Richard Pryor Book Report

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"Hope I'm funny" was what Richard Pryor said at the beginning of many of his shows. He doesn't have to hope any more. He tells it all in his recent autobiography "Pryor Convictions and Other Life Sentences." The book was written with the help of Todd Gold, who is the bureau chief for People Magazine in Los Angeles. Pryor was one of the first black comedians to use the `N' word in his routine. He used it often and with effect. In fact, a comedian said, "The `N' word was used so many times on the Mark Furhman tapes, they sounded like an old Richard Pryor routine." He kept hitting the nerve of racism in America. "Cops put a hurtin' on your ass, man. White folks don't believe that shit."'Oh, come on, those beating," white folks say. "Those people…show more content…
The Army eventually sends him to Germany where the adventures begin. The ride becomes a swift one. Clubs in New York, Red Foxx, the Ed Sullivan show. The book details all of his own seizures throughout his life. He candidly tells about his burns in his freebasing accident. (He did it on purpose.) Drugs also entered his life. Booze was already a major part. Women and money caused him a share of grief. He was sent to jail for income tax evasion. He told the judge, "Your honor, I forgot." The judge sent him to jail and said, "You'll remember next year nigger." The book is a wild tale of excess. Pryor admits he was never close to being normal. he could not stop drinking until the bartender said, "We got no more f*#@ing liquor." As for drugs, he tried them all. "White dude gave me some shit, talking about how I'm going to be trippin." Richard told him, "I ain't going no place without my luggage." About the same time he discovered free basing. "I fell in love with the pipe," Pryor remembers. "The pipe controlled my very being." The pipe would whisper to him "Don't answer the phone. We have smoking to do." Richard says that his cocaine consumption embarrassed the cocaine dealers. They would say, "Richard, man god damn, come on, why don't you just snort the
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