Name: Richard Pryor on Letterman, January 15, 1987
Uploaded: 2016-09-16T21:10:13.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Richard Pryor on Letterman, January 15, 1987' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-09-16. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Richard Pryor on Letterman, January 15, 1987' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-09-16. Transcript available.

Welcome back to our little program we do for you here Monday through Thursday
and we're
awfully glad you're here with us tonight. You ready Paul? Yeah. It's a pleasure
to finally
welcome our first guest to this show. He is often called the funniest comedian
of our time
and he can currently be seen in a brand new motion picture entitled Critical
Condition.
Please say hello to and welcome Richard Pryor.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much for being here. This is very exciting. I
was backstage
with Richard Dominick. He's so mad. He blew me away. I'll just...
We'll get to him in a second. Okay.
I've known you for a long, long time. I don't know if you've known me for a
long, long time
but I've known you. I met you years and years ago and I don't know if you
remember that or
not. At the Comedy Store. The Comedy Store. I remember that. And my first
encounter with
you, I have a really vivid recollection of that. One night I was emceeing and
you were going
to go on and I went up to you. You didn't know who I was and I introduced
myself and I said,
how would you like to be introduced when I get up on stage? And you told me and
we shook
hands and for the rest of the night I had this wonderful, wonderful scent of
what I assumed
was really, really expensive cologne on my hand and I thought, this man is very,
very successful.
I've not had anything like that since. And I was mightily impressed by that.
Well, it healed up. It's all better now so you won't get it no more.
When you, uh...
Now, when you come back to New York, does this bring back a lot of exciting
memories for you?
When you come back to New York, you haven't been here for a while, you realize
how big it is.
It's like very big and people are moving all the time. They don't stop for
nothing.
They just go, go, go, go, go. I can't wait to get back in the hotel and go, ah,
ah, ah.
Because I'm guessing when you go out on the streets, people are just, just want
to be all over you, don't they?
No. No, they don't. They don't bother me. I'm with my son, so I'm bothering
with him,
so they don't bother with me very much. Sometimes they should. Should they
bother me?
Well, I would think that you're the kind of guy that people are drawn to and
when you're out in public
that they would want to get up there and shake your hand and pat you on the
back and stuff.
Oh. Damn.
Jeez, Dave.
No. Uh, well, don't let it, but it doesn't happen to me, so don't worry about
it.
Oh, okay.
Yeah. Um, but you, you worked here in clubs when you were a kid starting out?
I worked here at the Café Wa.
Yeah?
That was the first club that's in it. It's still in a village, maybe.
I don't know if there's still a village, is it?
I don't know. Is the Café Wa still down there, Paul?
Yeah, I was just hanging out there the other night on the village. I don't
think it is.
Yeah. And you, you started doing television from New York?
I started doing, I did, the first show I did was called Entertainment Tonight.
Uh, it was a summer replacement show.
What network was that?
That was CBS.
Mm-hmm. Like an, an hour variety kind of deal?
Yeah, it was in the summer. And I, Rudy Valley was the host. And I got on that
show and then Merv Griffin saw a tape of that and he let me come on this show
every night for about six years.
Is that right?
Yeah.
And you, did you, did you also do the Ed Sullivan show here?
Yeah, I did Ed Sullivan too.
Yeah. Now, do you have Ed Sullivan?
No, I just remembered, you know.
Yeah.
It's all right. It comes back every now and then.
Do you have any, uh, uh, special, uh, stories about Ed Sullivan? It seems like
everybody who did this show has a...
I know. I remember Ed Sullivan came up to my dressing room. I did nine minutes
and people just freak, said, you can't do that. And I went up to his room and
he said, well, I like it.
And I want you to do all nine minutes. I do the worst Ed Sullivan, as you can
see, but he was a nice man to me.
So he lets you go ahead and do the nine minutes on the show?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. And how many times were you on that program?
I think about maybe 11, 12, something like that.
Yeah. Do you, do you, uh, at this stage of your life, do you miss doing stand-up
on a regular basis? I know you do it.
