but-- did richard pryor damage you? did richard pryor damage me? yeah, you listened to richard pryor when your mom felt it probably wasn't appropriate. foul language. unless you had a very early richard pryor album. he started me off cursing, for sure. 'cause i curse like a sailor. but i'm grown. and when i got into richard pryor, i was 16, 17, trying to sneak that turnt-- but at the same time, there was a balance of, okay, my parents knew who richard pryor was. and they said, "yeah, i know richard pryor, but no, you can't listen to richard pryor." and so therefore, i just went on outside, because i'm not gonna get no turntable. but it might have been different if i was able to get a cd player or a cassette walkman. your concerns about parenting are echoed all over this country. but you are chuck "fight the power" d. yeah, but to my kids, i'm "daddy." "oh, daddy, turn the radio back on!" "no, because we can't play shake your ass, right, on--in the car." 'cause i got nieces that's three years old in the back based on the radio singing, "shake your a

one of them yells out, hey, richard pryor, and they let a couple rounds go. >> who the hell's richards like richard pryor. >> i don't know who that is. >> are you nervous about tonight? you're speed dating? >> yeah, it's funny. i can do like the stuff at work and run around and chase bad guys, then put me in a situation like that and i'm totally freaked out. >> oh, yeah, because you're not in control. >> i'll get all flustered. won't be pretty. >> only to be a fly on the wall. >> what if they're really good looking and they don't think i'm -- >> so? that's the thing with speed dating, you're not really stuck. >> next. >> waiting out 30 seconds and you got another date. yeah, you'll be fine. >> i brought pictures of the dresses just so you can help me pick one out. this is the first one. >> okay. >> and then this is the other one. it's cream in the front, but then in the back it's gray. >> okay. >> and you're feeling comfortable in that? >> yeah, it's a little bit longer. >> you should wear the one that you file more comfortable. >> we have to go buy some nylons. >> oh, do we? >> yeah,

acquainted guy, very radical and the same spirit of red fox or richard pryor, chris rock or louis c. k. leisurely deep thinking men that are also really funny. bit nasty. tavis: not mark twain. [laughter] >> yes. my first book was banned at the library, one of the happiest days of my life. word over 200that -- theyt for describing call my book trash. not for using the word but for describing what treating people like trash implies. different to do is for all these years, to go for a ,ore behind-the-scenes version it is really a character study. a particular aspect of his character. tavis: i owe you an apology. i read something that i really don't believe and i approve of this when i read it and i should have looked a little more closely because i know what the intent was. i don't believe artists competing against each other and that competes.es i was really uncomfortable with my own words. it raises the question that when someone has portrayed the character for so long and so well, how you find the courage more complex characters when everybody knows mark twain. abouthas been very ki

>> i loved alan king, richard pryor.anybody that came out and stood there and just talkd in a series of jokes, i just thought who are these people who can do this? cosby. i love cosby. >> stephen: my favorite. very funny fellow. bill cosby is a very funny fellow, right. >> cosby and carlin and robert klein. >> stephen: are you satisfied with being jerry seinfeld? >> well, if i'm not, i'm going to need some serious help because that guy... >> stephen: some of the performers, some performers aren't satisfied with being themselves. they always have some sort of need to be something else or to prove themselves as a performer. >> well, i would say, you know, that really is the difference between comedians and people who play other people. come on. stay calm. >> stephen: but you're like the biggest, you had the biggest show of all time. is there anything left for you. >> please, please, finish your thought. [ cheers and applause ] >> stephen: i don't usually drink coffee with a guest. >> comedians... stephen: you know none of

and my favorite comics were probably richard pryor, steve martin, andy kaufman. i read a lot of lenny bruce. and -- but my comedy is nothing like it was now. and i think probably in the late '80s is when i really started finding my voice. and it became less of a -- of trying to shoe horn into a style and it became -- it did a lot of stupid, silly stuff like funny, silly, weird things. but i got mislabeled or i think mistakenly labeled as a political comedian because after 9-11 -- i talk now and have been for a long time just what i've observed in the day or what's happening around me or my life and my dealing with being an atheist jew in a religious, baptist area where i grew newspaper georgia. and after 9-11 that was -- as it was with most of us, it was forefront in my consciousness and i was talking about it and people sort of assumed i was a political comedian. i wasn't. i wasn't then and i'm not now. i do talk about it sometimes and almost now feel a slight sense of obligation to talk about it. but it was usually more kind of auto biographical stuff. the last

