Richard Pryor: Live and Smokin'

Richard Pryor: Live and Bombin'

He starts off optimistically eager, but awkward. Then gathers his courage and ends the show with a depressing and not-that-funny monologue about a preacher and a junkie. There's some really brilliantly hilarious lines in this one.

Not one of Pryor best work in fact its not really that good. Pryor seems off his game and very high and tends to ramble randomly and forgets what he was talking about half the time.

Illustrative of Pryor's faults as a comedian-- cringe inducing camera shyness and overcommitment to his characters. Mercifully shelved until it was clear Richard would make no more concert films, this one's only for completists and investigators interested in seeing one of the greatest comedians of all time at his worst. There's some funny stuff here, but the bad definitely outweighs the good.

Pretty cave (pickin' boogers and all): till the thing with the junkie.

I think the ideas are there, but his execution (and perhaps the environment) really made this a slog.

A humble beginning for one of the greatest stand-up comics ever. This show is very awkward, and even depressing in the last long act when Pryor is rambling in roles of junkie and alcoholic.

It might be down to the camera putting him off his stride, the unresponsive crowd, or simply the lacklustre material (particularly the rambling last act), but this light-years-ahead-of-its-time performance falls flat on its face far too often. An incredibly funny guy, just not here. One for hardcore Pryor-completists only.