Sunset Soundtrack

Taken together, Richard Pryor's concert films, the essential Live in Concert, the virtuoso Live on the Sunset Strip, and even the lesser Here and Now, provide a more incisive autobiographical portrait of the groundbreaking comedian than the fictionalized Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling. In Sunset Strip, Pryor relates two life-changing experiences. The first is his trip to "the motherland," Africa. As funny as is the routine in which Pryor gives voice to a couple of cheetahs poised to prey on unsuspecting gazelles, he brings the audience up short with a moving revelation that leads him to forswear ever again calling another black person the "N-word." The second, of course, is his near-fatal freebasing accident, which Pryor at first jokingly passes off as an accident involving milk and cookies. Then, he takes the audience step by harrowing step through his growing cocaine addiction (abetted by his untrustworthy pipe which speaks to him in reassuring tones), alienation from friends, including the formidable Jim Brown ("Whatcha gonna do?"), the explosion that resulted in third-degree burns over the upper half of his body, and finally, the agonizing rehab. It is even more unflinching and savagely funny than his Live in Concert routine about his heart attack. Other memorable bits include his experiences as a 19-year-old stand-up comedian working at a Mafia-owned club, a monologue from one of his signature characters, Mudbone, and his visit to a penitentiary while filming Stir Crazy. Sunset Strip captures Pryor's triumphant return to the stage. He is a survivor, unbowed, winning this round over the demons that plagued him throughout his career. --Donald Liebenson