The Complete Collection (2004)

There were two previous "Best Of" albums by Dore, but nothing in the way of any rarities on them, and not even any pictures on either one. Then there was another compilation on CD, apparently put out by Dore in 1996, but was poorly mastered from scratchy old vinyl. For years, I wondered if their albums would ever come out on CD properly. In September of 2004, browsing the "Net one day, I made two startling discoveries. One was that there was an official website dedicated to H&L. The other was that there was a boxed set containing all of their work--remastered and unedited--with rare and unreleased material. I could barely contain my excitement as I scoured for more info on where I could send for it. I got the money together, sent for it, and before I knew it, it was in my mailbox, and up in my room.

It's a 3-CD boxed set, with all four Dore albums, eight unreleased routines, and five bits that were released as singles (either on their own, or b-sides). It has informative liner notes by the guys who put it together, plus a few cool pictures of the guys that I had never seen before, and clever picture-discs. The first two discs have all four albums (with a few loose bits on the third one), although not in the original running order as the albums.

After picking through the first two discs, I immediately headed for the third one. The unreleased bits are out-takes from Hanging In There, and all of them are good. Any of them could have gone on the record, or could have been used as b-sides to the singles released from it. Among them: "Joe Needles", about an out-of-luck ex-con calling into a radio talk show, and trying to beg a hundred bucks off the host. "College Chums" has two old college roomies running into each other after 20 years' time, and comparing their lives and offspring. "The Poodle" is a short one, with a very foppish guy trying to get his poodle meticulously clipped and gussied up before the big Dog Festival show. "Flying" is a very short bit about two airline pilots who realize they've been down in the airport lounge a little too long.

Towards the end of the disc are the five single-only bits. I have never seen them anywhere on vinyl, so they're probably even rarer than The Weird Kingdom. "Harlow's Kids" has Harlow and the missus sitting around the cabin on a rainy day, wondering if they should have some more youngins, and then noting how bad all previous seven of them turned out (with a rather abrupt and bizarre ending). "The Chocolate Freak" is an interrogation bit where a chocolate junkie is being grilled by detectives about where he gets it, where it comes from, and how it spreads around. These were not recorded in front of an audience, and sound like they were recorded in a small broom closet, at least by the recording quality.

"The Gas Man" is a weird little musical ditty about a snarky little guy who creeps around in the wee hours of the night, siphoning gas from unsuspecting people's cars, with hilarious voice cameos from all the characters we know and love (this was released as a single, backed with "Sir Basil", although I'm not sure which was the A-side!). "Fate Of The Mightiest Nation" (the flip-side of "The Chocolate Freak") is an oratory piece written by Art Hoppe, narrated solely by Hudson, with two guitars in the background, quietly commenting here and there on what's being talked about. Is it about colonial America, the present state of the country, or another time and place altogether? A rather strange but fascinating little vignette.

"The S.O.B. (Shortage Of Booze)" is the long-lost sequel to "Ajax Liquor Store" that appropriately closes the boxed set (with "Harlow's Kids" as the flip). It's the same guy a few years later calling the store to order some booze, only to find out it's being rationed out on certain days of the week (shades of the gas shortage going on at the time). Some great jokes go on in this one, just like the original.

And, that's it! Although a reunion of these guys never seemed to have happened, and is an impossibility now, listening to the "new" stuff on the third disc was like having them back together again, if only for a little while.

I'll always remember...

I'll always remember...

A time when I must have been about a year-and-a-half old, you were carrying me up on your shoulder as we were at the Corner Store at north 6th and K Streets, and you were buying a Coke for yourself (that has to be one of my earliest memories, period!).

Going to Wright Park, with you pulling Angie and me in the wagon we had.

The pool table we had in the living room at the Blue House. And that time on Halloween where you and Mom set up a homemade mannequin at the bus stop.

Lying in bed at night when I was supposed to be sleeping, and hearing music through the walls when you had company over, or just having fun after we were off to bed.

The times when you'd have the stereo on in the mornings of your day off, and you'd play all kinds of music and comedy albums for me.

