Customer Reviews

Richard Pryor Here and Now

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

People say that HERE & NOW didn't make as big an impact as his other concert films , particularly LIVE ON SUNSET STRIP , but I found the film very enjoyable. The excited (maybe drunken) hecklers would sometimes interrupt Pryor's routine early in the film but he rolls with the hecklers garnering applause at times.

The beauty of Pryor's stand-up is that he seems to share seriously revealing aspects of his personal life for the sake of comedy and entertainment. The moment when he is talking about the junkies are an example of that. The routine changes from stand-up to captivating theatre when he talks about the junkie "Motif". Pryor gets into character and when he begins to roll his sleeve up indicating he is about to 'shoot up' it goes from comedy to commentary. You clearly see the sad reality painted by him yet he doesn't go too far out of the comedic light to still make you laugh. He walks that fine line between funny and seriousness. That is part of the reason why Pryor is considered a comedy genius and I haven't seen another comedian do that better.

The DVD is a two-sided disc with widescreen on one side and full screen on the other. The audio is digital mono with english and french subtitles (at least on the disc I own).

People say that this isn't his best stand up routine but that doesn't mean it is bad stand up. Pryor has stand up routines that are tough to measure up to so it really isn't fair to belittle this film by comparing it to his other shows even though in HERE & NOW he is very much open , spontaneous , and connected with the audience. To me HERE & NOW is very funny enlightening , and revealing.

Pryor was brilliant in this set. However, as other reviewers have pointed out, his audience seemed to be composed of the inhabitants of every podunk village in Louisiana, who saw attendance at his show as the crowning moment of their lives, and wanted to make sure Pryor and the rest of the world knew just how momentous it was by announcing it at the top of their lungs, never stopping their celebration long enough to actually listen to Pryor's routine. He had to contend with a constant barrage of drunken heckling but he still managed to weave spellbinding stories and make brilliant impromptu observations about everyday life. In fact, he frequently turned the boorish behavior of the audience to his advantage, and constructed several brilliant bits of business from their sometimes bizarre antics. Still, it was particularly sad to watch the contrast between the profundity of Pryor's depiction of a broken down junkie and the audience's complete incomprehension of what Pryor was revealing. All the same, Pryor manages to transcend his audience's limitations and create a world of characters and experiences that was fascinating, touching and hilarious. If you can manage to do the same, and overlook the audience and immerse yourself in Pryor's world, it will be well worth the effort. Don't sleep on this one.

Not funny? Huh?!?! How can anyone who enjoys Pryor's humor not consider this funny? Granted, RICHARD PRYOR LIVE and LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP our the two better installments of this succession of three great shows (RICHARD PRYOR LIVE is an absolute classic) but this is nonetheless still great comedy. The only downer of this whole set is the often annoying audience. Pryor answers back to the hecklers with sharp humor but the interuptions are certainly annoying.

Still, this is yet another great example of the most honest funnyman of our time.

If, however, you have not seen any of his stand-up, by all means, look to RICHARD PRYOR LIVE first, then get ON THE SUNSET STRIP. But if those two classics tickle your funnybone, I can't imagine why you wouldn't find much to enjoy here.

Not as good as the others, but 1 star? Please!

Don't believe the negative reviews. I repeat: don't buy the lukewarm responses.

If you are looking for uninterrupted gut-busting laughter, and an audience laugh-track to cajole you on, you might be better served by Pryor's other movies or the works of artists like Sinbad, Chris Rock, Dave Chapelle, Bernie Mac, George Carlin and others who followed in his footsteps.

In "Here and Now," which Roger Ebert called a "90-minute documentary of one man talking," Richard Pryor evokes a cadence and relevance that none of the above could reinvent. He rises from gift to genius and from talent to savant. Make no mistake, this film contains some of Pryor's best moments.

Yet these moments are not done justice by the superficial label of "comedy." When Pryor ties his arm off and shoots up heroin, wincing with intensity as he stiffly pauses waiting for the hit to materialize, and then transitions into a liquid shiver of euphoria before his entire body falls limp-- it might disappoint those reviewers who were expecting to see Moe, Curly, and Larry.

The rest of us can be spellbound by the power and poetry of the man who is to comedy what Jack Kennedy is to politics; a rare achiever stifled too young and not paralleled since. Pryor is masterful, ad-libbing and sketching us on a roller coaster of laughter, tears, and pure marvel at the human condition.

To those who buy this to appreciate cheap thrills rather than being intellectually and politically prepared to be moved, I say this: "You're no Richard Pryor."

Richard Pryor Here and Now demonstrates that he's arguably the greatest stand-up comic of all time. It's true that this concert is by far weaker than Live in Concert and Sunset Strip. There are more slow spots here and the frequent interruptions and distractions by the obnoxious audience throw Pryor off of his rhythm. Part of what makes this fascinating to watch is how Pryor handles these people and saves the film. A lesser comedian would have been crushed. Richard Pryor, even when not in top form and with so much working against him still manages to be very funny. "This ain't Johnny Carson MFs!!!" Prudish people with an aversion for adult language and content, or uncomfortable with in-your-face discussions of race relations or the dark side of American history shouldn't watch this or any other Richard Pryor concert.

I saw this at the old Jefferson Square Theater in Columbia, SC when I was in college in 1983. Pryor's last concert film, and not one of his better ones. Some interesting moments though. Mudbone appears in one of his rare filmed skits (compare this with the "Richard Pryor Show" DVD which repeats the classic Mudbone performance from "Is It Something I Said"). There is a really interesting moment when Pryor talks to a fiddler crab that crawls on his stool that is the kind of one-man theater that distiguished Pryor from his cursing copycats who had all of the profanity but none of the profundity of the master. He also does a frightfully accurate rendition of a junkie going on a nod. You can tell that he knows what he's talking about. In either case, this is for fans only. Rest in Peace brother Pryor.

Richard Pryor is A Genius sadly this show really stunk,the people Heckling give new orleans a bad name,and you can tell Richard isn't at his best in this show, it's a shame what has happened to him,the man is brilliant.

Richard Pryor had me rolling during this set.talking about Ronald Reagan&the white house.also about other topics.The Man is the King of Story Telling.he just brings so much hurt&soul into his Craft.now i will admit that other stage Performances have made a bigger impact overall but seeing Rich on stage doing his thang&Mudbone is always a treat.

This is a warning to anybody thinking of buying this dvd. Here and Now was awful. From the beginning you can see the stupid audience members heckling and bothering pryor. I wish i could invent a time machine to go back and kill those people before they entered the theater that night. I purchased Here and Now because i was at the store hoping to get Live in Conert or Live on the Sunset Strip. They were all out, then i saw this dvd. The price was 20 dollars and i had 20 dollars on me. I thought this must be fate, no it wasn't it was God's and Richard Pryor's way of making a big joke. I had told friends how great Pryor was in the other performance. Live in Concert was genius, just brilliant. So i bought it and showed it to the friends i had hyped him up to, and only one of them even laughed a little and the other's began to criticize Pryor for being so terribly unfunny. And that just made me look like an idiot for recommending him. This is a Warning. Please i beg of you not to buy this; take your twenty dollars and give it to me, I will put it to good use by hiring scientists to build time machines and spaceships to go back in time and smack the coke out of Richard's nose before he decided to do this show. I would only tell you to get it if you have a collection you wish to complete, because there are a only a couple of good parts. Be warned!

This is not up to the Richard Pryor comedic standard.