And the winner is!

[Visitor]

RICHARD PRYOR STILL STIRRING IT UP!


COMIC AHMED AHMED WINS THE FIRST RICHARD PRYOR AWARD FOR ETHNIC COMEDY


The legendary Richard Pryor is still stirring up controversy over 25 years after he redefined modern comedy in the immortal stand-up film ‘Live In Concert’. Yesterday, from his home in California, the comedian chose American/ Egyptian comic Ahmed Ahmed as the first ever winner of the Richard Pryor Award for Ethnic Comedy. Pryor was unable to travel to the ceremony due to ill health, but watched video recordings of the four nominees to make the final decision. Announced at midnight on Wednesday 25th August during an award ceremony held at Edinburgh’s Opal Lounge - Jennifer Lee Pryor, the comedian’s wife and manager, presented the award at an event hosted by popular stand-up Junior Simpson.



Although welcomed by many comics as a huge step forward in bringing a more diverse range of multi-cultural humour to the Edinburgh Fringe, the award was also criticised by one black comedian as ‘racist’. However, earlier today US stand-up Dennis Leary, commented “Richard Pryor is the funniest man who ever lived. He can call his award whatever the fuck he wants to call it”.


Richard Pryor said “Jenny and I are really excited about this - cause they (The Fringe) got to mix it up a bit - I mean, you are all too white over there! I like that this is opening things up.” He went on to say about Ahmed Ahmed, “dangerous motherfucker! He will only grow and get better, he makes people confront their own racism and small minds – I see genius in this man.”


Winner Ahmed Ahmed is an Egyptian-American comic whose many TV appearances include MTV, Comedy Central, ABC and PBS. He recently said, “I only attract white women who want to piss off their parents. When I fly? I have to get to the airport a month and a half early, and all the meals always come pre-cut”. Richard Pryor described the other three nominees as “also brilliant”.



Revolver Entertainment, one of Britains’s leading entertainment distributors, were responsible for staging this year’s event. They initiated the award with Richard and Jennifer Pryor to encourage a more diverse range of humour at the festival. In addition the award hopes to encourage audiences to cast their nets a bit wider when coming up to the festival and to encourage more multi-cultural comedians and audiences to attend too. Commenting on the Award, Fringe Director Paul Gudgin said: "We're delighted to welcome this new award to the Fringe. It celebrates the diversity of the festival and it's an honour to be associated with Richard Pryor."


This is also the first time that an ethnic comedian has won an award at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. Jennifer Lee Pryor promised at the ceremony that the award would be back next year, with a new category allowing a broader range of comedians to enter.



The shortlist of nominees was chosen by a panel of UK judges, who were Lucy Lumsden – BBC Commissioning Executive for comedy, Stephen Armstrong – Sunday Times Comedy Critic and Mina Anwar – actress.

[Visitor]

Visitor,

This was already posted in the Latest News last night!

[Visitor]

Visitor,

Yeah, please pay attention. It's really annoying.

[Visitor]

Visitor,
whats even more annoying is that the cool post about the award in the latest news section got overshadowed by a post about some pussy-ass video game. The Richard Pryor Award is probably the biggest deal in Pryorland in a long time but the day after Jen presents it, you people are more interested in some 10-year-old's faggy excitement about some loser game that has nothing at all to do with Richard. I guarantee the Pryors are embarrassed as shit at you people. Grow the fuck up!

[Visitor]

astonamous,
no - just someone who wishes there was either an age requirement on here or at least a forum just for little kids so members like that quichedewhatever would be able to post his shit without making this site an embarrassment. When I visit a site called RichardPryor.com, I expect to read about Richard and Jennifer Pryor or about political and social issues they care about or, as in this case, the Richard Pryor Award. I shouldn't have to weed through so much bullshit to get there. If I wanted to read about some stupid video game, I'd visit a stupid video game site. See ya. Long live Richard Pryor.

[Visitor]

Visitor,

I wish you would log in so I knew who I am talking to. If you don't want others to know, just PM me.

Trudy (too lazy to log in right now)

[bingolong]

Trudy,
I figured it out!!!It's not Jennifer who made that post,it's the mothafucka who won that award,Ahmed Ahmed!!!Congrats

[bingolong]

dumbass,

[bingolong]

dumbass,
But you guys did make sense.I think that topic about the video game would have been better suited for the "Visitor" secton and this one should be in the "Latest news" section.It makes sense that would be the place that people would go to get the "latest news"on RP.Anyway it's all good,we'll figure it out one day.....

[Visitor]

bingolong,

First of all, I didn't really she was typing what I was saying until after she hit "send". Secondly, what you said is all I was really trying to say - that everyone should be allowed to talk about anything they want on here - even video games. But not in "Latest News" under "Jennifer's Turf", especially when she's over in the UK hoping we're all proud of her (and we are!). Trudy leaves a post keeping us up to date with the award presentation and how Jen's doing and almost immediately it gets pushed down by one with "news" about some game neither Jen nor Richard nor most visitors to this site could give a damn about. Just talking about it boggles my mind. I think you're absolutely right - it belonged in this section (Visitor's forum). If it's not originally posted by Rich or Jen, or at the very least ABOUT Rich or Jen, it doesn't belong in "Latest News".

Can y'all dig it?

- Dave