A couple of trips downtown to Sears, where you got a new stereo system, and new albums from Fleetwood Mac and Pink Floyd.

The night at the Red House when Sadie, our dog, passed gas, and forced us to exit the house.

The whole family sitting in our little wading pool in the backyard one summer night, and even sleeping in the backyard in a makeshift tent (at Angie's suggestion).

Hearing "Lucky Man" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" for the first time together (and what an impression they made on me!).

Going on a camping trip, and when we got home, we watched The Blues Brothers for the first time on cable. We wheeled the TV out on the porch and watched it that way.

Walking down 11th Street one afternoon after taking me to the dentist, and we went to Woolworth's afterward. Also, going to the Judicial Annex Eatery on 11th Street another time, where I had my first taste of Green River.

The artworks you and Pat did for The Rock Show, where you both appeared, and then I got to join you guys for the final episode.

Breakfast at Ray's Cafe one Sunday morning, and then going to the mall and getting Pink Floyd's Relics and The Doors' Weird Scenes Inside The Goldmine.

Getting up in the mornings, and you would have the VCR ready to show me some wacky comedy special or something cool from Night Flight that you taped the night before, and couldn't wait for me to see.

Waiting at the bus stop one afternoon, and a dog was trotting across the street, found a bag of french fries lying in the middle of the road, and began gobbling them up.

Going to the movies and seeing Time Bandits and Raiders Of The Lost Ark and sequels to Rocky and Police Academy; later on, The Fearless Vampire Killers, and then Eddie Murphy in Life and The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.

When Alvin was a kitten, and he used to run up your leg and up your arm and sit on your shoulder while you were sitting in the recliner.

Going to see George Carlin, Gallagher, Grand Funk Railroad, AC/DC, the Rolling Stones and the Allman Brothers Band, and having a great time.

Bringing Geoffrey home the day after he was born, and then watching him grow up together. He was just starting to walk when you left us. He's doing that, and so much more since then.

Happy Birthday, Dad.
You would have been 62 today.
We miss you!

Richard Pryor: The Laff Albums

March, 1989. Snowed out of school one day, I wandered over to a place called Faubion's Fabulous Junk, a flea market on 38th Street where I had bought a lot of used albums at in months gone by. I was flipping through some newer boxes of stuff when I found a Richard Pryor album I had never seen before with the odd title of Who Me? I'm Not Him, and a drawing of him up in heaven. I had a small knowledge of him having been on the Laff label (known for its trashy, X-rated porno-comedy albums), but this was new to me. A little beat-up, but playable. It cost me only fifty cents.

I got it home and put it on the turntable. What I heard sounded like it was recorded on a battery-operated reel-to-reel and cobbled together on a cheap cassette deck, but I was fascinated by what I was hearing. He sounded very young, almost Bill Cosby-like, and--dig this!--virtually no swearing at all. I was hooked, and played the album over and over. But at the same time, I would ask myself, Are these old recordings? Is this a bootleg?

As I began research and finding more that were released in this series, I eventually found out the story. In 1971, Richard recorded and released the Craps (After Hours) LP, but was dissatisfied with the recording and left Laff for greener pastures. In a resulting lawsuit, Laff released Richard in exchange for releasing all the archive tapes of him they had in any way they saw fit. And, boy, did they! The albums that they released had cover-art that tied in with his movies and TV appearances throughout its run, firstly by Michael Sell, and then Rhonda (Voo) Klapper. The first four albums had some corny liner notes by Shelby Meadows Ashford, but were finally done away with. The albums actually sold (at least, in the beginning), and charted on both Billboard and the R&B charts.

Contrary to some reports and paperback biographies that these were albums that were recorded on the side (that they were "too blue" for a listening audience), the albums' content were actually old recordings that ranged from Richard as a mere joke-teller to very experimental to early rumblings of his better-known "street" humor. Some of the material was (and is) great, some of it doesn't fly or go over with the audience, and some of it goes absolutely nowhere. But, then again, we are listening to a true artist here. Some of the material was professionally-recorded, and some of the material was very poorly-recorded, edited and mastered. And sometimes this was within the confines of one album!

