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Summary
Summary
"Richard Pryor was chain lightning to everything around him. He shocked the world through with human electricity. He blew all our comfortable balance to hell. And Furious Cool captures it brilliantly." --Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin
Richard Pryor was arguably the single most influential performer of the second half of the twentieth century, and certainly he was the most successful black actor/comedian ever. Controversial and somewhat enigmatic during his life, Pryor's performances opened up a whole new world of possibilities, merging fantasy with angry reality in a way that wasn't just new--it was theretofore unthinkable.
Now, in this groundbreaking and revelatory work, Joe and David Henry bring him alive again both as a man and as an artist, providing an in-depth appreciation of his talent and his lasting influence, as well as an insightful examination of the world he lived in and the myriad influences that shaped both his persona and his art.
"Brothers David and Joe Henry have brought Richard Pryor back to pulsating life, affirming both his humanity and his immortality as a comic--and tragic--genius." -- The Huffington Post
"A sleek, highly literate biography that places the comic in the pop-cultural context of his times." -- Bloomberg News
"It would be enough if Furious Cool was a profile of Pryor's uncanny talents, psychic turmoil, and ungovernable behavior, but it's also a fascinating history of black comedy . . . Furious Cool captures Pryor's frenetic routines and stage presence on the page . . . The inextricable legacy of Richard Pryor--his boldness, inventiveness, candor, and empathy--lives on." -- Los Angeles Magazine
"An addictively readable study of the path of this outsized talent . . . Someday, when fewer people know Richard Pryor's name, Furious Cool will be the best defense against the worst sort of forgetting--the kind that involves who we are now, who we loved once, and why." -- Esquire
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The Henry brothers cover the life of Richard Pryor from his childhood in a flophouse to his final days in a mansion. Focusing mostly on his comedic genius of the 1960s and 1970s, the authors trace his progress, his set-backs, his influences, and his more extreme mishaps. Cumulatively, they show both the greatness and limitations of Pryor and his lasting impact on comedy and culture. Narrator Graham provides an standout, moving performance. His deep and projective voice commands listener attention and guides them through the highs to the lows of Pryor's life. Graham also nails the emotional tension of the book, and provides solid voices for the different people quoted throughout the book. However, most of Graham's impressions of Prior are so perfect that listeners may wonder whether they are listening to Graham or Pryor. This blend of narration with impersonation makes the audiobook successful. An Algonquin hardcover. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* With ferocious energy and a malleable face, Richard Pryor on stage made full use of his genius and his demons. Every moment of his life being raised by a grandmother who ran a whorehouse in Peoria, Illinois; exposure to colorful street characters; drug addiction; many failed relationships; indiscriminate sexual liaisons was fodder for his comedy. After honing his talent on the chitlin' circuit, he moved on to Greenwich Village, the site of seismic changes in the American cultural scene, where he saw Lenny Bruce and learned he could use his sharp observations and quick wit to develop biting and hilarious portraits of the gritty side of life. The Henrys detail Pryor's early struggle with double-consciousness: cleaning up his act to get ahead (a la Bill Cosby) while wanting a release from containment. When he found his own voice, Pryor got mixed reactions, both horror at his rawness and liberal use of the n-word and elation at his liberating frankness. Drawing on interviews with Pryor's friends, family, and colleagues as well as his personal writings, the Henrys portray a man of enormous talent, a one-man theater of raw emotions as he torqued through success and a spectacular crash through drugs, violence, forgettable movie roles, and self-immolation. A beautifully written account of the troubled life of a manic genius.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