I stand-up in clubs. I miss a lot. I miss a lot. I haven't been on the road in
a while. I want to go after my next film.
Mm-hmm.
I like to get back and do a concert so you can get in front of people and they
can ask you, you know, where'd you get them shoes?
And what, and what do you tell them when they ask you about the shoes?
I throw it at them. I say, here, you just smell it. What do you think?
Can I have it back now? Thank you.
Well, that's, it's, it's tough work, isn't it? I think that the-
I love it.
You do love it?
I love it. I love it. And you do six months of that. It's great because I did
films at concerts. I mean, I'm not putting it down or nothing. I'm glad the
concert films were successful, but they weren't complete.
Mm-hmm.
You know how you finish it? Then you say, but there was more to do if I just
worked on it more. But they offer you so much money, you can't go, no, I don't
want it.
Yeah.
Take that check and stop it.
Yeah.
Let me grab it. Don't give me that. Thank you very much. You know.
What about, and I don't know that this would happen to you, but what about hecklers?
If you're working in a club or even in a concert?
I have two guys. They take care of the hecklers.
No, I don't get no real bad hecklers. Not no serious hecklers. Most of the hecklers
I get, people add to the act.
Uh-huh.
You know, I don't get nobody, just takes it out.
Yeah. So it doesn't bother you if somebody does that, then?
There's a line, I don't know.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a very thin line.
Yeah, yeah.
Now, would you ever see yourself doing, like, a massive concert tour or just
picking one night or something?
I'd like to do, like, I'd like to do about 20 cities or something like that.
I'd love to do that.
Yeah.
I really would, man. I'd really enjoy it a lot.
Yeah, it'd be a hot ticket.
Would?
It'd be a good deal.
Oh, yeah.
Good.
Yeah, all right.
Let's, let's, uh, we'll do a, we'll do a commercial here, and, uh, we're going
to talk some more with Richard before we bring up Mr. Dominic, but he'll be
here. Don't worry about it.
Thank you.
Thank you, gentlemen. Mr. Friar is here tonight. What, when you were first, uh,
starting to do nightclub work, I guess, back in Illinois, in that area?
Yes.
Yeah. What, what were the acts of the day, aside from yourself? You, I guess,
worked as a comedian and maybe an emcee sometimes?
Yes.
What, what kind of stuff would you appear with?
I'd appear with, uh, strip dancers. There would be one strip dancer, and then a
singer, and then an emcee. I'd do the emcee or the jokes, as it were, and then
they'd alternate. Every week would be a different show.
But I got to stay three or four weeks, because this guy at this club, liked me.
Yeah. Was there anything, uh, uh, you go to one city, or one act would come in
that would be a little more bizarre than others, or was it pretty much?
There was a flame dancer I worked with one time. She was great. And you used to
do a thing in, in, in the, in the black theater. It was called burying the show.
At the, at the end of the engagement, the last night, everybody would do
everybody else's act, and they'd bury the show. And this guy one time, we was
doing the flame dancer, and the emcee would be,
would be the woman. She'd put on a mustache, and she'd come out and do the
jokes, and then the other girl would sing, and it was great.
Yeah. As a matter of fact, there's a scene like that in, uh, uh, Jojo Dancer.
Right.
Yes.
Yeah, when you're working in the club.
Kind of.
Yeah.
It's good to see you, man. It was nice to see you. I appreciate you coming here.
You know, I saw the other night, uh, they were running, uh, an old variety
series that you did on NBC that was on the air, how, how many weeks did that
last?
Uh, seven weeks or something like that?
Seven weeks, and it was, at the time, it was a really big deal, uh, and it was
with a, a lot of guys that, uh, you and I both knew.
Yes.
A lot of mutual friends.
Yes.
And, uh, and it was pretty interesting stuff that you guys were doing then. And
I guess this is a photograph from the first show.
Explain what we're looking at there. And that's a thing I wanted to do, but the
NBC censors cut it out.
Yeah.
And I was standing there. I say, as you can see, and you only see me from the
waist, just this part.