There are some absolute gems to behold, sometimes routines that were done time and time again, but always had some differences in them. Two that come to mind are the old-timer giving directions on how to get back onto Highway 16, and of Richard's fire-and-brimstone preacher, who was running into God himself in various forms, in the year "nineteen twunny-nahhhhn!!!".

Someone on Amazon.com commented on Richard's work from this period and made an interesting parallel with bluesman Robert Johnson that maybe Richard sold his soul sometime around 1968 in order to become a better comedian; a very interesting connection. After all, just look what happened to him around that time, and then the dire consequences that followed years later. Makes you wonder!

As a special tribute to Richard, I wanted to go over these misunderstood and underrated collections of his old recordings, and report what exactly is on them, which ones you need, and which ones to avoid. The first four of them, Craps and (oddly enough) Supernigger were available on CD's on the Uproar Entertainment label, and can still be obtained at www.amazon.com , and the albums and tapes of them can always be found at www.ebay.com

Special thanks for this project goes to those at Laff Records, Jennifer Lee Pryor, Reggie Collins & Steve Pokorny at Rhino Records and Rockula's site http://rassoodock.com for some filled gaps, 2nd Time Around, Turntable Treasures, Jeff at Golden Oldies for selling me these things at a young age, and Faubion's Fabulous Junk for getting the ball rolling.
A great place to see the album covers are at: http://rassoodock.com/data-pages/laff_records.html

But, above all, thanks to the man himself for the timeless hours of laughs and insight, and for listening to his works and his God-given art. So, without further ado, from the stages of the Troubadour, P.J.'s, the hungry i, the Redd Foxx club, and many others to name, would you welcome with a nice round of applause as we bring up to the bandstand...onto the stage...MR. RICHARD PRYOR!!!

Richard Pryor (1968)

I first heard this in 1985, finding it at the local library only just one time (it later got checked out and never returned, apparently!). I remember not being totally bowled over or blown away by it, save for a couple of routines. I later found a copy at 2nd Time Around in 1990, after finding a few Laff LP's, and found myself enjoying it a lot more.

A curious debut album, this one. It's hard to believe that this was the same guy who would later record That Nigger's Crazy, let alone Craps (After Hours). Almost in the same way George Carlin's Take Offs And Put Ons has nothing in common with his subsequent works. The obvious thing to do was to compare this to albums by Bill Cosby or Flip Wilson, as Richard was light-years away from the kind of material they were doing, but this usually (and unfairly) gets comparisons to his subsequent work.

I know by the packaging (and several photo-shoot outtakes) that Richard and photographer Henry Diltz had wanted this to look like no other comedy album out there, but one can only wonder what record buyers were left thinking when they saw this in the racks, after seeing Richard on The Ed Sullivan Show and the like, usually wearing a nifty suit. The first pressing of the album cover had some outer border designs by legendary artist Rick Griffin, which for some reason was later replaced with a rather Andy Warhol-ish line of teeny little Statues Of Liberty in the outer border. Why that was done, I have no idea. And then there's no track listing on the back, so no-one could see what they were getting.

One criticism of the album is the stereo mix, with Richard in the right-hand channel, and the audience (and some slight ambience) in the left. Sometimes the laughter and crowd noise is actually louder than Richard himself!

Since this is obviously not a Laff record, I'm going to include it not only for completeness' sake, but also as a reference guide to many of the routines--often from the same recording sessions--that were used (and re-used) on the subsequent Laff albums, sometimes in better versions, or in either uncut or badly-edited presentations.

Super Nigger
The record starts out with the crowd applauding, and the MC announcing Richard; once it's over, Richard begins musing that he'd like to see a black superhero on TV one day. He goes on to describe the story of Clark Washington (a mild-mannered custodian for the Daily Planet) who goes into Perry White's office to quit his job, but acting on a tip that a local warehouse (where he goes to score his stash!) is ablaze, he decides to spring into action. This routine is actually more energetic and more fun than his being in Superman III...kind of a shame he didn't refer back to this routine for his appearance in that movie, which would have made it so much better!