this is where richard pryor started and lily tomlin and others. the first date -- the first week of was working there, i met a guy who is also starting up. his name was billy crystal. he lived about 3 tons over from where my parents live. he had a little blue volkswagen, used to pick me up every night. drive into the city. we would get on stage, do our jobs. he would drive me home. we would critique each other's jokes and our acts. i am about four months into this nightmare, this experiment of mine. one night at about 1:00 a.m., having the hardest time in the world making these four drunks from des moines laugh. i get off the state and -- i get off the stage and go to the board videos awaiting for billy. a man sits next to me and starts staring at me. staring at me. i finally go, what, what do you want? he goes, you know, you are the worst the media i have ever seen in my life. i said, thank you, i really need to hear this right now. thank you very much. he said, but your material is good. do you write it? i said, yes. he said, can i see more of i

richard pryor, lenny bruce, only they didn't put the whole persona with it. big leather jackets with the studs and rhinestones. i really just wanted to give people almost something like from a comic book, a hero. >> if somebody came to you and said, you're talented, very successful. you became the hottest stand-up in the country at one point, but you've coursened the country. how would you answer that? >> i don't feel i did because the people coming to see me are adult and it's all ant the jokes. you know, but what was made out of it years ago is not what it is today. because even my material today, it's just as raw and i like performing like that. it's who i am as a comic. >> success justifies that criticism? >> it's not about justifying. it's about people wanting something. if you want pg stuff, there's plenty of it out there. >> last question. woody allen and you on the set. he's a remote guy. kind of just comes in, tells you what to do and you do it. says see you. >> woody does his directing casting the part. it's almost like that's my direction, i got th

like, you know, he's, like, the bill murray "meatballs," walter matthau "bad news bears" kind of richard pryornd there were real people there. >> jimmy: i was going to say, did you shut it down? no. >> no, they were -- they were real good. they were looking in the lens, and they were -- you know, the sounds. >> jimmy: yeah, because it's so much money to lose. you can't just shut down the water park. >> no, that's right. that's right. and in fact, we got in trouble once because i was on a microphone in one of the scenes and some of my adlibs got a little rated "r." and it was, you know -- >> jimmy: you're going across the whole park. >> across the whole park. we -- it was early, so we thought it was closed -- or, you know we thought it was closed. and then this woman came -- one of the heads of the park -- and she was not happy. >> jimmy: shut it down. yeah. >> yeah. >> jimmy: do you remember what you said? >> i said something about -- you know, sexually transmitted diseases or something. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: oh my god. >> it was not -- not good. >> jimmy: you bring your kid to the park and h

should not shy away from using the n word and should be more direct in the tradition of comics like richard pryorord" is actually worse than the actual word. allen tells the paper, "you want to take the power away from that word so that no one is offended by it. if i have no intent first, show no intent, if i clearly am not a racist, then how can n be bad coming out of my mouth?" and what i appreciate about what tim allen is saying here is that it is complicated. and given the kinds of uncomplicated things i've said, at least there's some thoughtfulness here, but i do just want to ask, elon? >> i would like tim allen to shut up. here's why. first of all, i'm getting a little tired of white dudes telling me, one, what i can say or what they can say and then, two, about my neighborhood and my community. i'm getting a little tired of it across the board because they're talking directly about people like me, like who are from the hood, who grew one single parents and stuff like that. and then about the language thing. being a performer for years, i've heard people make this argument, oh, i can say wh

. >> i listened to richard pryor and redd fox growing up. i can't say "n" word.deen confessed to saying the "n" word under oath. it would have been the easiest thing for her to deny it. it would have been perjury but impossible to prove. that's an interesting thing i hadn't heard anyone say. she owned her words for good or for ill. i suppose do you have to give her some points for that, right? >> well, i mean, you know, i also think she's a dimwit who thought well i didn't do anything wrong. you know that's the other thick that comes out in her dep. i read her entire deposition. she's a freakin' idiot. when she says i don't know how to use e-mail. you just sit there and go all right, why am i trusting you with my health? >> stephanie: this is the point where the white guy raised in the south tells you how it was. he doesn't do this to forgive anyone. unless you did grow up in the south in the '80s, there's things that you don't get. i was laughing because i thought you know, this didn't really surprise me. your high school, you had awards, best all-around black a