After putting down David and Joe Henry’s biography of Richard Pryor Furious Cool, I thought to myself, “where is a comic like Pryor when we need him?” In a world with comics offering raunchy material with not much substance to it which is the complete opposite of Pryor who was a comic who didn’t give a damn of what people thought of him and just spoke the truth even though it was ahead of it’s time.
Some will say that Pryor got a lot of his material from having a mother who was a prostitute and his grandmother running a whorehouse. He was also a tough guy and didn’t put up with nonsense from anyone. Throughout his life he had a slew of marriages and kids from many different women. He was also not the easiest person to work with when you read about the crazy situations Pryor seemed to find himself in.
Furious Cool shows us through a Lego block style of history of what made Richard the man he was and how he was such a brave comic for standing up for what for what was right and wrong in the world especially when it came to race. Don’t get me wrong Pryor could be offensive but he usually had a point to his humor. It cut to the bone but it was like society was asking for it.
Without spoiling the great stories the Henry brothers dig up about Pryor (let’s just say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas and the Blazing Saddles story really make you go wow! Don’t worry there are plenty more if you’ve already heard of those two. I could literally fill this review with one jaw-dropping story after another but that would spoil the fun of this terrific book. )
As tough as Pryor seemed deep down he was a flawed man who usually ran away from him problems. Cue cocaine and other substance abuses to make that stuff go away. Towards the end of the book you’ll see how the sadness inside takes over his life. But even with all the ups and downs of Pryor’s life you’ll still read this book and say exactly what I said at the beginning of this review.
Where is Richard Pryor when you need him?