Girls
This routine is all about watching girls playing and hollering away at the local park, and wanting to get into some heavy action with them. The funniest part is where Richard finds himself lucky enough to wrench the pantyhose off a girl he likes, but gets caught by her dad at the end of the bit.

Farting
Richard talks about once wondering if he was the only person on the face of the earth who passed gas, and wondered if certain people (like Jackie Kennedy, or even the Pope himself) did the same thing.

Prison Play
The setup of this routine (though left off of the album) is a one-act play staged at a prison. Richard plays the chief guard, an effeminate play director, a Southern belle, her father and brother, and Black Ben the Blacksmith. It's a tale of interracial love in the Deep South, and almost gets cancelled before it even starts, but resumes when all are assured that Ben gets killed during the play. When it doesn't happen, to the outrage of the warden, he demands it either happens to Ben, or one of the gay prisoners in the audience. The racial and homophobic themes in the piece are light-hearted and utterly hilarious. This is so different than anything Richard did after this that you have to wonder where he came up with this stuff!

T.V. Panel Show
This is another long piece, and--again--without the setup, can sound long and boring to the average listener. This is a piece about a late-night TV show that "has a lot to say, but really doesn't!". The topic under conversation is the origin of Man, discussed by the sleepy-voiced host, a snooty professor, a pompous anthropologist, a raucuous Black nationalist, and a female who gave up narcotics for God. It's interesting to hear Richard play five different parts with five very different personalities. A mostly unedited version of this routine can be found on the Holy Smoke! album.

Smells
Richard muses on liking to smell things, but talks about having bad breath, stinky underarms, and trying to check out both maladies in secret at a party.

Army Life
Prompted by a choice of either joining the army or going to jail, Richard signs up, expecting "hunting, camping, go[ing] fishing", but instead encounters a lunatic drill sergeant teaching the art of attack and self-defense. Richard has to go up and make with an attack technique on him, and ends up kneeing the guy right in the junk!

Frankenstein
A short one where Richard lurches along, grunting like Frankenstein's monster, ingests a little LSD, begins grunting weirdly at the changes going on in his mind, and ends with Lyndon Johnson's drawl: "Mah felluh Americuns..!', leading to loud laughter, and a closing end. Too short to really get into, and a funnier and more creative version appears on Who Me? I'm Not Him.

And there we have it. I know that several shows at the Troubadour were taped for the making of this album (hence a lot of Laff LP's using the leftover material from these shows), and probably a lot to choose from. I don't think this album really showed what Richard was all about, but it was probably hard to catch on tape to begin with, or maybe there was a rush deadline for completion for it. With a lot of the material very experimental (and with routines perhaps performed just once), maybe producer Robert Marchese didn't know what to use, or wanted to present two different sides of Richard, with short, funny routines, and his longer, multi-character bits. It would be amazing to sit and listen to all of the shows in their entirety, as I'm sure there are some great as-yet-unheard material just waiting to be heard and released. Until then, enjoy the material unearthed on Evolution/Revolution.

L.A. Jail (1976)

Although technically not a Laff release, this deserves inclusion becuase of its similarity in content and context to the other Laff albums. It was released on the Tige Lily label, an offshoot of the Roulette record label, which is best remembered for being financed by Mafia crime-family ties. Tiger Lily was no different, apparently existing for tax and record-pressing scams. Mystery has always surrounded this particular release, as Richard himself is said to have supplied the recording for this album. Whichever way you look at it, everything about it smacks of exploitation and the making of a quick dollar, from the unimaginative cover and album title, to the choice of material.

It starts off fading up while Richard is adjusting the microphone, mumbling, not sounding ready or even interested in being onstage. And on it goes, repeating a few things already found on Are You Serious??? and Who Me? I'm Not Him. The only routine missing is "Black Ben The Blacksmith". The only notable cut on here is a word-for-word routine based on a recent viewing of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he would later (and bizarrely) reference on the "Acid" routine on the Bicentennial Nigger album.

