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Richard Pryor on Fire...

HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
edited July 2009 in Strut Central
I'm talking about actual flames, when he ran down the street and such. How do you think that happened?I ask because I thought one thing and then just the other day read a book that told me otherwise. So without trying to shed too much light on a horrible predicament, I'd like to guage what others think happened.

  Comments

  • kitchenknightkitchenknight 4,922 Posts
    In his own routine, didn't he say that he was freebasing, and he caught himself on fire?

    "Funny thing about running down the street on fire... People get the F*ck out the way."

    Live on the Sunset Strip, no?

    Either way, Live from Hollywood is the funniest standup I've ever seen. NYEve/Shooting the car is just crazy.
  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    There's more detail to it than that. Apparently there is a Barbara Walters interview out there where Richard makes a certain clarification.
  • kitchenknightkitchenknight 4,922 Posts
    Yeah, I figured there may be some detail/changes. You know... getting history from a standup routine is pretty unreliable.
  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts
    Dude - he put a cookie in some milk and BOOM!
  • blaqsoulblaqsoul 61 Posts
    when you get a chance, check out his biopic
    Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling

    According to the flick and his ex-wife, while high, he doused himself with alcohol and lit up
  • fishmongerfunkfishmongerfunk 4,154 Posts
    i think he sort of revised that scenario in "jojo dancer" to imply that it wasn't a mere accident but a suicide attempt.
  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,782 Posts
    Damn.. I was hoping for a youtube video of this
  • maldorurrmaldorurr 120 Posts
    Dude - he put a cookie in some milk and BOOM!

    Never mix whole and half-and-half ...
  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    when you get a chance, check out his biopic
    Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling

    According to the flick and his ex-wife, while high, he doused himself with alcohol and lit up

    Yep, there it is. I always thought it was some sort of freebasing accident, which is how LAPD made it sound. I just read Jim Brown's autobiography and in it he talks about taking care of Richard after the incident and that's where the clarification was made for me. I guess there isn't that much of a difference, but I wonder how many people persist to think that he accidentally torched himself. And yeah, I saw Jo Jo Dancer when it came out...but since then, it's pretty much been washed from my memory.
  • RaystarRaystar 1,106 Posts
    Damn.. I was hoping for a youtube video of this

    ME TOO! Thats messed up! I love Rich but I had this grainy video footage in my mind of him running down the street on fire and him having that red shirt on with those black pants that he wore during one of his stand up comedy movies.
  • LokoOneLokoOne 1,823 Posts
    In his own routine, didn't he say that he was freebasing, and he caught himself on fire?

    "Funny thing about running down the street on fire... People get the F*ck out the way."

    Live on the Sunset Strip, no?

    Either way, Live from Hollywood is the funniest standup I've ever seen. NYEve/Shooting the car is just crazy.

    when i first saw that it moved me beyond just laughter. the fact the guy was on stage after all this shit ahappend and joking about his deepest demons.... especially with that match joke at the end.

    Jojo Dancer was great too....but Richard without the facial hair at the start was always strange for me (although his baby being born impersonation was awesome)...

    anyone ever see footage of a stand up performance he done early 70s, in some little shit club, very hardcore and edgy stuff, I had a shit dvd release of it. cant remmber the title, but it was richard at his rawest (there are parts where the crowd is too shocked to laugh)....

    edit: also Richard didnt get enough props for his animal voices IMO. dude would be killer on some of them animated films nowadays...he could have done voices for the whole cast of madagascar...
  • SIRUSSIRUS 2,554 Posts
    your talking about the one where he talks about blowin dudes? that was when he came back from san fran, and was debuting his new honest style.
  • LokoOneLokoOne 1,823 Posts
    your talking about the one where he talks about blowin dudes? that was when he came back from san fran, and was debuting his new honest style.

    yeah...and he drops some line about 'dont act like you've never sucked a cokc"...or something like that which really stuns the crowd...

    And he does the junkie impersonation I think. Ive spewing cus I bought the dvd , watched it once, lent it to dudes who where desperate to watch it...and its dissapeared into that blackhole of borrowed goods....

    havent been able to track another copy down... but I found this on youtube

  • analog_tapeanalog_tape 604 Posts
    Or be like Richard Pryor set your balls on fire

    -Prince Rakeem/Ryzarector
  • jjfad027jjfad027 1,594 Posts
    I read his daughter's book and I recall her implying that it was intentional. It said he was high as F*ck and poured high proof liquor all over himself and lit it.
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