{"id":1165,"date":"2005-12-11T03:09:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-11T07:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1165"},"modified":"2005-12-11T03:09:00","modified_gmt":"2005-12-11T07:09:00","slug":"richard-pryor-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1165","title":{"rendered":"Richard Pryor – RIP"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>As you’ve probably already heard, Richard Pryor<\/a><\/b> died yesterday. He’d turned 65<\/b> a little over a week ago, but had suffered with multiple sclerosis<\/b> for years. The disease made Richard <\/b>seem older and robbed him [and us] of years that he could have been performing. <\/div>\n

In the coming days you will hear testimony<\/b> from comics<\/b>, celebrities<\/b> and others about Richard Pryor<\/b>. Most will proclaim him to be one of the greatest comedians of all time<\/b>. They’d be right, but Richard Pryor<\/b> was much more than just a guy who told jokes.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Richard<\/b> was a former soldier<\/b> [two years in the army<\/b>]. He was a great stand-up<\/b> comedian<\/b>. His comedy albums<\/b> are classics. Pryor<\/b> worked in television<\/b> as an actor<\/b> and writer<\/b> [even starring<\/b> in a short-lived series<\/b> that was ahead of it’s time]. He also appeared in nearly 40 feature films<\/b>, several of which he wrote, produced<\/b> and\/or directed<\/b>. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Pryor’s comedy<\/b> was raw. Sure, the language was quite often foul, but that’s not what I mean when I say his comedy<\/b> was raw. Pryor’s comedy<\/b> wasn’t superficial. He didn’t just relate funny stories<\/b>. Pryor’s comedy <\/b>crossed age barriers<\/b>, color differences<\/b>, and made you think<\/b> even as you were laughing till the tears came<\/b>. That’s because Richard’s comedy <\/b>was founded in truth. He talked about racism, drug addiction, sex, male -female relations<\/b>, and more. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Sure, he made us laugh… but equally important, he made us think.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The funniest movie<\/b> that I ever saw was Richard Pryor Live<\/a><\/b>. I saw it in a crowded theater in 1979<\/b>. If you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s a concert movie. Richard Pryor<\/b>, a microphone and a crowded ampitheater. I never laughed so hard in my life. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Truly. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I laughed to tears and beyond. My sides were truly hurting<\/b> by the time the movie was over. And I wanted to hear more. I talked about the movie<\/b> for days. Telling others that they should go and sharing laughs with people who’d seen it. Heck, it’s 26 years<\/b> later and I’m still recommending it.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I’m sad to hear that Richard Pryor<\/b> is no longer with us. I’m just as sad that he had to suffer so long from multiple sclerosis. <\/b> <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and fans.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you’ve probably already heard, Richard Pryor died yesterday. He’d turned 65 a little over a week ago, but had<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebs","category-rip","comments-off"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}