richard Pryor.

[***]

[Barbara Walters]: The picture
that a lot of people still have

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

is of this man
who is self-destructive,

who is enormously angry.

[Richard Pryor]: I'm angry.

-I'm angry--
-Are you still?

Yes, I'm very angry.

I'm angry because I'm talented.

[***]

There's nobody I've ever met
in the business of comedy

who's any more brilliant
than me,

and I will never get
the recognition for what I do

in my lifetime--
[Walters]: Why not?

[Pryor]: Because of this
one bad seed in America.

It works for...
it works for economic reasons.

It's called "racism."

Racism keeps a lot
of talented human beings

underground.

[***]

[applause and cheering]

[Todd Boyd]: "Richard Pryor:
Live in Concert," great show.

Great show.

Thank you!

[Boyd]: He has
become the comedian

he was always meant to be.

He reaches his apex.

What you taking
my picture for?

[laughter]

Who are you going
to show it to?

[laughter]

You're gonna say, "I got
a picture of Richard Pryor!"

"Who gives a [bleep]?"

He was the jewel,

heaven-sent,

and definitely,

definitely here
to change lives,

because he changed mine.

I love when white dudes
get mad and cuss, right?

Because you all some funny
mother[bleep]s when you cuss.

[laughter]

Right, they'll be saying
shit like,

"Yeah, come on, peckerhead."

[laughter]

I feel like Richard
kicked the door open,

and figured out a way
to talk about

what is going on right now
in our world,

and make it funny

but informative.

I just found out some time ago

that sometimes,

women don't have orgasms,

and that [bleep] me up.

He had more humility,
and more humanity,

and more bravery

and more just raw...

The word is "raw" alone.

Pryor... is just pure.

[Lily Tomlin]:
It so moves an audience

to find a performer

who shares their
vulnerability with you,

and Richard had that
immediacy of contact.

[applause and cheering]

[Scott Saul]:
" Live in Concert"

is a remarkable achievement.

Richard Pryor wasn't always
this brazen

or as original
or as imaginative,

and there was a whole time
before "Live in Concert,"

that's the Richard Pryor
without a mustache,

that is a very different comic.

For the first time
on television,

Richard Pryor.

[applause]

[Ron De Blasio]: In the '60s,

most everybody was doing
white bread comedy,

meaning comedy that would be
presentable for television.

America was a happy place,

and everybody was determined
to keep it light.

[applause]

[Saul]: If you look at
Richard's first performance

on national TV,

he talks about basically
growing up in a tenement

with this interracial
group of people,

and it's like he's growing up
in a New York apartment building

that's very colorful, lively.

My mother's Puerto Rican
and my father's Negro,

and we lived in a real big
Jewish tenement building...

[laughter]

...in an Italian neighborhood.

[laughter]

Every time I go outside,
the kids say,

"Get him! He's all of them!"

[laughter]

[Saul]: And it's
a complete invention,

because he can't talk
about how he grew up

in a set of brothels
run by his grandmother.

If he were to do that,

it would have been death,
you know?

It wouldn't have been comedy

as America construed it
at that time.

[Pryor]: I were...

I was born in Peoria, Illinois.

[laughter]

What's that?

[Pryor]:
That's a city, nigger.

[laughter]

[Saul]: When Richard
is born in 1940,

Peoria is the most
unchecked Sin City in America.

You have gambling,
you have prostitution,

you have corruption,

you know, all these things
totally unchecked.

[Greg Tate]: He went to school
with white kids,

and came home
across the tracks

to the place
where white men came

to get with Black sex workers,

one of whom included his mom.

You're talking about
as far off the entitled,

privileged path of Hollywood

as we can imagine.

[Pryor]: I was a child.

There was, like, about
10 houses on this block,

Washington Street,

and that was in the days

when the women used to peck
on the window with quarters,

[tapping lightly] T-t-t...

for customers.

[tapping] "Hello?"

They'd be talking
through the window.

Nobody can hear them
out on the streets.

And I grew up seeing my mother
go in a room with a man.

Now, I used to peek
through keyholes

to watch people make love.

Not "love."

That's the truth.

[Saul]: I think to understand
Richard's personality,

you have to start with
his grandmother, Marie,

who he called "Mama"
his whole life,

because she really did
raise him,

and she was his rock,

but she was a very jagged rock.

In some ways, she had to be
a brutal person,

because she was the law

in the set of brothels she ran.

In her bra, she would keep
a straight razor.

But the brothel was really
a family business.

Buck, his father,
was the enforcer,

and then you had Gertrude,
his mother, a prostitute.

[Jennifer Lee Pryor]:
He had to go to court

to choose between
the grandmother and the mother.

With whom is he
going to live?

And of course, the grandmother
is staring at him

while he's on the stand,

you know,
"You'd better say me,"

and he'd been coached before,

and he chose his grandmother.

In order to keep himself safe,

he had to break
his mother's heart.

I mean, that's
quite a choice to make.

[Michael Epps]: He had
a deep relationship

for his grandmother, you know?

She was like his master.

She had total control
over his brain,

over his emotions,
over his mind, how he felt,

you know...

she was a savior to him,

to some degree.

[***]

[Todd Boyd]:
Richard is coming up

in the 1960s as a Black comic

at a time when there was really
no public understanding

of Black comedy
in the mainstream.

...Let me see,
where was I at? Oh yeah.

[Boyd]: The real comedy
was taking place

on what was known
as the Chitlin Circuit,

this segregated circuit
of Black comedy clubs,

performance venues
across the nation.

He's not performing
for a white audience.

He's performing
for other Black people.

[Saul]: Pryor
doesn't spend that long

on the Chitlin Circuit.

He sees Bill Cosby
has made it.

He's a Black comedian

who's somehow making it
in mainstream America,

and he says,

you know, "I figure,
I gotta be that guy."

And the next thing you know,

he's hightailing it to New York.

[Jimmie Walker]: Richard,

his whole thing was
at that time Bill Cosby,

because Bill Cosby

was the most successful
Black comedian in America,

even though
not considered Black.

