One of my all time favorites.

A Masterpiece!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

RICHARD PRYOR : HERE AND NOW (1983) & RICHARD PRYOR: LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP (1982) – both ***1/2 Pryor, one of America's greatest stand-up comedians, expertly conveys the inner pain and personal demons of his tumultuous life with heartbreakingly funny takes on his drug abuse, sexual relationships, racism, spirituality abroad in Africa, getting drunk, recalling early gigs with Mob run clubs and the occasional improvs (his bit with a hermit crab shows just how quick on his feet his mind is) showcase the true brilliance of an original artist in his element and total at ease and command for the language of 'vulgur' humor that seamlessly blends into the vernacularity of his topics of discussion (say unlike his protégé Eddie Murphy and only recently touched upon with better results by Chris Rock). Lucky to be alive after his near-fatal freebasing burning Pryor even makes dying sound funny. A genius in every sense of the word.

I have no idea what is wrong with the authors of the negative comments about this film, but clearly they have no sense of humor because this is one of the funniest stand up routines ever - period.Richard Pryor has terrific material, perfect delivery and great comic timing - he is a comic genius. His self deprecating style is simply perfect and extraordinarily funny.I have seen this show several times on cable and I laugh often and out loud throughout every time. The opening 20 minutes have some of the funniest stuff I have ever heard particularly the bits about his relationships. And his description of Jim Brown trying to save him from crack addiction and the stories of his subsequent hospitilization for burn treatment are hilarious.Highly recommended.

Whoa! After seeing Richard Pryor Live some years ago, I was eagerly looking forward to this when it appeared on satellite TV a while back. Boy was I disappointed. As soon as I saw that the whole thing had been filmed in soft-focus, and that it had quite obviously been edited with canned laughter like an episode of Happy Days, my shoulders slumped. I barely managed a smile during the whole sad affair, and thought to myself, 'What happened to the genius that I enjoyed in the other concert?'. I can also honestly say that I cannot remember any of the tedious observations that Mr Pryor offered up. This was probably made during his substance abusing days.Live?...It looked dead to me!

Richard Pryor proves his comedic genius here with another comedy film, this time live from the sunset strip. Here, he talks about women, african roots, and Pryor on fire (which is his hilarious account of when he lit himself on fire mixing crack-cocaine). Funny stuff, but not as fully dandy as his 1979 special. Tries as hard as he can, and succeeds in winning the audience over. It also worked for me. Sort of. First of two Pryor comedy films from Columbia-Tristar. A-