Richard Pryor, 1940 - 2005.

Richard Pryor, the caustic yet perceptive actor-comedian who lived dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off, died Saturday. He was 65.... Pryor once marveled "that I live in racist America and I'm uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and like what I do, and I can make a living from it. You can't do much better than that."

Jeremiah Marquez for the AP.

Normally, nothing dates so fast as stand-up, but a quarter of a century after its cinema release, Richard Pryor - Live In Concert still retains its power to shock and startle. Indeed, far from playing like a quaint period piece, this landmark performance still feels dangerous and avant-garde.

William Cook in the Guardian, 2004.

Most every comedian under 50 has been influenced by Pryor, and not just the black ones. Watching and listening to them, it's as if Pryor's shadow always hovers nearby, revealing itself to varying degrees in inflection, pacing, body language, choice of material.

[...]

What is most wonderful and most missed about the humor of Richard Pryor is his simultaneous rage and vulnerability - that sense of being mad as hell yet still yearning for and believing in acceptance and reconciliation, whether he was riffing about black folks, white folks, women, politics, black male macho or drug addiction.

[...]

He was an antidote to Richard Nixon, the Moral Majority, the decline of mass movements for social change. Richard Pryor kept it real, and then some.

[...]

Watching him, we are terrified, exhilarated and provoked. His art, as the best of art does, resonates long after the tape has finished playing, long after his voice and image have faded away.

Jill Nelson, Salon, 1998.

Updates, 12/11: Dennis Cozzalio; Mel Watkins in the New York Times; Lynell George in the Los Angeles Times; Richard Zoglin in Time.

Updates, 12/12: Roger Ebert (who also passes along a story from Cynthia Dagnal Myron), Taylor Carik in Flak, Desson Thompson in the Washington Post and Duncan Campbell in the Guardian and Guy Flatley's 1977 interview.

Updates, 12/13:Jesse McKinley gathers memories from several comedians for the New York Times; Dana Cook collects earlier stories from a wide variety of celebs for Salon; David Edelstein at Slate: "Pryor the artist used Pryor the man as a character, and there's no telling how much the latter acted up to make kindling for the former. God, I wish he'd found a middle ground - a design for creating and living."

Update, 12/14: Earl Ofari Hutchinson at Alternet: "He was the artist that didn't just live on the edge, but sharpened the racial edge in his art."

Update, 12/16: Sam Anderson introduces six clips from Live on Sunset Strip: "So, on the Monday after his death, I went out to buy all the Pryor stand-up I could find. This turned out to be approximately none. New Yorkers seemed to have collectively obeyed their Pryor-hoarding urge about 24 hours before I did. The shelves had been picked clean. It was a touching (though frustrating) homage."

Update, 12/17: Edward Rhymes at the Black Commentator: "Rich made it clear, he made it real and his humor made it bearable." Via wood s lot.

Posted by dwhudson at December 10, 2005 2:19 PM