Right.
As you can see, I've given up absolutely nothing to be on television. And they
pull back and you can see I have no gentleness.
There you are. Yeah. Uh, now, was that show, was that a constant battle with
those? What year was this? This was, uh,
Oh, it was back in 1970-something.
Was it a constant struggle to, uh, keep that thing, uh,
It was a constant struggle in the sense of, like, we'd do stuff and the censor
would come into the dress rehearsal and go,
Oh, you can't do that. Please. And I'd go, well, we'll do something else. And
you keep trying.
And the more you, if once you step with them, that keeps stepping until you end
up with nothing.
Yeah.
Like that.
Uh-huh.
I wonder now if, if things are, are any different.
No, they don't care now.
Anything goes now?
Yeah.
I just, I want, I, I'm guessing certain things would be the same. Other things
might be a little different.
But I think, you know, the pendulum goes one way and then it swings back way
and you maybe don't really gain that.
I imagine television is different. I, I guess I have, I don't do it, so I don't
know. I really don't.
Well, go ahead and test them tonight, Richard.
No, no, no, no, no, hey.
No.
Uh, what other kind of things did you do before you were in show business or
when, when you were, uh, maybe not doing show business full times? Other kind
of jobs?
I'd be, be depressed a lot and.
Yeah. Good money in that.
Yeah. I was depressed a lot. I tried to be a thief for a while. I wasn't good
at that.
What kind of things were you thieving?
I, I would, I was a second story man.
Yeah?
Yeah. Yeah. I'd climb over transits cause I was the skinniest one in the gang.
They'd let me do the climbing over the transit.
And you're in there looking for appliances or jewelry or cash or what?
Uh, I didn't know. I'd just get over this. I'd go, I'm in. What'd I do now?
Uh, how long were you, uh, a thief like that?
Uh, till my father found out.
Uh-huh.
He ended my thievery career real quick.
Uh, in the, in, in the movie here, Critical Condition, you, you're, uh, a guy
playing a doctor. You're not really a doctor though, right?
No, no. He's a guy that's a businessman. He gets in a bad situation and they
think he's a cop. And to keep from going to penitentiary, he tries to fake
insanity so he can go to a mental institution. And while there, there's a blackout.
And they think he's the doctor in charge.
Yeah.
And he takes over like that. He don't know what he's doing.
Yeah. And you're running the show though.
Yeah.
Yeah. Do we have some of that here?
Okay. Let's take a look here. Uh, we have time for this?
Uh, it's a minute or so from, uh, Richard Pryor's latest film entitled, uh,
Critical Condition. Here he is now.
Thank you.
Do you ever, do you ever have any interest in being a doctor?
None whatsoever.
Yeah.
Never did have an interest in it. But I, I like them. I think it's amazing.
They go to school eight years, you know, at least.
And then people don't want to pay their bills. That tickles me. I mean, you
know, you do something on them and the guy goes, I ain't going to pay that much.
And you break the other arm or something.
Let me, uh, uh, you're married again, Richard.
Yeah, Dave.
Congratulations.
Thank you very much.
Where, where did you, uh, where did you meet your wife?
I met my wife in Washington, D.C. about a million years ago.
And, uh, she, she was there. I was doing a concert and I met her and I liked
her right away.
Yeah.
And we talked and became friends.
That's good.
And, uh, so we got married.
How old a woman do we have here?
She's about, well, the school bus was late taking her home the other day.
Thank you.
Now, Richard.
No, she's 23.
She's 23.
Yeah.
And I got my son with me.
Now, wait a minute.
Now, how old a man are you?
I'm 46.
46.
So, she's half your age.
She's half my age, so?
No, nothing.
No, I mean, she's smart as me.
She's smarter, actually.
I think.
Yeah.
She knows a lot of stuff.
She's a good person.
She has a lot of, a lot of good ideas and she's lovely and I'm happy when I'm
with her.
Well, there you go.
See?
Sometimes.
I'm sorry, sometimes?
Sometimes.
