Scott Saul

reads from Becoming Richard Pryor (HarperCollins, $27.99).

Thursday, January 29, 2015 - 7:30pm

Richard Pryor may have been the most unlikely star in Hollywood history. Raised in his family's brothels, in Peoria, Illinois, by a grandmother who often threatened to kick him upstairs with her size-twelve shoes, he always considered himself a bottom dog. He took to the stage originally to escape the tough realities of his childhood but later discovered he could alchemize his stand-up by delving fully, even painfully, into the "off-color" life he'd known. He brought that vitality to a movie career whose best moments—Blazing Saddles, Blue Collar, the buddy comedies with Gene Wilder—flowed directly out of his spirit of creative improvisation. The major studios considered him dangerous. Audiences felt plugged directly into the socket of life.

Built on groundbreaking research, Becoming Richard Pryor brings into sharp focus the man and his genius as never before, from his heartbreaking childhood, his trials in the army, and his improv days in Greenwich Village to his soul-searching interlude in Berkeley and his rise in the "New Hollywood" of the 1970s.

Scott Saulis an associate professor of English at UC Berkeley. His writing has appeared in Harper's, the New York Times, and the Nation, among other publications. He is the author of Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties. He lives in Berkeley,

Event address: 
Mrs. Dalloway's Literary & Garden Arts
2904 College Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705
Becoming Richard Pryor By Scott Saul Cover Image
$27.99
Email or call for price
ISBN: 9780062123305
Published: Harper - December 9th, 2014