THE BROTHERS David Henry and Joe Henry (the former a screenwriter and the latter a songwriter and singer) open this unorthodox paean to the legendary comedian Richard Pryor with a brief description of one of the most horrific incidents in their subject's life. On the evening of June 9, 1980, they tell us, Pryor douses himself with 150-proof rum and flicks his Bic lighter. Moments later he crashes through his bedroom window and begins "stumbling alone down the street, disoriented, arms raised People cry out when he joins them at a corner, smoldering, waiting to cross Finally, a police cruiser rolls up next to him, keeping pace. When the officers' shouts get no response, the one in the passenger's seat vaults from the moving car into the street and begins jogging alongside him, calmly pleading with the burning man to stop. "Tf I stop, I'll die,' he answers, making odd sense of a moment that refuses any other kind." The officer doesn't argue the point or stop him - just jogs along beside him until, minutes later, an ambulance arrives and whisks Pryor off to the burn center at Sherman Oaks Hospital. The bizarre, near-fatal incident, along with Pryor's ironically percipient response to the officer, is a telling symbol of the often chaotic, helter-skelter nature of the comic's life, offstage and on. It also foreshadows the unconventional style of the authors' spirited, fitful and sometimes desultory narrative approach. "We didn't set out to write the definitive cradle-to-grave biography of Richard Pryor," they say. "We chose instead to go exploring, to mine the soil out of which he grew, and map the cultural landscape from which he emerged." "Furious Cool," then, is not an intimate, determinedly probing account that sets out to unearth previously concealed biographical detail or attempts to reassess a life or provide continuity. It's more an admiring primer, an impressionistic riff that trips selectively through the milestones and mishaps, triumphs and tragedies that marked Pryor's career, offering piquant snippets and fleeting snapshots as it prospects for the source of his genius. For those not familiar with his life, however, the bare-bones chronology does emerge from the succession of asides and anecdotes that gird the narrative. Pryor was born in Peoria, Ill., in 1940 and, as he avowed onstage, raised in a brothel owned by his grandmother. Signs of his performance skills emerged early on despite his unusual home life and scrapes with authorities. In 1962, after a disastrous stint in the Army, marriage and fatherhood, he left Peoria to attempt a show business career. The following year, Pryor arrived in New York City and quickly gained recognition as a promising young comic in the Bill Cosby vein. Before long, he abandoned the safe, orthodox approach of his peers and dropped out to rethink and revamp his stage act. He immersed himself in black culture, reading Malcolm X and, in Berkeley, hanging out with a group of black activists and intellectuals who flaunted that culture. By the early '70s, he had introduced a startling new stage persona and character-based comic approach that reflected his personal transformation. Several Grammy Award-winning albums and a groundbreaking television variety show followed. And in 1979, with the release of "Richard Pryor: Live in Concert," which Pauline Kael called "probably the greatest of all recorded performance films," he assumed the mantle of the nation's premier stand-up comedian. Pryor, though, was much more than just a comic to David and Joe Henry. And it is their passionate belief in his transcendent status that energizes the book. "It seems blasphemous to speak of 'other comedians' when discussing Richard Pryor," they write. "Richard's genius outstripped the confines of stand-up comedy, ran circles around it, danced on its grave." The authors, who are white, acknowledge some initial wariness about diving headlong into an examination of the social impact of a larger-than-life African-American cultural hero. But finally it is their affirmation of the influence Pryor had outside the black community and beyond comedy that perhaps most commends this book. It is a testament to his stature not only as an African-American entertainment idol but also as an American icon. While the authors generally present Pryor's life with reverence and, often, awe, they also engage his darker sides unflinchingly, with a touch of the brutal honesty that characterized their subject's stand-up routines. Neither Pryor's volatile temper and enraged, drug-induced outbursts nor his unrestricted philandering and complex, near-misogynist attitude toward women are avoided. Still, in terms of fresh disclosures about Pryor's life or work, very little is added here. The comedian Paul Mooney (one of Pryor's closest friends and a writing collaborator) provides some of the most revealing or perceptive observations, and, among the original interviews, the producer Rocco Urbisci, the comedian Franklyn Ajaye and Pryor's former wife Jennifer Lee are the most eye-opening contributors. But much of the material gleaned from "friends, family and cohorts" is routine, and with the exception of their own glowing regard for Pryor, the narrative is informed by well-trodden cultural analyses. For those who witnessed his act onstage or are familiar with the raft of commentary on Richard Pryor's life, "Furious Cool" is likely to be seen more as a nostalgic survey than a provocative re-evaluation. For a younger generation, perhaps unfamiliar with his work (Pryor, who died in 2005, did his last stand-up tour in 1992), the Henrys' exuberant tribute may well evoke renewed interest in a performance genius who remade the face of American stand-up comedy. MEL WATKINS, the author of "On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy," is N.E.H. professor of the humanities at Colgate University.