Anyone picking this album up to hear what Richard's early stuff sounded like was sure to have been disappointed and would rightly have them asking how he came to becoming a comedian in the first place!

"Craps" (After Hours) [1971]

Richard's second album, or, a second "first" album. Although I had heard a few bits from this on Richard Pryor's Greatest Hits, I didn't find a copy of this until 1998, when I found it at Turntable Treasures.

Some say that this is his definitive album, some say he was never better, but I look at it as him shedding his old skin again; almost there, but not quite. He seems to veer between the old shyness, and his new found "street tough" direction.

This was his first (and truly only) Laff album, primarily for the black audience, but this album was notorious even then for its poor recording quality. It was recorded at Redd Foxx's own nightclub in L.A.; I wonder if Redd was there that night and gave Richard some influence.

This album was somewhat of a cash cow for Laff over the next twelve years, with various and flat-out bizarre reissues and repackages. Parts of it were coupled with Redd Foxx routines on Pryor Goes Foxx Hunting and Down And Dirty. And then coupled with bits from Richard & Willie as Richard Pryor Meets Richard & Willie And The S.L.A.!!! Parts of it appeared on Supernigger and was repackaged with a new cover and title as Blackjack.

The first thing you notice when the album starts off is the smoky ambience, and then when Richard is talking, it almost sounds like he has a towel wrapped around his microphone for the whole album side. But once it gets going, it has some great parts. My favorite routine is where he gets busted by the cops at night, who tell him: "Up against the wall!...There is no wall!...Find one!"
There are segments from the "Girls" routine sprinkled throughout side one, and a couple of references on side two. Side one closes with routines on various preachers, namely the hillbilly preachers on the radio who announce a local appearance from God himself, the fire-and-brimstone black preacher, and the local street-preaching wino on the corner (no encounter with the junkie here). Richard tells the anecdote about himself running through a Vegas casino naked, jumping up onto a craps table and shouting "Blackjack!".

Side two is a little more clearer, and has some better routines. I like the bit about the cops breaking up the local guys singing on the street corner, and the guys grumble about it after the cops leave: "Move me!...If I didn't have to go to work in the morning...!", leading to loud laughter. The "Craps" routine is good, but would have a more heartfelt look back at the same situation in "Hank's Place"; actually, this was sort of re-created in the otherwise forgettable Harlem Nights.

The last five minutes of side two find Richard in more universal territory, with some hilarious bits about dope, gays, jerking off, cumming and farting (shades of the first album again). The audience is in hysterics, Richard thanks the audience, and the album is over.

Highly recommended companions to this are Live & Smokin' from April 1971 (three months after the recording of this), and his segments from Dynamite Chicken (1972), both of which overlap and contain a lot of similar material between them. Live & Smokin' was filmed at the Improv in New York in April of 1971, and while it has some funny moments, it's best viewed strictly as a historical document. A lot of fans point out the telling moment where RIchard makes a joke about White guys coming by for a visit at his house (which was a brothel), and the nervous pull on his cigarette afterwards speaks volumes. Also, the audience (whom you don't see) was probably more White than anything else, so their silence also speaks volumes...maybe they just didn't get "street" humor, or his material was just too raw for them to handle. Dynamite Chicken, as noted, features a lot of the same routines, but a lot of fans say Richard was plenty coked out during these segments. Personally, these are the only good parts of the whole cinematic collage, and worth picking up for, but it's a movie that's hard to watch without fist-forwarding through a lot of the other material!

Are You Serious??? (1976)

The first Laff release showcasing earlier and (mostly) previously unreleased material. Got this at Golden Oldies in 1997. The cover drawing, with a train zooming over Richard's head, is tied in with Silver Streak. The first half of side one is at the Troubadour, and the rest from P.J.'s. Good recording sound and quality throughout the record. A lot of the shorter bits from the first album are here, but funnier and with more energy. With all due respect, this is much better than the first album, and much more representative of what his early material was like at that time.

