[Kritavi]

don't you dare just skip ahead but about 6:30 in he gets on a riff about saxophone players.

this has more to do with jazz and improvisation then a lot of sax solos...
and its funny as a m***a f***a

 

[Swampcabbage]

Funny. Who do you suppose was playing with Pattil Labelle that night? (That's who he was talking about).

All I have to say is "bigger than a peanut."

 

[DukeCity]

That was great. I'm assuming the "Patti" he was referring to was Patti LaBelle. So here's a Google project for someone: Who was the white sax player in Patti LaBelle's band in the late '70s (during the Carter administration)?

 

[tinpalaceroach]

well going by the timeline i'd say the white sax player is Michael Pedecin jr who was a Philly studio cat at the time and a burning straight ahead jazz player in the Brecker mold. later on was a music contractor in Atlantic City casinos but is also a licensed clinical psychiatrist in the Jersey shore area. saw him recently play in a local pub with a sextet with Dan Fogel on organ and this tenor player brought the house down.

 

[saxmanglen]

I'll be candid........Do people REALLY find humor in such an abomination of the English language? It's pretty sad when a person can't finish one sentence without an expletive....

Different strokes.........

 

[Sebastian]

abomination? English is weird that way because of just how many people in the world speak it. It's like an unofficial world language and so people tend to personalize it. Think of it like dialect. I'm sure he could use other ways to express himself but then ... those are the Firm Roots of stand up comedy. It's like telling Lenny Bruce not to be crude. It's kinda like jazz musicians being told that their music is "illegitimate". Just a thought.

 

[RootyTootoot]

FANTASTICO!! Now, *that* is improvisation. I'll admit it's not for all tastes and some of the language can be debated - esp. the "N" word - but every time I see footage of him live it just makes me laugh a lot. I suppose humour is a very personal thing, as glen said. There's a lot of comics who can eff and blind and I cringe and wish they'd just tell a "knock/knock" joke. On the other hand, some of my favourites can be absolutely filthy mouthed. And Pryor's one of the latter group, for me.

 

[docformat]

Richard Pryor was the funniest human being of all time. Bar none!!

 

[saxmanglen]

I guess I was born in the wrong generation. I always appreciated the humor of Red Skelton or Bill Cosby for someone closer to my generation.

Again, different strokes............

 

[gary]

Man, when Pryor would talk about white folk it wold just bring tears to my eyes. Thanks for the memory. When he got to white folk cussing, man that's funny.

And I think it's very cool that he payed some respect to the band and the white boy on sax. Sure he was getting some laughs, but I think that was spontaneous. He appreciated the music, the musicians, and took a moment to say something.

Glen, I think it's more than a generational thing. I'm sure I'm older than you and Pryor brings tears to my eyes. And I never did like Red Skelton or Cosby once he was no longer a young stand-up comic. But I gotta admit that sometimes for me Pryor went was over the top with his language or topics.

This guy had the potential, I think, to have been a great actor. I've seen few people on screen who could convey such helplessness as he could. A story he told about being a farm hand and picking the master's wife up at the train station had a hidden poignancy to it that many comics never reach deep down enough to bring out. Robin Williams has that same quality.

Anyway, thanks kritavi.

 

[saxmanglen]

Gary,

What about Jonathan Winters?

 

[gary]

That was breaking up too much for me to really understand Glen. But generally, I think Winters was really inconsistent. Sometimes I liked him other times just left me flat. However, I went to school with a guy who's father was a recording engineer in NYC and bootlegged a tape of one time when Winters went in to record, was a bit, uh, not of this world, started a monologue about Ma Frickert, deteriorated to her being sexually assaulted, went downhill after that so that there was no way that could be distributed commercially and it was eye-watering, snot-flinging hilarious.

 

[docformat]

Check this out -

(On second thoughts don't if you are easily offended or under 18)

 

[ramZsax]

Think of it like dialect.

That is exactly how my sophmore english teach explained it, that there are many english dialect's and each is approiate for different situations. He got fired after the second day of of school...we had 5 different english teachers that year.

 

[RootyTootoot]

That is exactly how my sophmore english teach explained it, that there are many english dialect's and each is approiate for different situations. He got fired after the second day of of school...we had 5 different english teachers that year.

WHoo wee!! A man speaks the truth and gets fired after 2 days. Things are the same everywhere...

 

[Reedsplinter]

That was breaking up too much for me to really understand Glen. But generally, I think Winters was really inconsistent. Sometimes I liked him other times just left me flat. However, I went to school with a guy who's father was a recording engineer in NYC and bootlegged a tape of one time when Winters went in to record, was a bit, uh, not of this world, started a monologue about Ma Frickert, deteriorated to her being sexually assaulted, went downhill after that so that there was no way that could be distributed commercially and it was eye-watering, snot-flinging hilarious.

Winters was, in real life, an interesting and odd man, I'm told on good authority. I used to teach at the good little liberal arts college where Winters spent a couple of years as an undergrad. The local story was that he bet someone that -- because the school was so stuffy and oblivious -- he could paint himself green and ride naked through the middle of campus and no one would notice. He did, and someone did and he was expelled.

 

[Swampcabbage]

Here's a thought. Should language be governed by the written law or that of the vernacular?

Back to the real topic though. Do you think Richard Pedecin Jr knows about this routine and (provided it is about him), knows it's about him?

 

[Reedsplinter]

Richard Pryor was the funniest human being of all time. Bar none!!

I agree: when Richard was Richard there was no one more devastating. It should be remembered that when Pryor hit the scene, it was a hard row to hoe for an African American comic who didn't want to toe the line of the stereotype. Pryor's strategy was to use dynamite. Somebody had to do it.

He was funny about white folks and about black folks. He was funny about monkeys.

"Miss Rudolph, Miss Rudolph [the witch woman]: Can you do something about the monkey?"

"The monkey live here. You a guest."

 

[JSaxMiller]

The year is 1978 according to a google search about his arrest for shooting his wife's car. I think it was probably Michael Pedecin too.

 

[martysax]

Yup, page eight.