Reply #12: That was a sad time in Rich's life. [View All]

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

Yes, he was a tortured genius, if there ever was one. That said, Rich did embrace that time of his life in his art and did not shrink from confronting it head-on in his material and in his non-performing words, once the dust had settled. So should those who now control his legacy.

That interview was, surely, duly released and is part of his historical record. There is much that many can learn from that interview, both as comedians and as persons made from the same flawed clay as Rich was. Why should it be surpressed in the name of, perhaps, historical revisionism?

Let's not whitewash the memory of Richard Pryor. He once made a movie that exposed the comedy in whitewashing a black man. There was more to that message than simply makeup, too. In real life, he didn't whitewash himself. Maybe the same courtesy should be extended to him in his passing.

Thank you for your websites. They are a great historical record of a very important performer.