He was not a 'hood guy,

so Richard, even though
being from the 'hood,

un-'hooded himself.

Let's say hello
to Bill Cosby!

[applause]

[***]

I'd, uh, I'd just like
to take time out here

and talk about athletes
in television commercials.

I watch a lot of advertising
on television.

Commercials are really funny.

"Aftershave,
it's wonderful.

It's cool.

And it's smooth."

That's a lie.

"Miss Jones, what do you think
of our Washday detergent?"

"I like it, I love it,
I use it all the time.

I brush my teeth with it,
I wash my hair with it.

Send a check."

[laughter]

[***]

[applause and cheering]

[applause]

[Epps]: Performing
in front of Whitey,

in that time, in that society,

we want a clean Black man.

We want a Black man to show
"Everything's perfect.

I have a family.

Look, I'm better than
the rest of the Black people."

Do you know what it feels like

for a Black comic
to walk out on the stage

and not see his people
in the audience?

The check is good,

but goddamn.

That [bleep] ride
from that venue home is tough.

You know...

I'm pretty sure
that's how he felt

as a Black man.

[applause]

[***]

[Jennifer]: Onstage,
Richard existed in a place

that was transcendent,

and it was like
gills on a fish.

He was able to breathe and...

[exhales]

As soon as he's off-stage,

he really didn't know
how to operate in the world.

Drugs allowed him to be

something other than himself
with a memory,

a memory of that childhood.

I mean, Richard should have
been in therapy,

but he wasn't.

He found drugs.

[Henry Jaglom]:
I called him up excited

because he had never done acid,

and it's important it was
on the seventh floor.

I'm sitting there
having my acid trip,

and he's sitting over here
having his,

and I look over,

and I see he's trying
to jump out of the window,

and I had been having
this wonderful experience,

but I'm now realizing that
I can't let go of his foot,

and he said
he saw something horrible,

he doesn't want
to tell me what it is,

but he felt he had to kill it,

and that, I must admit,
is when I recognized

that our backgrounds
were so profoundly different,

and had left
such serious scars on him

that it affected the capacity
to continue the friendship

in the same kind of way.

[***]

[Saul]: He starts really
leading a double life.

You know, on the one hand,
he's continuing to work

for places like
the Kraft Summer Music Hall,

Ed Sullivan,

for mainstream white America.

On the other hand,
Richard felt like

American TV
wanted to censor people

and wanted people

not to represent
the world as it was,

and, in fact,

one of his greatest sketches
from the time

is about, you know,
what does it mean

to be both somebody who's doing
menial work for white people,

and on the other hand,
have these kind of superpowers

that you know
you really want to tap into.

[boy cries]:
It's a bird!

[man calls]:
It's a plane!

No, it's the liner man!

A hero, a Black hero.

I always wanted to go to movies
and see a Black hero.

I figured out maybe someday
on television,

they'll have it, man.

Like, you'll see on television,

and he'll come out, "Whoosh!

[imitates newsreel theme]

[sings triumphant
superhero theme]

"Look! Up in the sky!

It's a crow!"

[laughter]

"It's a bat!"

[laughter]

"No! It's Supernigger!"

[singing triumphant
superhero theme]

[laughter]

[***]

[Saul]: But this double life
is not really sustainable,

and it implodes
in spectacular ways

when he's asked to be
one of the headliners

at a gig at the Aladdin Hotel
in Las Vegas.

[***]

[Walker]:
Richard told me about it.

It's a nice gig,
you're in Vegas, it's fabulous.

You got the big suite,

you got the $100-a-day
meal money,

but there was
no Black people in the crowd,

and he said,

"I just couldn't get in front
of those white faces anymore."

[Epps]: They say Richard Pryor
walked off the stage.

"Why the [bleep]
I gotta entertain them?"

You know?

"This ain't the people
at the brothel.

This ain't the mother[bleep]s
in the street.

This ain't the people
at the liquor store," you know?

Like, "I'm cheating them

and myself,

because I've let
somebody influence me

that really
ain't no better than me.

Bill Cosby's clean.

Families love him.

And this is the way
that I'm supposed to go?

I can't go that way.

That's not authentic."

[Walker]: He ran out
into the casino from backstage,

and jumped naked
on the blackjack table

and said, "Black jack,"

by waving his penis
on the table.

They threw him
out of the casino.

He just left that night,
and he was gone.

Because of his breakdown

that he experienced
that evening,

he decided to walk away
from the game,

and he drove up to the Bay Area,

and basically went on hiatus.

[Saul]: Richard travels
up to Berkeley,

and because of campus unrest

and unrest in the city,

Ronald Reagan
as governor of California

declared martial law.

For weeks in Berkeley,

it was occupied
by the National Guard,

so people who were there
in Berkeley

felt like the state
was trying to crush them.

Richard has
the amazingly good fortune

to meet up with a group
of Black intellectuals,

and this is what takes him

into some very
experimental places.

[Ishmael Reed]: Cecil Brown
used to have this,

what do you call it?
A salon.

You would meet
all kinds of characters.

Angela Davis and Huey Newton
were all hanging out,

so that's the atmosphere
that Pryor came into

when he left Las Vegas.

I saw Richard Pryor.

He was very tame.

He did a performance
that was not really memorable.

It didn't have any bite.

We didn't go for that
Las Vegas stuff.

He couldn't get away
with that stuff in Berkeley.

They said, "You're just doing,
like, an act.

You're not doing you.

You gotta do what is you."

And they got him
into his grandmother.

They got him into the wino guy
and everything like that,

and he talked it out on tapes.

That's when things changed.

[tapping microphone]

[Pryor]: It's, uh,
really hard to be funny

when, you know,
what went down at Attica.

You know,
it really upsets me.

I wrote something about it
I'd like to read to you.

"Murder the dogs,

the mad,
frothing-at-the-mouth dogs,

with expensive capped teeth

and fat bellies
full of babies starving.

No, don't wait until they die,
kill them now,

because if you let them live
and die a natural death,

you'll be bitten
and left to die in agony,

and the mad dog pack

will then sniff out and search
for your children to eat,

eat whole,
flesh, bones, and soul."