Sometimes.
Uh, what, what's the woman's name?
It's Flynn.
Flynn.
And she, is she in town with you?
No, she's in California.
I'm sorry, I didn't get a chance to meet her.
Well, she told me to bring our son.
She said, oh, you're going to New York by yourself?
Take our son!
You know, so my son's two, I brought him and he's watching me taking notes, you
know.
And does he have anything to say about New York or probably just another?
He, he don't care.
Yeah, doesn't care.
You know, he just wants, uh, says a cookie.
Yeah.
Uh, I, I, you know, I, I mentioned this earlier too in the, in the dressing
room, but I really
do appreciate you coming to visit us because, uh, it's a big thrill for us and,
uh, we've
wanted to have you for the longest time and just come back anytime.
I'm happy that you had me here and God bless you and good luck.
Good luck with the film.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We'll be right back at the station and I'll give it to you.

Richard Pryor on Letterman, January 15, 1987

Welcome back to our little program we do for you here Monday through Thursday
and we're
awfully glad you're here with us tonight. You ready Paul? Yeah. It's a pleasure
to finally
welcome our first guest to this show. He is often called the funniest comedian
of our time
and he can currently be seen in a brand new motion picture entitled Critical
Condition.
Please say hello to and welcome Richard Pryor.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much for being here. This is very exciting. I
was backstage
with Richard Dominick. He's so mad. He blew me away. I'll just...
We'll get to him in a second. Okay.
I've known you for a long, long time. I don't know if you've known me for a
long, long time
but I've known you. I met you years and years ago and I don't know if you
remember that or
not. At the Comedy Store. The Comedy Store. I remember that. And my first
encounter with
you, I have a really vivid recollection of that. One night I was emceeing and
you were going
to go on and I went up to you. You didn't know who I was and I introduced
myself and I said,
how would you like to be introduced when I get up on stage? And you told me and
we shook
hands and for the rest of the night I had this wonderful, wonderful scent of
what I assumed
was really, really expensive cologne on my hand and I thought, this man is very,
very successful.
I've not had anything like that since. And I was mightily impressed by that.
Well, it healed up. It's all better now so you won't get it no more.
When you, uh...
Now, when you come back to New York, does this bring back a lot of exciting
memories for you?
When you come back to New York, you haven't been here for a while, you realize
how big it is.
It's like very big and people are moving all the time. They don't stop for
nothing.
They just go, go, go, go, go. I can't wait to get back in the hotel and go, ah,
ah, ah.
Because I'm guessing when you go out on the streets, people are just, just want
to be all over you, don't they?
No. No, they don't. They don't bother me. I'm with my son, so I'm bothering
with him,
so they don't bother with me very much. Sometimes they should. Should they
bother me?
Well, I would think that you're the kind of guy that people are drawn to and
when you're out in public
that they would want to get up there and shake your hand and pat you on the
back and stuff.
Oh. Damn.
Jeez, Dave.
No. Uh, well, don't let it, but it doesn't happen to me, so don't worry about
it.
Oh, okay.
Yeah. Um, but you, you worked here in clubs when you were a kid starting out?
I worked here at the Café Wa.
Yeah?
That was the first club that's in it. It's still in a village, maybe.
I don't know if there's still a village, is it?
I don't know. Is the Café Wa still down there, Paul?
Yeah, I was just hanging out there the other night on the village. I don't
think it is.
Yeah. And you, you started doing television from New York?
I started doing, I did, the first show I did was called Entertainment Tonight.
Uh, it was a summer replacement show.
What network was that?
That was CBS.
Mm-hmm. Like an, an hour variety kind of deal?
Yeah, it was in the summer. And I, Rudy Valley was the host. And I got on that
show and then Merv Griffin saw a tape of that and he let me come on this show
every night for about six years.
Is that right?
Yeah.
And you, did you, did you also do the Ed Sullivan show here?
Yeah, I did Ed Sullivan too.
Yeah. Now, do you have Ed Sullivan?
No, I just remembered, you know.
Yeah.
