Revolution Televised.pdf

144 That Nigger’s Crazy
at the closing of the Black Revolution? To answer these questions,
one has to delve into Pryor’s personal history and engagement with
mainstream and underground comedy.
Super Nigger: From the Streets to Las Vegas
In 1940 Richard Pryor was born in Peoria, Illinois, to former boxer
LeRoy Pryor Jr. and prostitute Gertrude Thomas. His paternal
grandmother, Marie Carter Pryor Bryant, ran a series of whorehouses
in Peoria and was primarily responsible for Pryor’s welfare.
Drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, winos, and junkies were all a part
of his neighborhood. Kicked out of Catholic school because of his
family’s line of work, Pryor was unable to fit into the public school
system; he was expelled from one high school and dropped out of
another. From then on he took jobs here and there, and until he
joined the army in 1958, he spent the majority of his time on the
streets or hanging out in a bar and pool hall owned by his family.
Pryor began performing comedy while enlisted in the army from
1958 to 1960, and when he returned to Peoria he worked at black
venues, such as Harold’s Club and Collins’ Corner as an emcee and
opening act. Like Redd Foxx and many other black comedians before
him, he began traveling the Chitlin’ Circuit and in 1963 moved
to New York City. After he was rejected at the Apollo, Pryor performed
at local clubs in Greenwich Village, including the Improv,
the Bitter End, and Café Wha? It was at these Village clubs that
Pryor gained a reputation as a performer and was subsequently
offered stints at the uptown New York clubs. During this time in
his career he was a self-described imitator of Bill Cosby’s comedic
style. In his autobiography Pryor discusses his reaction to seeing
Bill Cosby perform at a club called the Cellar in the early 1960s:
I decided that’s who I was going to be from then on.
Bill Cosby.
Richard Cosby.
If the material wasn’t exactly Bill’s, the delivery was. So much so I
should’ve informed people.
But other comics caught on and asked, “What the fuck happened?”
I said, “I’m going for the bucks.” 1
Early on, a white agent confirmed Pryor’s beliefs by telling him that
he needed to act like Bill Cosby, a black person that white people