Those familiar with Pryor's previous stage work [will be surprised by the film Richard Pryor Live in Concert]. His material—all seventy-eight minutes of it—is brand-new, conceived and assembled in the previous five months. And his performance is more unified and more personal, the best example yet of his ability to see and convey the humor in pain.

The difference is that, in the past, much of his material was inspired by the pain around him—the pimps, drunks, cons and junkies of the street, members of his family and his circle of friends. In Richard Pryor Live in Concert, the pain seems pretty much his own, particularly the pain of this last year [in which he suffered a heart attack]. Maybe that's how he survived it. (p. 50)

The heart attack is a perfect metaphor for the show. It's as if in seventy-eight minutes his life passes...