[Reed]: He was searching
for a direction.

He was searching for a stance,
politically and culturally,

and he went back and forth.

Now, let's pretend
like the lights are out,

and there ain't no cameras,
and none of that shit.

You dig?

Then I can get down.

[Saul]:
Coming out of Berkeley,

he performs at the Improv
in New York.

He met audiences

who hadn't followed him
on his transformation.

They were expecting

the Richard Pryor
of Ed Sullivan, you know,

and instead, they got
the Richard Pryor of Berkeley.

I remember tricks used to
come through our neighborhood.

That's where I first met
white people.

They'd come down
through our neighborhood

to help the economy.

[laughter]

Nice white dudes, though.

Because I could have
been a bigot.

You know what I mean?

I could have been prejudiced.

I could have been prejudiced.

I could have been, man,
but I met nice white men.

Just come in and,
"Hello, little boy.

Is your mother home?
I'd like a blow job."

[laughter]

Hmm...

[Haddish]: There's definitely
a certain amount of courage

you have to have.

"Yeah, my daddy's a pimp,
my mama's a whore.

My grandmama
runs a whorehouse."

America didn't want to hear
about that kind of stuff.

That wasn't
politically correct.

-This ain't as funny

as we thought
it was going to be.

[Sandra Bernhard]:
He jumped into

the deep end of his psyche.

Somebody had to be
the first one to do it,

and he was
one of the first people.

Once you tell the truth,
there's no going back,

and at the same time,
it takes its toll,

because you're sharing
those memories with people,

and can you really trust people
with that information?

They're laughing,

but also suddenly
you're a raw nerve.

All of us
have something to say,

but some are never heard.

Over seven years ago,

the people of Watts
stood together

and demanded to be heard.

On a Sunday

this past August
in the Los Angeles Coliseum,

over 100,000 Black people
came together

to commemorate that moment
in American history.

[***]

[Boyd]: The Wattstax
documentary

was intended as a recognition

of the Watts riots from 1965.

There was an all-day concert

from the Stax label,

The Staple Singers,

Rufus Thomas,

the Bar-Kays,

headlined by Isaac Hayes.

[crowd cheering]

Richard Pryor fits perfect
in the documentary

as a sort of additional
layer of commentary.

He's talking about it in a way
that is especially Black.

I mean, they accidentally
shoot more niggers out here

than any place in the world.

Every time I pick up a paper,

"Nigger accidentally
shot in the ass."

[laughter]

How do you accidentally
shoot a nigger

six times in the chest?

"Well, my gun fell
and just went crazy."

[laughter]

[Saul]: Wattstax is a real
crucial turning point

for Richard.

Before this point,

Richard is largely like
the one Black face

in a kind of
a countercultural cavalcade,

but with Wattstax, suddenly

he's like the narrator
of the Black condition,

and that makes him

a perfect person
to desegregate Hollywood

in the years to come.

One of the most brilliant
comedy minds in existence,

and a man who many consider
the funniest man alive,

Mr. Richard Pryor.

[applause]

[laughing in delight]

[Boyd]:
The thing about Richard Pryor

is like a lot of performers
from his era,

he was never just one thing.

You see Richard in movies
like Lady Sings the Blues

playing Piano Man.

It's very clear

that Richard Pryor
is an amazing talent.

Now, Richard,

it seems that you're really
kind of stretching out

in terms of
expressing yourself.

Yes.

[mock awkwardness]
That is true.

I am stretching out.

[laughter]

I am in a movie
currently at the theatres

in your neighborhood...

[laughter]

" Lady Sings the Blues ."

[applause]

[Tomlin]: We were working
at his house

when Berry Gordy called him

to tell him
he'd seen a screening

of Lady Sings the Blues ,

and there was Oscar talk
for Richard,

and I could see
how pleased he was,

how excited he was that...

that he was liked,

or appreciated in some way.

[drum roll]

From Television City
in Hollywood, Lily Tomlin!

[applause]

[Tomlin]: I had an offer
to do a special at CBS,

and I wanted Richard
more than anybody

to be on the show.

Jane Wagner, my partner,

who was one of the producers
of the show,

wrote "Juke and Opal,"

the piece about
the woman with the diner

who is friends
with this junkie, Juke,

who's in a methadone program.

Give me a bowl of soup.

I oughta give you
a bowl of methadone,

that's what I oughta do.

Mmm...

That's what I'm strung out
on now, that methadone.

He comes in, and he's cold.

He just so embodies it.
He's so good,

and then he starts eating
the potato soup,

and he says,
"I ain't caught a potato yet."

That's homemade
potato soup.

It needs salt.

No, it needs some potatoes.

Where is the potatoes?
[laughter]

[Saul]: He's taking people

who are in
the throes of addiction,

but cannot be reduced to that.

They are not one-dimensional.

They have all this
emotional capacity

and sensitivity.

It packs such
an incredible portrait

of interracial intimacy,
affection, ambivalence,

into that 10 minutes
of TV drama.

All right.

Here... here's your 10 back.

I ain't gonna buy
no more potatoes.

[Tomlin]: Well, while
we were filming this special,

I'd always heard

the executives were watching
everything upstairs,

and sure enough,
the whole stage...

shooting stopped,
and everybody had disappeared.

The executives
came down and told us,

you know, they didn't want
to see this on the show,

because it was about race
and all that stuff,

but by that time,

I had learned
to film one thing

to trade for another,

and I traded it
for Juke and Opal.

It was good.

I mean, the suits were upset.

[laughs]

[Saul]: At this point,

he had failed
as a Hollywood actor,

not critically,

because he had done
wonderful performances,

but he wasn't getting calls,

and so it was because
he had to earn a living

that he was like,

"I guess I've got to go back
to that stand-up stage."

You know, like, when
the Martians landed and shit,

white folks got scared.

They're all,
"Golly, I'll tell ya,

just a big old helicopter thing
came down and landed,

the people got out, had that fur
all over their bodies...

Jesus Christ!"

