Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic Page #3

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If these were my kids, I would never

have known but for Richard Pryor.

What a colourful world it is

that he paints.

He'd go out and he'd do two minutes,

three minutes - sometimes,

if the wind was right,

he'd do four or five minutes.

Eventually, there'd

be about 40 minutes of material.

In those 40 minutes of material,

he knew then he could get

from there to a concert.

I discovered masturbating

by accident.

I'm not lying.

I was about ten. I was in a tub.

And that's when you used to hold

your dick with two fingers.

Hey!

I'm on to something here.

I bet Dad don't know about this.

He understood how to excavate

the human soul on stage

in front of 600 people

without blinking.

First time I came to ejaculate,

it scared the f*** out of me.

I thought something was wrong.

I just went, this woman, "Look,

what the f*** you've done there!"

About an hour later, I was back.

"Can you do it again?"

I think if comedy was a woman

I'm in love with,

I know Richard Pryor

would just f*** the sh*t out of her.

He'd f*** her in every orifice

of her body.

Can I...? Is there anywhere this guy

didn't f***ing put his prints on?

Richard had become big

in the live concert,

doing his brand of risque humour.

These large audiences

were fascinated with Richard.

He had not crossed into film.

Somehow, Berry Gordy

tracked him down and wanted him

to audition for the role

of Piano Man in the film

he was about to do of Billie Holiday,

which was going to star Diana Ross.

Lady Sings The Blues, when Richard

auditioned, they let him do improv.

You can't let Richard to improv,

he'll steal the show.

Which he did. The rest is history.

Everybody got

a room full of girls at home.

You're just going to be another one.

Billie, you've got too much going.

You don't need this.

He was huge in Lady Sings The Blues.

It sealed it for him

in terms of his performance

and having the audience crave

to see more of him.

We're coming.

That part got bigger

and bigger and bigger.

By the time they finished

cutting that movie,

Richard was co-star in that movie.

I met him in '72. He wasn't that

famous, but the word was out.

I said to him, why don't you meet me

for breakfast? He said, "Breakfast.

"OK. I'll meet you at four."

I said, "Four?!"

I told him about a black sheriff

in 1874. He loved the idea.

He just loved it.

I said, "I'm going to fight for you

to be the lead in Blazing Saddles."

I said, "Look, I'm going to write it

like a gang comedy.

"Anybody got a good idea, it's in.

We're all going to be equal.

"I will be a little more equal

than anybody else,

"but we're all going to be equal

and we're all going to have fun.

"I want you to be

one of the writers."

He called me up.

And said, "Listen, I would like

to be the star of that film,

"Blazing Saddles.

That would be terrific."

This is going to be something big.

I wrote most of the black jokes,

and Richard wrote

most of the Mongo jokes.

He was like this big, tough baby.

Richard wrote lines like,

"Mongo only pawn in game of life."

He wrote these meshuggener,

wacky lines.

The next day, he showed

up in my apartment with cigars

and a very expensive Dunhill

lighter, and I said, "What's this?"

He said, "We're going to be signing

a lot of contracts."

Somebody high up at Warner Brothers

had heard

that Richard was doing drugs

and Richard was unreliable

and I was fighting.

He said, "We appreciate

his contribution as a writer.

"It's the starring role.

We won't star him in the picture."

It got to the f***ing board

of Warner Brothers,

where he lost on some vote,

and that was it. You know.

He wished that he got

the starring role.

That was a disappointment,

a major disappointment.

Just put him over the edge

when they said that.

And he became high,

so high and out of control.

So he decided to shoot up the house.

We had a huge saltwater fish tank -

150 gallons. It was huge.

And, of course, it killed

all the fish and buckled the floor

and shot the Charlie Parker painting

that was hanging above the fireplace.

A huge Charlie Parker painting.

He shot him in the heart.

It's really hard

to live in Hollywood.

It's so controlled by white men.

Very hard to do anything, because

they're so greedy. So insecure.

He decided he was going to fire

everyone and start all over.

New lawyers, new agent, new manager.

He called Ron

and just said it was over.

I mean, it was a pretty harsh,

cold moment.

So, what became

of the change of heart?

He said, "I don't know, man.

Just did."

I puzzled over that

for many, many years.

I don't movies when they don't have

no N*ggers in them.

I went to see Logan's Run, right.

They had a movie of the future

called Logan's Run,

and there ain't no N*ggers in it.

I said, "Well, white folks

ain't planning for us to be here."

That's why we've got to make movies.

David was a very powerful black

manager, based out of Atlanta.

Very militant. Very pro-black.

Very, very smart.

A gift for making huge deals

and huge money.

And Hollywood loved David.

David Franklin was a pudgy,

brilliant, black man, who stuttered.

And Richard loved that.

He said, "Because he st-st-utters,

he can ge-get sympathy."

So, David went on to manage Richard,

be his agent and act as his lawyer.

Other than Richard's pure talent,

David was absolutely responsible for

Richard becoming really big in film.

We did nine or ten pictures together.

The first of them, The Bingo Long

Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings,

about the Negro National Leagues.

Like batting averages.

See, you take the number of times

a man been in bat

and you divide that by the number

of times a man got a hit.

Like me, I've been in bat 100 times.

I've got 25 hits. That's simple.

25 goes into 100 four times. It

gives me a batting average of four.

That's wrong.

That ain't no way to do that.

The second film was Car Wash.

I wasn't going to make

that movie without Richard.

Believe in the Lord and, most of

all, believe in that federal dream.

I remember the day that David came

back from a meeting with Richard,

driving a brand-new Rolls-Royce.

He must have been doing something

that was making Richard pretty happy

for Richard to give him

a brand-new Rolls-Royce as a gift.

Right at that moment,

the notion that he could hold

the lead in a picture was a totally

unproven notion.

Take this radio.

When you step out of here,

you got

to step out of here like king sh*t.

Right, you bad.

Put that radio to your ear.

That's going to help cover

your face.

Just move with the rhythm

of the music.

Move your body

with the rhythm of the music.

That's all you've got to do now.

Let me see you try.

Step to the music.

Step to the music. Yeah.

Step to the music. Stop.

How come you whities got such

a tight ass, man? Do it.

Can't you feel it?

He basically launched a new genre

of comedy.

Interracial buddy comedy.

This was a new kind of formula

for comedy in Hollywood.

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