Womens & Mens: I ain't got the words to properly praise this book. But try, I will ...This is why Richard is still the greatest comic in the history of showbidness. He wrote a book entitled "Pryor Convictions", a book you simply cannot put down!
I laughed ... Literally out loud!!
I welled-up ... Got all misty.
If you need a serious dose of Richard's autobiography, a dose of unvarnished truth, then "Pryor Convictions" is definitely the book for you.
However, my brothers & sisters: If you need sunshine blown up your ass ... well, there's always Sammy Davis Jr's "Yes I Can". But even "Yes I Can" may be too real for anyone living in their own little hamster-ball filled with cotton candy and jelly beans.
Richard's incredible autobiography is laced with ribald humor throughout. The man is better, IMHO, than Mark Twain, Pigmeat, Jackie Gleason, Phil Silvers, Shecky Who?, Moms, Will Rogers, Sid Caesar, Seinfeld, S.J. Perlman rolled in to one. The origins of his greatest, in the history of the world, humor are made clear. His (sixth) sense of the ironic is impossible to comprehend.
Generously, Richard gives a tip of the hat to that other god of comedy: Lenny Bruce.
Even in the darkest passages, on the last pages, Rich deftly obliterates any pathos, any evocation of sympathetic pity by interweaving tastefully classic, Richardesque humor.
I LOVED IT 1,000 times!
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(The one thing, I wish? I wished that during the making of "Harlem Nights" Richard could not have cared less (Would not have given a shit.) about what that transvestite picking-up, egomaniac Eddie Murphy thought. Yes. I agree that it was Eddie's movie, but Eddie cannot even hold Richard's goddam microphone.
Eddie was an actor, for crying out loud. That's all. He was, at best, a fantastic parrot for other peoples' words. Eddie's original routines? In a nutshell, well they ... Can you say EDDIE's ROUTINES SUCK by comparison, boys and girls?
Sorry, Eddie. But that's only funny, because it's true.
Forget Eddie!
Eddie paid for Redd Foxx's funeral.
And that was about the best thing he ever did for comedy.As for Jenn: Thank you for being like a can o'Raid. You rid Rich's home of all the vermin: locusts, vampires and leeches.
Jenn, you were/are a blessing. When it comes to being parasites and looking for a meal ticket, hell, white, black and Hispanic folk all get terribly, how should I say this?-- Waspish?, Niggerish?, Jewish?
I can hear them now: "FREE LUNCH!! Richard's house!"
You came in like a crop-duster, Jenn and sprayed the shit out of 'em. Good for you! Better for Richard!
Richard deserved and earned a better quality of life than a motherfuckin' bunch of fire ants swarming all over him while they thought he was down. Little did they know, Jenn, he had a secret weapon--you!
You saved his life, Jenn.Thank you for being there.
To: Everyone, BUY, I SAY BUY THIS MOTHERFUCKIN' BOOK, "Pryor Convictions", Y'ALL! And, please, don't fuck around and lend it to peoples. Supress the urge: Withold it--after you tell them how great it is! Force your cheap-assed family, your tight-assed co-workers and your fake-ass, fairweather friends (If you got any that is! :p ), make those sorry motherfuckers buy their own copy for Chrissake.
Don't be no jive lending library, fool! Do Richard a solid! Spread the word. Encourage the purchase.
In conclusion: Thank you Rich and Jenn. Thank you, Rich, for doing what you did and continue to do, i.e. enrich this befouled, disturbed planet with your best-of-breed humor. And thank you, Jenn, for saving MY comic--The Peoples' Comic--the one, the onliest: Richard Pryor.
Just buy "Pryor Convictions", if you CAN take a joke!
And, NO, motherfucker! I am Not on the payroll!
Arnie