[laughter]

Nothing can scare a nigger...

after 400 years of this shit.

[laughter and applause]

I mean, right?
A Martian ain't got a chance.

A nigger would warn the Martian.

"You better get your ass
away from around here."

[laughter and applause]

"You done landed
on Mr. Gilmore's property."

[laughter]

[Tate]:
He made this comedy album

that had the impact of, like,
a great hit record.

It felt as big as Thriller
at the time.

Like, if you were Black,
this was in your household.

[Pryor]: Allwell
would fight the police.

He's one of them crazy
"shoot me" niggers.

"Well, kill me!"

[laughter]

"Shoot me, mother[bleep]!

Hi-ya! Oh, shit..."

[laughter]

"Oh, goddamn."

[Epps]: You think
America wanted to know

what a bunch of niggers
was doing in a room

with some fish sandwiches,

and niggers shooting craps,

and prostitutes and pimps,

and mother[bleep]s
selling radios, and...

that was a hidden world
that people didn't know about,

and Richard Pryor put it on wax

and made it beautiful.

[***]

The impact was huge.

I don't know how you feel
about the title of your album,

but I find it
difficult to say.

-You do?
-Yes, I do.

Most white people,
it's hard to say "crazy."

[laughter]

No. The title...

You tell them
the title of your album.

I can't say this.

The title of the album
is "That Nigger's Crazy."

[laughter]

I mean, don't that nigger
look crazy?

[laughter]
That is one crazy nigger.

But don't you get--

[laughter]

See, now, you can just
say that and...

if I said it,
wouldn't you get mad?

I'd punch you out.

[laughter and applause]

Of course!

[Tate]: Pryor
and the word "nigger."

Pryor and the most dangerous,

endearing, and hurtful word

in the English language
all at once,

depending on who's using it,
and to whom,

and with what intention.

See, niggers can say "nigger"
with different feelings,

like "Hey, nigger!
What's happening?"

"Nigger!"
"Hey, my nigger!"

But white people say,
"Hey, nigger."

[laughter]

"Come here, nigger,
I'm gonna tell you something."

[laughter]

"See that tree?

Go hang yourself on it."

[laughter]

[Boyd]: Richard understood

the inherent controversy
of the word,

but he also knew

that that word had
a different meaning

when used amongst
African-Americans,

and so he brings this all out
into the public

on an album that is
his first major album,

and I think the beginning

of a very new phase
in his career,

as he's soon to become

the most dominant cultural
and comedic voice

in the country.

[Thom Mount]: As I moved up
in the studio ranks,

the question was,

"What can we do
that nobody else is doing?"

And what appealed to me
enormously was comedy.

There was a saxophone player

who was headlining
a bad jazz club in Van Nuys.

Richard did 20 minutes,
opening act.

Stunning.

I went backstage
to talk to him.

He was doing heroin at the time,
so that wasn't a good sign.

I told him I wanted him
to come to Universal,

and he thought
that was a good idea,

and this was all backstage
at this place,

and that turned into
many pictures

over many years.

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!

Amen!

He agreed to do
a one-day part for me

in Car Wash ,

where he plays
this bootleg preacher

based on a real guy
named Reverend Ike.

Richard did the scene
with the Pointer Sisters,

and it was,
it was hilarious.

There's a good place
in this world for money.

Yes, siree,
and I know where it is.

It's right here in my pocket.

[laughter]

One of Richard's
great breakthroughs in this time

as a Hollywood actor

is an experience

that he actually didn't value
that much at the time,

which is his role
starring with Gene Wilder

in Silver Streak .

He starts off
with a very small part,

but again, they find that
he's so good at improvisation

that suddenly
there's a new life

injected into the film.

[Tate]: In the context
of these films,

he didn't have a problem
tucking it all in,

and not being
the dynamic Richard Pryor

we knew from stand-up,

but being this other guy,

to be the Black buddy
inside of a buddy movie.

He and Hollywood,
for most of his film career,

are doing this dance

where they're
trying each other out.

They're giving him
just enough room,

and he's giving them
just enough of his attitude

and his edge

to still maintain
a certain amount of integrity.

[***]

Come on, nigger!

Damn! They trying
to knock him over the wall!

Get out of my way, nigger!

He decides to take this movie

called Greased Lightning ,

playing a race car driver,
Wendell Scott,

and we were in a town
called Madison, Georgia,

but it had all of the mentality

of the real deep South,

and one of the things
about Richard

is that he always
had a commitment

to have as many
Black supporting actors

and crew people as possible,

so here was an almost
all-Black crew

that Richard had put together,

and the townspeople
were apoplectic,

and the sheriff finally called
a town meeting,

and he said, "Look, y'all.

These niggers will be gone

in three weeks.

Do not mess with the money."

[laughs]

And calmed them down, you know,

to a degree.

All right, nigger.

[Saul]: During the filming
of Greased Lightning ,

Richard records an album

which may stand

as his most fearless
achievement as a comedian,

and it shows how far
he was taking American comedy.

[Boyd]:
" Bicentennial Nigger ."

I mean, that's the funniest
thing in the world,

because the Bicentennial,

1776 to 1976,

was such a moment of patriotism
in American society,

but a lot of people were asking

how far have
African-Americans come

during this time?

Ladies and gentlemen,

the President
of the United States.

[applause]

[Boyd]: The celebration
of the United States

was a white celebration,

because Black people
had been marginal

throughout most,
if not all, of that time,

so Richard is
acknowledging the time,

"Bicentennial,"

but he's putting
a particular twist on it.

[Saul]: The title track

is this stick of dynamite
with a slow fuse.

What that track does
is it says, you know,

where did Black humor come from?

It came from

not people trying
to entertain people,

but it comes from
the slave ships.

It comes from the person
who's on the slave ship rowing,

and is crying and thinking,

"Yesterday, I was a king,"

and that gap between
what you have in your heart,

what you have in your soul,

your sense of worth as a person,

and how erased you've been
by America,

that gap creates
a space for humor.

And so he starts thinking about,

"Well, what has America wanted
from us as Black people?

