Joe Rogan on Following Richard Pryor

Footage oh really? Yeah, the yeah the Showtime doc Had like the footage of the that show. Oh the show where he was prepping like we're getting ready Yeah, well no no like the show where just didn't go like you know Well, so you don't want to see them Yeah Well, they filmed the you know that strip show where he had to come back the next night and like kind of redo He just had like he was just he You know operated from such a place of just like it was so on It had to be honest to him I think and it had just hadn't gone up in a while and was on stage and was just like in the room and just Sat in it just he just said this footage is crazy. Send me that wow. Yeah, it's really got the footage Well, it's in the doc. You can see it in a document like a little bit, but I think it's extended footage I haven't seen the extended footage if that exists, but There's some great old cassettes that I bought from Like a gas station there were Red Fox's Comedy Club Red Fox had a comedy club and prior would go up and just fuck around man Just fuck around and there was many of them. I mean there was like seven or eight recordings Mavericks flats I think it was right that was the name of the company I think so off of like Crenshaw or something over there like oh where the club was yeah I got him when I was living in Boston I was living in Boston and I found them like at a gas station there were for sale yeah, and it was crazy because it was like it was small crowd you could tell it was a small crowd and Prior was just fucking around man. He was just he was ad-libbing You could tell that like it wasn't structured and some of it was really funny and some of it like kind of fell flat Yeah, and you can hear that the clink of glasses and shit in the background It was just so real rich, you know Richard Pryor back then he was doing something that It's like he had figured out a thing that he could do that other people hadn't figured out and that thing was like just be totally honest and also just Explore ideas on stage in front of people like not even have it mapped out yet Just just fuck around and find what's funny and he'd be smoking cigarettes and just talking and he figured out a way to Turn and then you would see it boiled in to like Richard Pryor live or live in the Sun says trip or any of his specials You'd see it boiled down into that. Yeah. Yeah doing it for tell it You know, he performed for television really well and that's like kind of a an element that uh, I think people kind of forget that like how well of a It connected with you watching it at home. Like, you know, even me 20 30 years later after it's filmed and just watching it with my dad It's he plays really well here. You know, I mean like to you It's like you can feel how personal how honest it is and like so when it was like boiled down It was just he was also captured really well. Do you ever see him live? No prior? Yeah, wait, how do you think? No, he was alive doing stand-up ten years ago Yeah, maybe a little bit more maybe 15 years ago, yeah, well he died Maybe it was more than 15 years ago. No, I'm thinking about it. Did you ever see him live? Yeah I had a I had to follow him like five weeks in a row man Really wearing like a running five to a thousand and five he died. Okay, so it's more than I thought like a run He did a run before he died It was probably right before then Actually, I want to say it was like the late 90s early 2000 somewhere around then he was real sick And they would have to carry him to the stage and it would take like five minutes for him to get to the stage So that he'd introduce him and the comic would get out of the way and then Chewy and Marilyn Martinez his husband would help him walk to the stage They would hold on to him take him to the stage him would take forever It was a slow process and they'd get him and they sit him down and they'd crank up the mic like this Because his voice was so soft evil and yeah, and he would do stand-up Mmm, do like 15 20 minutes and then I would go on after him almost every time it would be me and Just eat shit First of all, first of all, nobody knew who I was the second of all They just saw Richard Pryor and they're sad. Yes. He's fading away. Yeah right in front of everybody. Yeah, it's an interesting feeling like you Never before is like a British type intermission been needed more You know like where it's just like all right, but prior is gone and You know 15 minutes people go smoke cigarettes come back what year did you start doing stand-up? 2008 yeah, so you missed it. Yeah, did you go to the clubs at all before then to look around? Uh, no, well Two nights before my first time two nights before your first time I went to the comedy store Wow, yeah, did you have first day in LA my first day in LA? I saw the whole show 9 to 2 a.m Wow, you sat through the whole show whole show that open mic that Sunday