Richard Pryor –Live at The Comedy Store, 1973

Stand Up! Records

£37.78

Format: 2 x 12" Vinyl
Catalogue No.: SUR240
Barcode: 609461022516
Release Date: 09 Jun 2023
Genre: Comedy

Richard Pryor contained multitudes, each fully inhabited character funnier and more insightful than the last, so it’s no wonder when he took the stage at The Comedy Store in Hollywood in 1973, it’d be a full 15 minutes before he spoke to the adoring audience as himself. No, he needed to start where he started, on the streetcorner, with all the wit, wisdom, and general jackassery of Wino & Junkie. Throughout a set full of hard jokes and detailed character sketches (including the men of the Saturday night police lineup in his hometown of Preoria, Illinois—the first and riskiest stage he knew), the audience has the chance to get caught up in the silliness so inherent to Pryor while never losing sight of the issues America had yet to face (and hasn’t still). There are sex jokes that hit so hard the women in the audience take an audible refractory period, drug advice that has you weighing the relative trip-laden merits of dope and acid, and a call-and-response on sandwiches that proves the irresistibility of zealous Black midwestern preachers; there’s a litany of celebrities whose names and projects have blurred in Pryor’s mind, but whose faces and friendship so clearly light him up; there’s even fighting advice (don’t fight Italians, their mothers get involved, and try to avoid a paternal cowboy whuppin’, because no one wants to get hit with a chair). And then you get hit with the hardest punch: Pryor reaching out from 50 years past to make the truth plain. You never hear about civilians accidentally killing cops, so why is it that cops are always “accidentally” killing Black men? As it turns out, 1973 and 2023 aren’t so far apart that the legendary Richard Pryor can’t bridge the gap.