It's wanted us
to present ourselves

as these minstrel figures

who consent
to our own servitude,

who consent to our own slavery,"

and the way it ends
is with this person

who's acting like
a kind of minstrel.

[Pryor]:
Then they split us all up.

Yassir, they took my mama
over that way,

took my wife that way,

took my kids, oh yeah.

Yuk, yuk, yuk!

I'm just so happy.

Yuk, yuk, yuk.

I don't know what to do.

I don't know
what to do

if I don't get
200 more years of this.

Yuk, yuk, yuk!

Lord have mercy.

That's something.

I don't know
where my old mama is now.

She up yonder

in that big
white folks' in the sky.

Yuk, yuk, yuk.

Y'all probably
done forgot about it.

Yuk, yuk, yuk!

But I ain't gonna never
forget it.

Heave!

[whip cracks, drum beats]

Heave!

[screaming]
Captain! Captain!

Hold it, hold it!

[screams]

What is it? What is it?

Captain, the men,

they're dropping
like flies up there!

[growling] All right.

It's time for another one.

Another one, huh?

You!

No!

[laughter]

Where are you taking me?

You're going to NBC!

You're going to do
your own special!

[screaming] Oh, no! No!

[laughter]

[Urbisci]: I started
hanging out at the Comedy Store.

That's how I got to meet
Letterman and Robin.

One night, I followed Richard
out into the parking lot,

and he turned to me and he said,
"What the [bleep] do you want?"

I said, "Will you do a...

a television special?"

He said, "Sell it."

He got in the car
and drove away.

That was it.

[Boyd]: Network television
in the late 1970s

was very conservative.

Richard Pryor
was not conservative

by any stretch
of the imagination,

but even with those challenges,

there are still
some great skits.

Richard Pryor playing

the nation's first
Black president

speaks to the fact
that in 1977,

the idea of a Black president
was still a joke.

-Mr. President, Mr. President.
-Yes?

Mr. President,
now, your predecessor,

you know, President Carter?

Now, his mother was
a nurse before--

What is your
question about, sir?

[laughter]

My question? I'm leading up
to my question.

The question
is about your mother--

[shouts of protest]
Whoa! Hey!

[Bernhard]: When NBC offered
Pryor this variety show,

he wanted young,
interesting talent,

and Paul Mooney
was really responsible

for putting together
that ensemble.

From the first day
that America recognized him

as a stand-up comic,

the critics knew
we had something unique.

Who else would have the nerve

to do Bill Cosby's
entire routine?

[laughter]

[Bernhard]: It was
a great crash course

in being around genius,

but also being around
somebody who was...

so sensitive

and so in tune
with what made them happy

and what made them unhappy

that the whole project imploded
within two months.

Any time there was a censor,

or any sort of, like, editing,

he was just freaking out.

[voiceover]:
I am an NBC spokesman,

and I will be happy to tell you
what Mr. Pryor is saying.

"Gosh, I'm just
pleased as punch

to be continuing on
as part of the NBC family.

They truly understand me."

[Urbisci]:
Listen, he wasn't stupid.

He knew when he went
on primetime television,

his movie pay doubled,

his exposure doubled,

his whole thing to America
who didn't know him.

Everybody knew
who Richard Pryor was.

When he said "sell it"
in the parking lot,

he was way ahead of me.

He's just thankful
somebody asked him.

"If this little [bleep]
can get me on TV,

I'm going to do it."

[Pryor]: A lot of people
said it was canceled,

and the show wasn't canceled.

You know, we only did
four shows,

and that was our intent,

because it's really...

it's hard work
trying to do something

and people telling you
you can't.

Do you really think

that some of the guys
that you've dealt with at NBC,

that some of these guys

really want to promote racism?

Actively?
Or is it subconscious?

I just think
it's part of capitalism,

is to promote racism...

you know, right?

[Saul]: By 1977, in some ways,

Richard Pryor's career
couldn't be any better,

you know, he's starring
in major Hollywood films,

he has his own TV show.

On the other hand,
he's completely falling apart

under the weight
of his obligations,

and you see him both
exhibit his fearlessness

as an artist and performer,

and also implode utterly

at the Hollywood Bowl.

[Tomlin]: The deal
at the Hollywood Bowl, I said,

"Look, I'm going to ask Richard
if you want him to be here,

but," I said, "You're going
to get Richard."

He just has to shake things up.

He just had to.

And he came out on stage,

and it was a largely
gay audience.

I came here for human rights.

[Saul]: He was told this was
a benefit for human rights,

and that was the organizers
of the concert

being euphemistic.

If this is about gay rights,

he wants to basically say,

you know, we should talk
about gay sex.

We should talk about

the right for people
to do whatever they want

with whatever parts
of their anatomy.

And he gets very explicit.

I have [bleep] a dick.

[applause and cheering]

Almost from the get-go,

he said, "I've [bleep] a dick."

You know?

And, man, they're cheering
"Yay, yay," and all that stuff,

and then it just went--

Then he just
threw it in their face.

It's the first time in my life

I ever realized
that [bleep] are prejudiced,

because I don't see
no niggers out here.

And he ends up with,
"Kiss my rich Black ass."

You know, and he exits...

Anyway.

And everybody
went a little nuts.

And when the niggers
was burning down Watts,

you mother[bleep]s was doing
what you wanted to do

on Hollywood Boulevard,

didn't give a shit about it.

Then kiss my happy
rich Black ass.

[Mount]: Richard's polymorphous
experience as a child

spilled over particularly
when he was high,

when his guard was down,

and I think that was
a very difficult night.

I'm not surprised by any of it,

nor am I horrified
by any of it.

Richard was never
politically correct.

[Jennifer]: You know, there was
shame surrounding his childhood,

but he was also very open
about his sexuality.

I mean, it was the '70s.

You'd [bleep] a radiator

and send it flowers
in the morning.

Right?

It was--
I mean, we were all doing--

Threesomes? Yeah.

That was just,
you know, '70s shit.

[laughs]

Richard
never had a girlfriend

and never had a wife.

