Hello, my name's Justin the Klu, and I'm here today with Will Sloan.

And you're listening to The Important Cinema Cloud.

Oh, excuse me, my name is Will Sloan.

So I'm trying to do the white guy voice.

The Richard Pryor, white guy voice.

And today we're talking about Richard Pryor, a very funny man who made comedy films. Yes, the conventional wisdom on Richard Pryor is that greatest comedian of all time and failed by Hollywood. And do we have hot takes on this episode? No. No, we don't. Sorry. Okay, you can stop listening now. Yeah. And if you're a Richard Pryor fan and you want us to talk about that one specific film that you don't feel gets enough attention. Sorry. Sorry. Turn it off. And the reason we say that is because we did Roddy Dangerfield a few months ago and we've been inundated. Well, not inundated. We've received multiple emails saying, why didn't you do easy money? Yes. So if you want us to talk about moving, if you want us to talk about, sorry, we didn't watch Jojo Dancer. No, we didn't. Listen, we don't have time. That's what it comes down to. And certain of these movies took a lot out of me. And the thing is, like, Jojo Dancer, I see a lot of people say, it's interesting, not very good, though. The fact that it's, you know, Richard Pryor directing and basically doing an

auto buy is like Jojo Dancer, I see a lot of people say, it's interesting. Not very good, though. The fact that

it's, you know, Richard Pryor directing and basically doing an autobiography. But again, we wanted to

focus, I guess, on his popular stuff to see if a film could capture that raw energy. But why

Richard Pryor, why now? I think it was that fun, that reputation, you know, that conventional

wisdom was one that we wanted to just examine to see if it was true. And also because...

Have we ever been surprised when we've done like a comedy actor that like, oh, but their movies are

genuinely funny and not bad? Maybe in one of those big screen comedian failures episodes that was a surprise, I don't know. Yeah, but I would love that like a comedian that they say that like his movies aren't good, that we watch and we're like, what are people thinking? Like, these movies are great in Rocket Man, the Canadian comedian. Harland Williams. Oh, he just, he's just, is blown off the screen, but that's not really what happens. But having not really, I mean, I've, I've seen a good amount of Richard Pryor's stand-up, but I hadn't really done a dive into his- I'll just say, stand-up, hilarious. Yeah, that's great. Watched his most famous stand-up special for this, Richard Pryor live in concert. Yeah, there's a reason

that you see those clips all the time that it was put in the library of Congress. And we all know the several good Richard Pryor movies, blue collar. I guess some people like The Wiz. Yeah. No, no. I mean, I'm not a fan, but I know a lot of people love that movie. Lady sings the Blues. Lady sings the blues. Yeah, hit! Exclamation

point. Directed by Sidney J. Lomette is also

very good. But I'm not a fan, but I know a lot of people love that movie. Lady sings the blues. Lady sings the blues. Yeah, hit!

Exclamation point.

Directed by Sidney J. Lomette is also very good. But as a way into Richard Pryor, I think it would be useful to retrace his origin story, which of course has become part of American folklore. Grew up in a Bordello. His grandmother was the matriarch of the family, as well as his chief caregiver,

as well as the madam, the leader of the business. His father and his uncle were pimps. His mother was a

sex worker. And in the documentary we watched, Richard Pryor omit the logic, Michael Schultz, the

director of a movie called Which Way Is Up, theorized. And I quote, If you grow up in a bordello, you see people's very core. There are no masks. There are no facades. So, you know, we saw, there was a clip in there of Richard Pryor talking about, you know, in one of his stand-up shows, talking about, you know, he met white people for the first time when they would come to the neighborhood and support the local economy. And, you know, he had a joke, you're going to hear something hilarious, which is me imitating Richard Pryor. Oh, right. I'm, you know, buckling in for one of those classic Will impressions. Please don't do it, Will. But, no, I'll imitate him doing the white guy voice. You know, like a guy coming to his home and saying like, oh, hello, Sonny.

Is your mother home?

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