Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic

Comedian Richard Pryor died in 2005 at 65 years old. He was both a self-made and a self-made man. As a stand-up comic, he broke racial and social taboos during America's civil rights era, and he brought black street slang to the general public. He titled his successful debut album , much to the discomfort of white interviewers. Film recordings of his shows demonstrate how his controversial character earned him many fans, but it also cost him lucrative work in Las Vegas as well as the starring role in Mel Brooks's 1974 film (which Pryor co-wrote), and his own TV series . Besides abundant and often unique archive footage, this film features interviews with a string of ex-wives and friends including Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams and Jesse Jackson, all of whom paint a picture of a troubled comedian. Despite a spiritual journey to Africa, it was ultimately the drugs that were his undoing. Watching TV while he was high, Pryor saw a Vietnamese monk setting fire to himself and decided to do the same – an event that this documentary illustrates with scenes from his 1986 autobiographical feature . Fortunately, Pryor was always able to draw on his personal misfortunes in his stand-up work, up to and including the multiple sclerosis that finally killed him. As he said, "Nothing was too sad some humor couldn't be found in it."