He really didn't.

I mean, I hate to say it,

but he never had that,

because they were
very disposable for him.

It just went because he was
Richard Pryor.

[Jennifer]:
Richard had a seriously

complicated relationship

with women.

I think he loved women.

He was a womanizer, certainly.

But I think he was terrified
of abandonment,

and I believe that came
from where he came from,

that duality
with the grandmother,

the abandonment
from his own mother...

He had a really hard time
believing

that he could be loved.

I can't tell whether
you really like women,

or you really hate women,

or that whether women
really hurt you at some time,

which perhaps gives you
a rather ambivalent feeling

towards them.

I think, uh... women...

[clears throat]

if they don't hurt you,
they don't love you.

I mean, love hurts.
It's very painful.

New Year's Eve,

by shooting up the car
of his recent wife,

Deborah McGuire,

and this is
a criminal incident,

and so he is mandated
by the judge in that case

to submit
to psychological counseling.

The charges stem
from an incident yesterday

when Pryor reportedly
argued with his wife

and two houseguests.

He allegedly
rammed his Mercedes

into the guests' car
when they tried to leave,

then fired 10 shots
into the car.

[Jennifer]: The road
that Richard traveled

was a fast and furious road.

I mean, one week
in Richard's life

is like 25 years
to somebody living in Indiana.

I mean, he just was...

such a clip, you know,
such a fast pace.

We started dating in 1978.

He didn't want a [bleep] nurse.

He wanted a ride-or-die bitch,
you know.

He did.

And he wanted company
on this journey,

somebody who could hang.

I could hang.

[***]

[Saul]: Richard,
he's going to therapy.

He's reliving his life.

He's also going
to the Comedy Store

and woodshedding a new act

in which he's reflecting on
what made him Richard Pryor,

on growing up
with his grandmother,

the kind of discipline
that he got from her,

and the relationship he had
with his father,

and out of this

comes his arguably
crowning achievement,

Richard Pryor: Live in Concert .

I'd like to die
like my father died.

Right, my father died [bleep].

[laughter]

He did.

My father was 57
when he died, right?

And the woman was 18.

[laughter]

My father came and went
at the same time.

[laughter]

So how does a middle-class,
white Jewish kid

relate to the life of somebody

who grew up
raised by his grandmother

in a cathouse,

who's been drug-addled,

been through
so many relationships?

How do I relate
and laugh at this?

And that's the brilliance
of Richard.

The brilliance of Richard

is he made us all realize
that we're humans.

[laughter]

My grandmother
could do that shit real good.

"Help me, Jesus Lord!
Help me, help me!

Take me! Take me!"

That's how she made me
stop snorting cocaine.

I had the nerve
to pull out some cocaine

at the dining room table.

She had never
seen me do any, right?

And she looked at me
a long time.

She's like, "Boy?

What's that you're
putting up your nose?"

I said, "Cocaine, Mama."

"Jesus God!

Take me now, Lord!
Take me now!

God, save my life!
Take me, take me, take me!

Lord, help me, Jesus Christ..."

[***]

[Epps]: You get into
that crossover world.

These people are paying
to laugh at your pain,

and it made him angry...

because that shit
was really hurting him,

and everyone's like,
"Oh, we love you.

You're great."

And he's like, "What?

You know how painful
that shit was

I had to go through

to make you laugh?

And you want to give me
some [bleep] money for it?"

[laughter]

See,
they're filming some shit.

I wanted to tell y'all.

I mean, like you didn't know.

Y'all ain't gonna get paid
shit, either.

[laughter]

So don't be asking me
for a mother[bleep] thing

when the show's over.

[applause]

[Epps]: You could tell
Richard Pryor loved his craft.

That's what made him strong.

Talent saved his life.

You know?

If he had not have found that,

he would have been still
back in Peoria

standing with the winos.

Them the mother[bleep]s
that didn't find they talent.

So imagine you standing there
with them,

you find your talent,

you go off, become famous, rich,

everybody loves you,

don't know your past,

can't feel what you feel,

and you know, everybody's,
"Oh, we love you!"

And you turn around,

and them winos is back here
saying, "Richard!

Remember us, nigger?

Oh, you think
you're better than us?"

"I don't think I'm better."

"Yes, you do."

"Okay.

I'm gonna go beat myself up.

Would that make you
feel better?"

Because that's usually

what makes mother[bleep]s
feel better.

People have a tendency of...

of being a better friend to you

when you [bleep] up.

[Jennifer]:
The concert film comes out.

I mean, he really now
crosses over.

Bam! He's huge.

All kinds of things
are going on.

Offers are coming in.

People are coming to the house
all the time to meet with him,

Scripts, directors,
writers, offers.

Da-da-da...
Everything's happening.

Everything's happening,
everything's happening.

When the grandmother dies,

bam!

Everything kicks into
another gear.

[Walker]: If you heard him
talk about his grandmother,

I mean, it was
in a God-like manner.

I mean, he loved, loved,
loved his grandmother.

When his grandmother died,
he was out of it.

[Jennifer]:
One day, he's at the house,

and I knew something
was wrong immediately.

Like, what the [bleep]
is going on?

I smelled something.

I smelled fire.

I go back into the bedroom,

and he's standing there,

and the mattress is on fire.

He was freebasing already.

That had started,

and fire was there.

I mean, this was a precursor
to what was going to happen.

[Jennifer]:
When he discovered that pipe,

which he used to call
"the devil's glass dick,"

all hell broke loose then.

I moved out

because, uh...

the drug had moved in.

[Pryor]: Freebasing!

I freebased about
eight months straight.

[laughter]

My bitch left me,
I went crazy.

[laughter]

But I fell in love
with this pipe.

[laughter]

This pipe controlled
my very being.

This mother be saying,
"Don't answer the phone."

[laughter]

"We have smoking to do."

[laughter]

[***]

They're paying me
$2 million to do this movie.

Do you believe it?

My grandmother didn't make that
all her life,

and she was a better woman
than you are a man.

[laughs]

[interviewer]: Do you want
to talk about this movie?

