RichardPryor.com Forums

How long?

misplacedfate,



I wrote for atleast a year before I even steped foot on stage and I'm glad I did my jokes were just shit. The more you write the better you'll be.

I want to do stand-up comedy so bad because I got so much to say! Eddie Murphy made me want to just go out and do it. Chris Rock is really the first person to consider doing stand-up, kept getting scaid, but eddie finally made me stop being scaid and want to really go out and do the damn thing. the first time I really want to do comedy in general was at 17, I wanted to be a comedy screenwriter. I'm 21 now so I've got plenty of time.

misplacedfate,

I have been a lifelong comedy fan. I remember watching Richard Pryor from my hospital bed host Saturday Night Live. I don't know if it was a rerun or what but I had gotten appendicitis, my appendix ruptured. So I was watching the show and Richard and the others had me laughing so hard that I was hurting and moaning. I remember my nurse came into the room to ask if I was okay. I told her I was laughing.

15 years later I walk into a bar in Seattle that has a comedy club downstairs. I go down and had never been to a comedy show before and at the end of the show they asked if anyone wanted to tell a joke or try comedy. I went up and told an old Dolemite joke. Some other comedian told me I had good stage prescence and I should write my own material and come back.

I took his advice and 8 years later I am still going strong. I will be performing at the Sands in Reno this week. Jul28th-Aug1.

In 2001 I got to meet the man.... Richard Pryor at the last American Comedy Awards. I shook his hand. It was the one were they gave George Carlin the lifetime acheivement award.

amp-d,

Nice story! I've put off answering this for long enough, mostly because I knew I wouldn't write something brief.
Really, it's more like [/i]couldn't[/i].
Anyway, when I was a kid, I always loved the way great movies, comedians and actors made me happy about life...most of my favourite comedic actors were standups or heavy comic actors: Paul Reubens, Bill Murray, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin...in fact, in day care when I was six I played Pee Wee in a loose stage adaptation of his movie. It was rad! Then when I was singing in bands, my favourite part was to look like a fool and say stupid stuff. At that same time, I was really getting into Pryor, Murphy, Martin, and Norm Macdonald's standup, as well as loving Adam Sandler's early movies and albums--basically, comedy I liked was really keeping me distracted from the shittiness of teenagehood.
During a slow musical period for me when I was 20, I took a suggestion from my friend and did a 5 minute set at an open mic, which we taped. I was hokey, but it was great fun, and I haven't stopped since. I have yet to play the Sands, but I'm doing things my way, getting some great opportunities, and having an awesome time.

So I guess the short answer is '14 years'. Since the pee-wee experience.

NickFlanagan,

Good story. I grew up in rural NC so I did not know anything about open mics. I remember growing up and listening to the grown ups listening to Richards albums. They seemed to be having such a good time. I would write down the jokes and do them for my friends on the bus. We would all try to imitate Richie, Eddie Murphy, and all those guys.

Richard is so great because I have heard people who are not even comedians recite one of his bits word for word thirty years or so after the album came out. That is ICONIC.

amp-d,
That sounds like me!!!

bingolong,

Whats your story? Are you a traveling comedian? I did the Zanies in Nashville last year.

bingolong,

Yeah totally. People still reference him in rap songs all the time, and I don't mean sample, but reference. On the new D12 album the phrase 'buddy this' can be heard. I wish I coulda been around when the stuff was coming out.

amp-d,
Oh no I mean that I'm the guy that doesn't do comedy but recites all of Richard's joke verbatim.... :lol: Sorry for my vaugeness...

Yeah I've been to Zanies a few years ago when John "Detriot" Witherspoon came thru there, real cool club.


Also I do hip hop.