Audrey Thomas McCluskey is a professor of African American and African diaspora studies and former director of the Black Film Center/Archive at Indiana University, Bloomington. She lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Richard Pryor: Comic Genius, Tortured Soul / Audrey Thomas McCluskey

Part 1. New Essays

1. "That Nigger's Crazy": Richard Pryor, Racial Performativity, Cultural Critique / Keith M. Harris

2. The Crisis of Black Masculinity in Jo Jo Dancer: Your Life Is Calling / Margo Natalie Crawford

3. Was It Something He Said? Censorship and the Richard Pryor Television Show, 1977 / Audrey Thomas McCluskey

4. Richard Pryor and the Poetics of Cursing / Kate E. Brown

5. Br'er Richard: Fascinatin' Storyteller / Maxine A. LeGall

6. ". . . And It's Deep Too": The Philosophical Comedy of Richard Pryor / Malik D. McCluskey

7. When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong: Pryor, Chappelle, and the Comedic Politics of the Post-Soul / Tyrone R. Simpson

Part 2. Biography

8. Jump Street!

From Richard Pryor: The Man behind the Laughter (1981) / Joseph Nazel

9. The Politics of Being Black

From If I Stop I'll Die: The Comedy and Tragedy of Richard Pryor (1991) / John A. Williams and Dennis A. Williams

10. "He Wasn't Afraid to Get Naked in Front of People": Michael Schultz Remembers Richard Pryor / Audrey Thomas McCluskey

Part 3. Reviews

11. Time Warp Movies: A Review of Superman III (1985) / Pauline Kael

12. Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip (1994) / Pauline Kael

13. Richard Pryor: The Real Slim Shady (2001) / Rob Sheffield

Part 4. Social and Cultural Criticism

14. The New Comic Style of Richard Pryor (1975) / James Alan McPherson

15. Jive Times: Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, and the Theatre of the Routine (1974) / David Felton

16. Richard and Me (1994) / Nelson George

17. Hill Street Bullshit, Richard Pryor Routines, and the Real Deal (1997) / Bob Avakian

18. Now's the Time: The Richard Pryor Phenomenon and the Triumph of Black Culture (1998) / Siva Vaidhyanathan

19. A Pryor Love: The Life and Times of America's Comic Prophet of Race (1999) / Hilton Als

20. Conclusion: We Owe a Debt to Richard Pryor / Audrey Thomas McCluskey

Selected Chronology: The Life and Times of Richard Pryor

Additional Sources

Permissions and Credits

List of Contributors

Index