Yeah, sure.

What do you want to know
about this movie?

[interviewer]:
"Stir Crazy--"

It sucks! [laughs]

[interviewer]:
Gene Wilder said that--

Gene Wilder ain't shit.
He's a [bleep].

[interviewer]: No, come on.
You don't mean that.

Gene Wilder attracts pussy.

Gene Wilder attracts pussy,
and some pretty white boys.

[laughter]

[Saul]: Richard could be
incredibly reliable

as an actor on a set,

but by the time we get
to a film like Stir Crazy ,

you know, he's deep in this hole

of his drug addiction.

Richard Pryor is a criminal.

I come from criminal people.

I will be a criminal.

I didn't get caught yesterday
buying seven pounds of cocaine

in front of eight policemen.

[laughter]

[Jennifer]:
The feds were on the set

because he was purchasing
from Hell's Angels,

and he had no clarity.

I mean, it...
he was gone on the drug.

I don't think people realize
how many drugs,

how many cigarettes,

how many drinks he had.

He'd say,
"See this bowl of coke?

This is more than you'll make
in the next two years."

He said that all the time.

I ain't no good.

I ain't trying to be no good.

I don't care what y'all think,

because y'all always told me
my mother was illegal,

my father was illegal.

[bleep] you.

[laughter]

[Jennifer]: There was
a combustion happening,

and I could see it happening.

It had accelerated to a point

where I really felt
the grandmother, Mama,

was pulling him
into the grave with her.

Okay...

It's okay, see?

Yeah.
Yeah, we're okay.

Okay?

-Yeah.
-It's okay.

I'm tip top.

[screaming]

Harry...

Harry, for God's sake!

[screaming]

You're going
to get us in trouble!

Harry, it's all right.

I can't take it.
I can't take it!

Wait a minute!
Wait a minute, Harry--

Mama!

Come here.
Here, Harry!

Mama!

Take your pill, take your pill.
There we are.

Three seconds, you'll see,
and it's over.

One thousand one,
one thousand two,

one thousand three.
Finished!

Finished!

[Jennifer]: Richard
had walked off the set

and said, "[bleep] you.
I'm not finishing this."

Hannah Weinstein called me

and said,
"Can you do something?"

I went out to the house,

and I said, "Richard,
we're going to be fine.

This is all going to pass.

You're going to get
off these drugs.

We're going to have
a good life.

We're going to have babies.

We're going to have
a wonderful life.

We're going to be okay."

I wanted to prove to Richard

that I was going to love him
no matter what,

and this love
would fix everybody.

It would fix me,
it would fix him...

but it was a mound of cocaine
like that

on this antique child's desk.

[***]

Aunt Dee was there
at the time,

and another bodyguard,

and these hangers-on
from Peoria.

I said, "He's going
to do something.

He's going to hurt himself."

"Get out of here."

They just... you know,
they dismissed me.

They didn't believe me.

I drove back to Beverly Hills.

I called the house, and I said,

"I want to talk to Richard,"

and the next thing I know,
the phone drops,

and I hear screaming.

Richard had run
through the kitchen on fire.

He had lit himself on fire.

June 9th, 1980.

He ran out of the house,

into the street,
running down the street...

[sirens wailing]

[police radio] ...Also, EMTs
will be arriving shortly...

[Walter Cronkite]: Paramedics
found writer and comedian

Richard Pryor wandering dazed

and badly burned over
the upper half of his body

near his Los Angeles-area home
last night.

When he first arrived
at the Sherman Oaks Hospital,

officials gave him only
one chance in three to survive.

[news]: Police and firemen
finally scaling a fence

to check the house
for evidence

of a butane cigarette lighter
which might have exploded.

They didn't find it.

His body functions
have stabilized.

By the very fact that he has
done well his first night,

the doctors and the staff
at Sherman Oaks Burn Center

are encouraged.

[Jennifer]: While he was
in the hospital,

he wouldn't see me.

I stopped going.

The night before he got out,
he called me

and said, "Come see me."

He was a different man.

I walked in, he was different.

He was just so changed.

It was as if the fire had...

taken something out of him.

I didn't recognize him.

Physically changed.

Spiritually.

I was... I was devastated.

[Richard]: The changes
are so immense for me.

It's like June 9th will be
my birthday, you know.

Because sometimes I feel like
there's a person, Richard Pryor,

and he does
all this comedy and stuff,

and then there's me,

and I wonder what I have to do
with Richard.

You know, I live in his house
and I drive his car,

and I spend his money...

[chuckles] you know,
but it ain't me. It's not me.

[Jennifer]: I started
seeing someone else.

I'm trying to move on
with my life,

and we didn't see each other
until January 1981,

and he asked me
to come to Hawaii.

I met him at the airport,
actually,

and he proposed.

He got high on grass,

and got very paranoid,

and I helped calm him down,

and he said, "You've been
so good to me.

I really...

I want you to marry me."

And I'm like, "Oh, my God,"

and a week later,
we were married.

The first time I went to Hana,

I understood who Richard was,

because it's a quiet place.

It's an elegant place.

It's one of the most beautiful
places I've ever seen.

I believe Richard found
his true peace there,

and it was such a dichotomy

to see this predatory creature
stalking the stage,

doing this hard-driving comedy,

and then you'd see him in Hana

become who Richard really was,
I believe,

which was this quiet,
elegant, serene soul.

And I just think all his pain
washed away there, you know?

And all his self-doubt,

self-recrimination
about his family

and where he came from.

I think it was just something
that he could grab hold of

that would allow him

just for a little while

leave all that sadness
behind, you know?

The fire was a suicide attempt.

He needed to still
ground himself.

But of course, those
loud voices of commerciality

prevailed...
when they shouldn't have.

Everyone's telling him,

"This is when you've got to do
another concert film."

We ended up going back
to Los Angeles.

It was too soon.

The craziness started,

the late nights,

and cocaine all night, and...

[sighs]

And shooting Live on Sunset

turned out to be... a problem.

[gently] Relax.

Calm down.

[laughter]

Because I feel
the tension from y'all.