It's all right. It comes back every now and then.
Do you have any, uh, uh, special, uh, stories about Ed Sullivan? It seems like
everybody who did this show has a...
I know. I remember Ed Sullivan came up to my dressing room. I did nine minutes
and people just freak, said, you can't do that. And I went up to his room and
he said, well, I like it.
And I want you to do all nine minutes. I do the worst Ed Sullivan, as you can
see, but he was a nice man to me.
So he lets you go ahead and do the nine minutes on the show?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. And how many times were you on that program?
I think about maybe 11, 12, something like that.
Yeah. Do you, do you, uh, at this stage of your life, do you miss doing stand-up
on a regular basis? I know you do it.
I stand-up in clubs. I miss a lot. I miss a lot. I haven't been on the road in
a while. I want to go after my next film.
Mm-hmm.
I like to get back and do a concert so you can get in front of people and they
can ask you, you know, where'd you get them shoes?
And what, and what do you tell them when they ask you about the shoes?
I throw it at them. I say, here, you just smell it. What do you think?
Can I have it back now? Thank you.
Well, that's, it's, it's tough work, isn't it? I think that the-
I love it.
You do love it?
I love it. I love it. And you do six months of that. It's great because I did
films at concerts. I mean, I'm not putting it down or nothing. I'm glad the
concert films were successful, but they weren't complete.
Mm-hmm.
You know how you finish it? Then you say, but there was more to do if I just
worked on it more. But they offer you so much money, you can't go, no, I don't
want it.
Yeah.
Take that check and stop it.
Yeah.
Let me grab it. Don't give me that. Thank you very much. You know.
What about, and I don't know that this would happen to you, but what about hecklers?
If you're working in a club or even in a concert?
I have two guys. They take care of the hecklers.
No, I don't get no real bad hecklers. Not no serious hecklers. Most of the hecklers
I get, people add to the act.
Uh-huh.
You know, I don't get nobody, just takes it out.
Yeah. So it doesn't bother you if somebody does that, then?
There's a line, I don't know.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a very thin line.
Yeah, yeah.
Now, would you ever see yourself doing, like, a massive concert tour or just
picking one night or something?
I'd like to do, like, I'd like to do about 20 cities or something like that.
I'd love to do that.
Yeah.
I really would, man. I'd really enjoy it a lot.
Yeah, it'd be a hot ticket.
Would?
It'd be a good deal.
Oh, yeah.
Good.
Yeah, all right.
Let's, let's, uh, we'll do a, we'll do a commercial here, and, uh, we're going
to talk some more with Richard before we bring up Mr. Dominic, but he'll be
here. Don't worry about it.
Thank you.
Thank you, gentlemen. Mr. Friar is here tonight. What, when you were first, uh,
starting to do nightclub work, I guess, back in Illinois, in that area?
Yes.
Yeah. What, what were the acts of the day, aside from yourself? You, I guess,
worked as a comedian and maybe an emcee sometimes?
Yes.
What, what kind of stuff would you appear with?
I'd appear with, uh, strip dancers. There would be one strip dancer, and then a
singer, and then an emcee. I'd do the emcee or the jokes, as it were, and then
they'd alternate. Every week would be a different show.
But I got to stay three or four weeks, because this guy at this club, liked me.
Yeah. Was there anything, uh, uh, you go to one city, or one act would come in
that would be a little more bizarre than others, or was it pretty much?
There was a flame dancer I worked with one time. She was great. And you used to
do a thing in, in, in the, in the black theater. It was called burying the show.
At the, at the end of the engagement, the last night, everybody would do
everybody else's act, and they'd bury the show. And this guy one time, we was
doing the flame dancer, and the emcee would be,
would be the woman. She'd put on a mustache, and she'd come out and do the
jokes, and then the other girl would sing, and it was great.
Yeah. As a matter of fact, there's a scene like that in, uh, uh, Jojo Dancer.
Right.
Yes.
Yeah, when you're working in the club.
Kind of.
Yeah.