Choice Review
Screenwriter brothers David Henry and Joe Henry deliver gossipy, accessible accounts of selected events that influenced Pryor. Experimental, speculative short fictional narrative passages describe key moments in Pryor's life cinematically, with literary flair. By way of context, the authors provide thumbnail depictions of other comedians: Bert Williams and blackface comedy; Lenny Bruce and storytelling as comedy; George Carlin and shifting uses of language in comedy. The authors provide selective recountings of Pryor's childhood in Peoria; interest in Black Panther Party strategies; addiction to drugs; several marriages and violent relationships with women; public breakdowns; and long friendship with Paul Mooney. They also include helpful discussion of Pryor's early acting roles in the films Wild in the Streets, You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat, and Wattstax. Notwithstanding occasional reference to W. E. B Du Bois's theory of double consciousness to describe Pryor's demons, the volume has a popular-press style of narration. It is marred by lack of footnotes or index, and many missed opportunities, as in the frequent recounting of Pryor's easy admissions of enjoying sex with men, but no context for consideration of gay African American comics. Thus, the book is not appropriate for academic use. Summing Up: Optional. General readers only. T. F. DeFrantz Duke University
Kirkus Review
Biography of the comedic genius, anticipating the authors' in-the-works film script on Pryor's work and hard times. Pryor was a careful autobiographer, as witness the revelations in his popular concert films from the early 1980s. He was also a brilliant improviser and actor who would single-handedly "populate his stages with upward of eight or ten characters who he permitted to flirt with, mock, con, love, hate, enchant, and begat each other." The Henry brothers, one a screenwriter, the other a music producer, do not add materially to what Pryor has told us about himself, except to note that his frequent protestations that he had quit drugs were lies. Indeed, on many matters, they rely too heavily on the memoirs of Pryor's ever-patient friend Paul Mooney. What adds value to this book is the authors' expert sociological constructions, some of which they do not follow as closely as they might have. For instance, it is a noteworthy observation (though not original to the Henrys) that Pryor, more than any other single source, may have brought the "N-word" into common usage in popular culture; they could have explored it more. Along the way, they venture useful notes on the influence of Dick Gregory, the frequent betrayals (including Pryor's assumption that Mel Brooks was going to cast him as the sheriff in Blazing Saddles, a good bit of which Pryor wrote), and of course, Pryor's incessant drinking, drug use and sad demise. The book is a touch slapdash at times--the spelling is Sandy Koufax, not "Kofax"; someone from Wales is Welsh, not "Welch"; Moms Mabley never worked a room clean if she could help it--but it's mostly insightful and often entertaining all the same. A mixed bag but worth reading. Those who do will be inspired to give Pryor's concert films fresh screenings.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
This fascinating and comprehensive biography of actor and comedian Richard Pryor (1940-2005) traces life from his troubled childhood in a brothel in Peoria, IL, through his rise to fame, struggles with addiction, and ultimate decline. In their first book, brothers David and Joe Henry revere Pryor's genius but pull no punches when describing his demons and later output. This moving work captures all the pain and triumph of Pryor's remarkable life. The audio treatment may be better than the printed edition thanks to the excellent narration by Dion Graham, who delivers the excerpts from Pryor's material with flawless comic timing. VERDICT Strongly recommended to anyone interested in Richard Pryor. ["More a compilation of assiduous research than a narrative-with irreverent profanity that echoes Pryor's performances-this book should succeed in introducing a legend to new generations," read the review of the -Algonquin hc, LJ 9/1/13; see the Q&A with the authors, p. 44.]-Mark John Swails, Johnson Cty. Community Coll., Overland Park, KS (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
Prelude | p. xiii |
Introduction: The Fear of Black Laughter | p. xv |
Part 1 A Native Son of Wistful Vista | p. 3 |
"There's a Bad Muthafucka CominÆ Your Way" | p. 22 |
Backing Up While Swimming | p. 30 |
"Ain't That Many of Us to Go Around" | p. 40 |
Part 2 "Give Me Some Milk or Else Go Home" | p. 51 |
A Way Out of Here Other Than That Door | p. 72 |
Monday, December 22, 1969 | p. 95 |
Part 3 There's a Riot GoinÆ On | p. 107 |
The Word Made Flesh | p. 118 |
A Screaming Comes across the Sky | p. 126 |
"Nigger, Come Out of That Black Skin and Be Black, Nigger" | p. 132 |
"Let It Stay Heavy if Not Hard" | p. 145 |
Part 4 "I See That Man in My Mind and Go with Him" | p. 161 |
"There's a Person Here That's Possessed" | p. 176 |
"Let's Get Him before Somebody Else Does" | p. 187 |
Surrender, Richard | p. 198 |
"You Hollywood Faggots Can Kiss My Rich Happy Black Ass" | p. 207 |
"Does It Look Like I'm Smiling to You, Motherfucker?" | p. 211 |
"When You Get off That Stage, There's a Loneliness That Comes over You" | p. 217 |
"My Mind's Thinking About Shit I Don't Want to Be Thinkin' About" | p. 226 |
Part 5 "The Part of Me That Wanted to Die Did" | p. 239 |
Is Comedy Stand-Up Poetry? | p. 247 |
"I Guess That's a Smile. I Hope That's His Face" | p. 249 |
"I'm Finding It Hard Imitating Richard Pryor" | p. 259 |
The Last Temptation of Richard | p. 264 |
Epilogue: Going to Meet the Man | p. 277 |
Joe's Postscript | p. 279 |
Acknowledgments | p. 283 |
Sources | p. 285 |