Side one opens with a lively organ-trio fanfare, leading to Richard welcoming the audience in a whisper: "I would like to make you laugh, I would like to make you cry, I would like to...make you!". Richard then goes into the bits about his old street gang back in Peoria, the "Girls" routine, war movies, and the submarine pep-talk. He also does "Army Life" from the first album, but the "Kill Class" part of it is much better here, funnier, and with some good variations. The funniest bit is when he talks about the hillybilly guy getting to call cadence while marching in line: "Eenie-meenie-minie-moe! Catch a nig--!", and gets promptly pummeled by the black guys before he can even finish the word!

Side two starts off with his fire-and-brimstone preacher "in the year nineteen twunny-nahhhn!", walking down the street "eatin' a sammich", and running into God himself, who asks for a bite. He goes from that into talking about his two different grandmothers: "One used to give me milk and cookies, and the other used to give me beer and reefer...and needless to say which one I liked the best!". Then there's the "Smells" bit from the first album, followed by "Being Born", probably a more visual routine (and probably not unlike the re-created routine you see him do in Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling ).

The last bit is called "Mankind", kind of a history of the world, zipping by via a string of zingers and one-liners. The oft-remembered line is of the first Thanksgiving, where the head Pilgrim blesses the dinner and asks if everyone is thankful, and asks the same of the person sitting next to him: "Yeah, massuh!". It concludes with JFK's "Ask not what your country" quote melding into the Texas drawl of LBJ: "All men are created...hm?...equal!. On that note, Richard thanks the audience, the show is over, and so is the album.

Who Me? I'm Not Him (1977)

This is where it started for me. I found a copy of this at Faubion's Fabulous Junk in March 1989, and was hooked from then on. The cover drawing is, I assume, tied in with the film Which Way Is Up?...or from a sketch from The Richard Pryor Show. It's a little odd to look these days, considering that he's up there now (the CD reissue has a forgettable cover, with a later picture of Richard in mirror-image).

The material goes between various recordings from P.J.'s and the Troubadour, but pretty seamlessly, and if you don't listen too closely, it almost sounds like one whole performance on each album side.

Side one starts out with an organ-trio fanfare, and Richard welcoming the crowd, talking with them for a bit. He mentions Peoria, and someone name-checks Aiken Alley, making Richard crack, "That's where the whorehouses are! You were there?". He goes into the anecdote about slipping in dog poo in his front yard while wearing a new cowboy outfit, marking that as his first comedy routine and sums it up: "And I've just been slippin' in shit ever since, trying to make money!".

He goes into routines about growing up as a black child with some funny lines ("I cut a girl's hair off, and pasted it back on...her dress!"), then getting into a street gang as a teenager. Eventually, his being out at night gets him caught and hauled into the police station, and then in front of a "Negro judge", who gives Richard a jail sentence sight-unseen, making Richard silently curse the judge: "I hope you turn White!".

He does the "Highway 16" bit, which shows off Richard's flair for starting a routine where he can take it and run with it any way he could. It starts out with his father asking an old-timer for directions to get to Highway 16, and the old-timer drones on and on about the old days around the town they're stuck in, totally forgetting about the directions he was asked about. This version has a great variation where some people are getting up and walking out wile he's doing the routine, and he throws it in: "You go about six miles...run over those people as you're going!".

After that is another routine about the faith healers on the radio, and of Richard's local fire-and-brimstone preacher "in the year nineteen twunny-nahhhn!", this time he runs into God, only in the form of a Sun. During the sermon, he delivers a classic line about money: "The root of all evil, unless you know how to handle it!".

Side two kicks off with another organ fanfare, and soon he's going into "Super Nigger" and the "Farting" routines, which are not much different than on the first album. Then come routines about the Army, war movies, and his impressions of Tarzan and Cheetah. After that is a great routine about Dracula conversing with a brother on the street (early shades of "Wino Dealing With Dracula"). The album side ends with "Frankenstein Taking LSD", only with longer and more inventive "tripping out" noises than on the first album, making the punch line much better. He gets a good round of applause for it, and that's where it fades out.