Y'all want me to do so well.

I want to do so well for you.

But let's relax and enjoy...

[laughter]

...whatever
the [bleep] happens.

[laughter]

[Jennifer]:
While it was going on,

it was a damn nightmare.

He walked off stage
the first night.

The second night, he did well,

but they had to do re-shoots,

which nobody really knows.

They go, "Oh, it was so great.
He was...

He did a great comeback."

Meh, it was not
the great comeback

that everybody thought it was.

I remember the first time
I did freebase,

I burnt my bed up.

[laughter]

[drowsily] The bed's on fire?

[laughter]

The Sunset Strip , in my mind,

is really the last

strong piece of material he did.

I've been wrong.

I've got to re-group my shit.

I mean, I said,

I ain't gonna never call
another Black man a nigger.

[Boyd]: He makes
this pronouncement

that he's not going to use
the word "nigger" again.

When he said it,
people were like, "Whoa."

Richard Pryor

without the word "nigger"

is kind of like Muhammad Ali
without boxing gloves.

I mean, the thing is

Richard Pryor in the '80s
is able to make a lot of money.

[Saul]: Remember, he began
on the fringes of American life,

in this no-name brothel,

and first he starts
in these fringe productions,

but then he's going to become
a big Hollywood star.

The guy who grew up in a brothel

suddenly is
one of the major names

in '80s Hollywood.

[Jennifer]: We took a honeymoon
after we shot Live on Sunset ,

and we chartered a boat
in the Caribbean.

Well, trouble started
right away.

You know, marriage
doesn't fix anything...

and he hit me...

for the last time.

I said, "You're not
going to hit me anymore.

We're done."

I got off the boat
shortly thereafter,

flew back to L.A.,
hired a divorce attorney.

It was so crazy.

Oh, my God.

[laughs]

It was crazy.

It never stopped.

[Urbisci]:
After I did the Pryor show,

a few years went by.

I'm literally on the toilet,
and my phone rings.

"Rocco. It's Rich."

I went, "What's up, man?"

He said, "I want you to write
a movie with me,

about my life.

Where are you?"

I said, "I'm on the toilet."

"So after you're done
taking a shit,

come over to Columbia."

[laughs]

I said,
"What do you want to do, man?

You really want to do this?"

"I wanted you to know
what I experienced

as a kid in Peoria,

and how my grandmother
was so influential to me."

And I went, "Wow.

Whew!

I don't know...
I don't know, Rich.

I mean, I don't know
if I'm capable of doing this."

You know, when I was younger
and I watched Jo Jo Dancer ,

I did not understand it,

then I watched it again
when I got older,

and I was like, "Oh, yeah,"

because the underbelly
is, like, so dark, you know,

and how dramatic he was

but funny at the same time

was so beautiful.

[Jennifer]:
I was seeing him on and off

for that whole decade.

Richard didn't ever
let go of any women.

He would recycle us all.

But in 1989,

I worked with him on
See No Evil, Hear No Evil ,

and I remember one day,
I said to him,

"Why are you walking
like an old man?"

And he said, "I have
something to tell you."

And he told me he was
diagnosed with M.S.

He was drinking water glasses
full of vodka,

and taking pills,

and all sorts of hangers-on
were around,

and I said, "Richard..."

He said, "I need help.

I need you to help me."

I decided to come back
into his life.

I couldn't say no.

I had a tremendous...

not only still loved him,

but had a profound
sense of loyalty.

[crowd cheering]

[Michael Schultz]:
The last time I saw Richard,

he could hardly speak,

and he had a smile,

and a wistful kind of
painful wisdom

behind his eyes,

but we just kind of...

grabbed hands,

and, um, looked at each other,

you know?

[Tomlin]:
The last time I saw Pryor,

we sat and watched
two blessed hours

of clips of his,

and it was so wonderful,

and, uh...

and then, and it's double-edged,

because here he's sitting
in front of me

unable to move, and...

The way of life is too much.

[Jennifer]:
I still have his ashes.

He was cremated,

and his wish was
to spread them in Hana,

and I haven't done that yet...

Where he was most at peace,

where he was happiest,

where he loved being, you know,

that's where he should rest.

Yeah.

So we have to do that.

[***]

[Haddish]: Richard Pryor
has had a huge effect

on today's comedy.

He basically kicked
the freedom of speech door

wide open,

and I think that's what
Richard Pryor

was trying to say
the whole time.

Like, what your experience
in life is

is what makes you.

What your soul is
is what makes you,

not your skin,

and just because
my skin is like this

don't mean you should shoot me.

[***]

[Boyd]: Whores, pimps,

drugs, poverty, racism.

He took all that dark shit
and made it light.

[Urbisci]: Pryor was
a nice, safe comedian,

and then one day he got up
and goes, "You know what?

This is bullshit.

I have some stuff to say."

[Walker]: I would say
90% of Black comics

are trying to be Richard,

but they are no Richard Pryor.

There will only be one
Richard Pryor.

That's it.

Accept Richard for what he is,

listen to the albums,
watch the videos,

enjoy it like you would
a fine wine,

but do your own style.

[Mandel]: It was...

the brilliance
was making his world

relatable to everyone.

There will never be
anybody close.

There will never
be anybody like.

There will never be anybody
as important as Richard Pryor.

[Epps]: We're looking at
an oblivious...

genius.

Oblivious.

Don't know what the [bleep]
is going, just...

that's how you know
he was a gift to us from God,

because he made it
through that flame.

You make it through that flame

so that you are able
to talk to us

and tell us about it?

A jewel.

[Jennifer]: I think Richard
would want to be remembered

for making people laugh, sure,

but on a bigger scale,

for telling the truth,

and how important that is.

I think that is
the bigger message for Richard,

and that Richard would want
to be remembered for.

[Pryor]:
We are...

gathered here today...

on this sorrowful occasion

to say goodbye

to the dearly departed.

In other words,
the nigger dead.

[laughter and applause]

Can I get an amen?

[audience]: Amen!

[Richard laughs]

[applause]

[***]