Review of Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979) by John K — 06 Mar 2008

THE BEST stand up performance ever caught on film and to this day is still considered the benchmark comedians try to attain when doing their own comedy specials. To this day no one has surpassed this concert performance.

This film inspired me to get into the stand up field and I had the privilege to have met him and been given advice on my act from this legendary performer during my tenure at The Comedy Store in Hollywood.

Pryor is such a talented and gifted comedian, who has the immense courage to open up to parts of his life and invite the audience in, while giving a personal and intimate voice to dogs, cars, women, etc.

, while showing us a part of himself that other comedians have not dared to even tread, much lied a rebellious pied piper. Pryor, the master performer, weaves such convincing and believable stories with his physical actions accompanied by his words; you can visualize it actually happening up there on the blank stage where he is performing.

Pryorâ??s style, techniques, and topics seen in this concert have since have copied or used in other comedians acts are now considered standard practice, but back then in 1979 it was groundbreaking and still awe inspiring to many comedians today because of his sincere and frank truthfulness with his material.

Although his other concerts that followed were not as strong as this one, this concert film stands the test of time and still holds it humor extremely well.