It's good to see you, man. It was nice to see you. I appreciate you coming here.
You know, I saw the other night, uh, they were running, uh, an old variety
series that you did on NBC that was on the air, how, how many weeks did that
last?
Uh, seven weeks or something like that?
Seven weeks, and it was, at the time, it was a really big deal, uh, and it was
with a, a lot of guys that, uh, you and I both knew.
Yes.
A lot of mutual friends.
Yes.
And, uh, and it was pretty interesting stuff that you guys were doing then. And
I guess this is a photograph from the first show.
Explain what we're looking at there. And that's a thing I wanted to do, but the
NBC censors cut it out.
Yeah.
And I was standing there. I say, as you can see, and you only see me from the
waist, just this part.
Right.
As you can see, I've given up absolutely nothing to be on television. And they
pull back and you can see I have no gentleness.
There you are. Yeah. Uh, now, was that show, was that a constant battle with
those? What year was this? This was, uh,
Oh, it was back in 1970-something.
Was it a constant struggle to, uh, keep that thing, uh,
It was a constant struggle in the sense of, like, we'd do stuff and the censor
would come into the dress rehearsal and go,
Oh, you can't do that. Please. And I'd go, well, we'll do something else. And
you keep trying.
And the more you, if once you step with them, that keeps stepping until you end
up with nothing.
Yeah.
Like that.
Uh-huh.
I wonder now if, if things are, are any different.
No, they don't care now.
Anything goes now?
Yeah.
I just, I want, I, I'm guessing certain things would be the same. Other things
might be a little different.
But I think, you know, the pendulum goes one way and then it swings back way
and you maybe don't really gain that.
I imagine television is different. I, I guess I have, I don't do it, so I don't
know. I really don't.
Well, go ahead and test them tonight, Richard.
No, no, no, no, no, hey.
No.
Uh, what other kind of things did you do before you were in show business or
when, when you were, uh, maybe not doing show business full times? Other kind
of jobs?
I'd be, be depressed a lot and.
Yeah. Good money in that.
Yeah. I was depressed a lot. I tried to be a thief for a while. I wasn't good
at that.
What kind of things were you thieving?
I, I would, I was a second story man.
Yeah?
Yeah. Yeah. I'd climb over transits cause I was the skinniest one in the gang.
They'd let me do the climbing over the transit.
And you're in there looking for appliances or jewelry or cash or what?
Uh, I didn't know. I'd just get over this. I'd go, I'm in. What'd I do now?
Uh, how long were you, uh, a thief like that?
Uh, till my father found out.
Uh-huh.
He ended my thievery career real quick.
Uh, in the, in, in the movie here, Critical Condition, you, you're, uh, a guy
playing a doctor. You're not really a doctor though, right?
No, no. He's a guy that's a businessman. He gets in a bad situation and they
think he's a cop. And to keep from going to penitentiary, he tries to fake
insanity so he can go to a mental institution. And while there, there's a blackout.
And they think he's the doctor in charge.
Yeah.
And he takes over like that. He don't know what he's doing.
Yeah. And you're running the show though.
Yeah.
Yeah. Do we have some of that here?
Okay. Let's take a look here. Uh, we have time for this?
Uh, it's a minute or so from, uh, Richard Pryor's latest film entitled, uh,
Critical Condition. Here he is now.
Thank you.
Do you ever, do you ever have any interest in being a doctor?
None whatsoever.
Yeah.
Never did have an interest in it. But I, I like them. I think it's amazing.
They go to school eight years, you know, at least.
And then people don't want to pay their bills. That tickles me. I mean, you
know, you do something on them and the guy goes, I ain't going to pay that much.
And you break the other arm or something.
Let me, uh, uh, you're married again, Richard.
Yeah, Dave.
Congratulations.
Thank you very much.
Where, where did you, uh, where did you meet your wife?
I met my wife in Washington, D.C. about a million years ago.
And, uh, she, she was there. I was doing a concert and I met her and I liked
her right away.
Yeah.
And we talked and became friends.
That's good.
And, uh, so we got