I posted a notice about Richard Pryor’s birthday to my Facebook page and got enough action on it that it seemed more attention was due for the clown prince’s special day. Pryor would have been 75 this week (born December 1, 1940). Pryor started his career modelling himself on the clean style of Bill Cosby, but he found the counterculture crowd preferred him profane and wanted to hear about the kinds of gritty realities Pryor knew from his early childhood where he was raised in his grandmother’s brothel. At the height of his powers Pryor all but abandoned jokes, telling stories and inhabiting characters, presaging the observational style that characterized the comedy boom of the 1980′s and laid the foundation for superstars like Jerry Seinfeld.

It might seem hard to believe, but Pryor actually had his own television show for kids in the mid-1980′s. Pryor’s Place featured the eponymous star as a variety of characters interacting with a cast of regulars including kids, adults and several puppet characters. The show’s writer was Pryor’s longtime comedy partner, Paul Mooney, and the theme song was sung by Ray Parker Jr. of “Ghostbusters” fame. Parker also appeared in the show’s opening credits. See for yourself…

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In our ongoing examination of avant garde artists, here is yet another example of what happens when a sharp-edged talent takes a stab at the mainstream. Here’s a hint — it’s a bloodbath.

In 1977 Richard Pryor got his own television show on NBC. On paper, the decision made sense — Pryor was already on his way to becoming a legendary stand-up comedian, he’d written for a number of television shows and was the first black host in the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live.

By the 1980′s television shows became the gold ring of the stand-up circuit so Pryor’s early transition from the stage to the small screen was both a milestone and a cautionary tale. Here’s the Wiki…

The Richard Pryor Show premiered on NBC in 1977, but was canceled after only four episodes. Television audiences did not respond to the show’s controversial subject matter, and Pryor was unwilling to alter his material for network censors. During the short-lived series, he portrayed the first African-American President of the United States, spoofed the Star Wars cantina, took on gun violence, and in another skit, used costumes and visual distortion to appear nude.

Pryor was ready to quit before production even began because of network intervention, indifference, and incompetence during the development stage. He was eventually wooed back, agreeing to do four episodes of the show instead of the ten originally required by his contract. The four episodes were produced, and they aired in consecutive weeks, but the network interference that almost canceled the show before it began returned when the first episode’s introductory bit was cut just before air. The bit began with a close-up of Pryor’s face as he explained that he was not going to have to give anything up in order to bring his brand of comedy to network television. Then the camera pulled back to show an apparently nude Pryor with his genitals removed (Pryor wore a full-length body stocking, so no nudity was shown).

Pryor only filmed four episodes of the show, and there were controversies beyond the first episode’s title-card scene. A skit in which Pryor appeared as a machine gun-toting rocker who kills all of his white fans also caused a stir. The second episode also featured a controversial skit that showed a woman in a park describing what her first lesbian experience was like. Probably one of the most shocking and revealing skits of the show came during the last episode. The skit featured a roast (similar to ones by the Friars Club or hosted by Dean Martin). The show’s cast roasted Pryor, who sat with his head down laughing mildly while regulars on the show either had kind remarks or very scornful ones.

The roast format seems especially contemporary to us today given our current culture’s penchant for taking everybody else’s old, good ideas and repeating them. The lineup here features hilarious skewrerings by cast members and writers including Robin Williams, Paul Mooney, Tim Reid, John Witherspoon, Sandra Bernhard, Vic Dunlop, Edie McClurg and Marsha Warfield, but the best part of the night is listening to Richard laugh.

Here is The Roast of Richard Pryor

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Surfing the web last week, researching the history of Syria and the country’s recent civil war in anticipation of what looked like and inevitable and soon-to-come missile strike on the country by the U.S., I discovered this treasure: A great little YouTube compilation of nearly all of comedian George Carlin’s searingly satirical bits on the hypocrisy of the American government and American culture. A lot of user-edited content on the site is, of course, garbage, but this career-spanning compendium of raving rants and word wizardry by the master is the exception to the rule.

According to Brainfeed.ca’s description of the video:

George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 — June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, actor, and writer/author who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums. Carlin was noted for his black humor as well as his thoughts on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and various taboo subjects. Carlin and his “Seven Dirty Words” comedy routine were central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a 5–4 decision by the justices affirmed the government’s power to regulate indecent material on the public airwaves.

The first of his 14 stand-up comedy specials for HBO was filmed in 1977. From the late 1980s, Carlin’s routines focused on socio-cultural criticism of modern American society. He often commented on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirized the excesses of American culture. His final HBO special, It’s Bad for Ya, was filmed less than four months before his death. In 2004, Carlin placed second on the Comedy Central list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time, ahead of Lenny Bruce and behind Richard Pryor. He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live. In 2008, he was posthumously awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

I’m a huge fan of stand-up comedy and as a performer and speaker, I’ve been studying the form for years, attempting to glean some understanding of how performers who take to the stage with nothing but a mic and a head full of stories and opinions can captivate an audience in a way that a loud-ass rock band might envy. I’ve read books, listened to interviews and studied endless numbers of comedy albums and concert films during my self-education. I love Pryor, Bruce, Oswalt, Cosby, Rock, Degeneres, Seinfeld, Galifianakis, Hedberg and Hicks, but, for me, nobody is a brilliant as George. I wonder what he would say about this most recent mess we’ve gotten ourselves into?

Here’s the video:

Who is your favorite comedian? Why? Teach me something I don’t know!

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