I'm baaaaack!
After a couple weeks away from Thursday Movie Picks, I've rejoined the festivities. The topic for this week, chosen by our host Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves, is "the stage." It's a vague, which is fine. It just gives me some freedom to put my own twist on things. The twist? How about guys standing on a stage making us chuckle?
Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip
(1982)
Pryor is possibly the most honest stand-up comedian of all-time and arguably the greatest. By arguably, I mean I'll let you name someone else, but you'd be wrong. This one finds him speaking on the night he infamously set himself on fire while free-basing cocaine, and why he will stop saying the n-word (as far as I know, he kept to his word). He also riffs on plenty of other stuff, and keeps us laughing while simultaneously talking himself through his own pain.
Eddie Murphy Raw
(1987)
One of the names I'll allow you to throw out when arguing the greatest stand-ups of all-time is Eddie Murphy. If you're under thirty, there's a good chance you only know him as the star of a lengthy string of middling family movies. You may not realize that he was ever a stand-up comic. He was, and as this film shows, he was a great one.
The Original Kings of Comedy
(2000)
Instead of just one funny guy, why not four? That's what we get with The Original Kings of Comedy. In the time between starring on a moderately successful sitcom and becoming an inescapable presence on TV, Steve Harvey handles hosting duties. He never does a complete set, but keeps the laughs rolling just the same while introducing his friends D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and the late-great Bernie Mac, in that order. All of them are hilarious, but trust me, Mac closes the show for a reason.