Live on the Sunset Strip

Love this one. Must've bought it half-a-dozen times. Everybody wants one and they take it from me.

Peoria,Illinois-born Richard Pryor delivers another hilarious comedy routine filled with profanity of course. Unbelievably,one of the audience members was Rev. Jesse Jackson. Does Pryor mention the N-word? Of course,he does. Pryor,who followed in the footsteps back in the 1960's of another comedian three years his senior,Bill Cosby,influenced another trashmouthed comedian years later,Eddie Murphy. Both Pryor and Murphy influenced other trashmouthed black comedians such as Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle. Cosby himself,has always detested the use of profanity. Instead of the so-called profane words rhyming with "luck" and "spit",Cosby would instead say "filth,foul,filth". It may have happened to Pryor,Rock and Chapelle,but Cosby did once chastise Murphy on the phone for Murphy's obscene humor. I believe Cosby believes that profanity use is totally unnecessary. That's why Cosby's humor,as opposed to those of the others,is suitable for young children. In this concert,Pryor displays sexually-oriented humor as usual with the commonly spoken slang. I dedicate this item to the memory of Pryor(12/1/40-12/10/05).

Richard Pryor may be the funniest man to ever grab a mike on stage. This set has some moments that are absolute classics. His routine about the Mafia guys in the club he worked had me crying I laughed so hard.

His moments of reflection about his "freebase" accident are funny but meaningful and cautionary at the same time. Whatever material he was riffing on his intelligence always shines through. A real comic genius.

Pryor in brilliant form. Once again displaying his virtuoso skills of mimicry and an honesty most comics only dream of. His recounting of the freebasing episode is arguably one of the best pieces of standup caught on film.

Pryor is obviously a skilled comedian. He has the audience eating out of his hand from beginning to end. The concert takes place in 1982. The audience appears to have been born between 1942 and 1955. They laugh from beginning to end. I didn't laugh once. Aside from the riffs about working for the Mafia and Visiting Africa, I didn't even know what he was talking about. Particularly distressing was the audience calling out for a certain well-loved bit. Pryor acquiesced. "Okay. This is the last time." It wasn't funny. (The audience was in stitches.) It wasn't funny to me. So, I don't get it. Boomer drug culture? I'll bet I'm not the only person who doesn't find this funny.