Black Ben The Blacksmith (1978)

I found this one at Golden Oldies in 1997, after a long dry spell without finding any of the Laff albums for a while. This cover shows Richard as a stablehand, putting a shoe on a horse, which doesn't seem to tie in with any of his movies. Then there was a reissue of this in 1982 with a different album cover and title: "Show Biz".

This would be the start of the Laff albums using different sources for material, often in the middle of a routine, or even before one was over.

"Prison Play" from the first album opens up side one, but nothing new, or anything different. The rest of the album side is also from the Troubadour, but in slightly lesser quality audio. He talks about feeling really energetic and juiced up ("I Feel"), then it cuts into his days growing up with the gangs on the back streets of Peoria, this routine being one where all the smaller guys gather up to watch the bigger guys have it out. Then it goes into a bit about being in jail and getting beaten up by one of the officers for stepping out of the chow line: "He didn't call me a nigger or nothin', 'cause there was a lot of colored cats hangin' around...he said things like, "Y-y-y-you dark person!".

Side two opens up with the opening part of the "Wattstax Monolouge", recorded at the Summit club in 1972, but with laughter edited in from another source, as the original source sounds like there's only a handful of people around him. Then it goes into the "TV Panel Show" routine (under the name "Black Nationalist") from the first album, same edits and all. After that, it goes into the middle of the famous "Wino & Junkie" routine, a bit about an angry father in the the neighborhood warning all the guys to stay away from his daughter, and then a bit about a TV show they used to watch in the old days, featuring an old singing cowboy, accompanying himself with a battered, out-of-tune guitar. (A better version of this can be found on The Wizard Of Comedy ).

The Wizard Of Comedy (1978)

Found this one at Golden Oldies in the summer of 1990, with the cover drawing of Richard's face in place of the Wizard Of Oz (must be tied in with The Wiz , which I haven't watched all the way through--rather, couldn't be bothered to). The CD reissue had a different, even hokier cover drawing of Richard dressed as a wizard.

This one was recorded solely at the Troubadour, although with a rather pesky amount of echo added to the tracks, making it sound like he recorded the routines in an echoey men's room.

Side one open with Richard thanking the crowd and then bantering with them, using corny accents and dialects (something he seemed to do a lot during those shows). He then goes headlong into "Hank's Place", reminiscing about the pool hall he used to sneak into and hang out at, even though he was a bit young to be there. He tells about the local carpenter giving an estimate to Hank on fixing the craps table; Big Black Irma, the local hussy who seems to tell everyone to kiss her ass (a little less harsher here than on the Craps album); Cool Breeze, the hustler who can sell someone anything, mostly by busting on someone who didn't have what he had to sell; Cold Blood, the pimp, and Torsey, the cop who busts in to beat up Cold Blood (who gets a little too mouthy) and to throw Richard out. A great, heartfelt routine.

After a piece on churches (where he compares his fire-and-brimstone preacher to the snooze-inducing White Protestant churches), he does a routine called "Heart & Brain", which is a little odd to listen to, considering how many heart attacks he would have in years to come, and the one that took him from us in the end.

Side two starts out with a routine about being in the elementary-school production of "Rumpelstiltskin", complete with voices of the school principal, and all of the kids in the play (this would have been fun to have watched!). "Worms" sounds like a re-write of Bill Cosby's "Hoof & Mouth" routine off of his first album. The next bit, "Country & Western Show", features an old singing cowboy (early shades of Mudbone) called Hank Tudds, who songs a country/western lament about why he killed a tractor, complete with an out-of-tune guitar to accompany him.

The last bit, "Japanese Movies", is a routine that was probably more of a visual thing that doesn't quite work for just listening to it; it consists mostly of a samurai who has to commit hari-kari. It's interesting to consider that Richard did this many years before John Belushi did this on Saturday Night Live. On that note is where the album ends.