The dark side of Jo Jo's (Richard Pryor) growing acclaim in the film's story line is a reliance first on booze, then drugs. It is an aspect of the film which, Pryor admits, was painful to evoke as a writer, director, and actor. He said, "I look at the movie now and ask myself, 'Why did you show people that?' But I had no choice. It was something I had to do. I won't cop out, trying to explain why Jo Jo, or I, did drugs. I know why. I understand it even better after making the picture. But it's all there on film for people to take as they see fit. I'm one of the lucky ones. I was gone, crazy, out of my mind. But I'm alive."
The film is basically Richard Pryor's autobiography, paralleling many incidents and experiences in his life, although he said that not everything in the film actually happened to him, and some of the characters aren't based on real people. However, the movie was filmed in Los Angeles, California, and in Peoria, Illinois, at the locations where much of the story takes place.
The film features exotic dancer Satin Doll (Paula Kelly) and veteran showman Johnny Barnett (Billy Eckstine). Richard Pryor said that they were among "dozens of performers who helped me get started working as a comic in the Midwest."
Richard Pryor once commented on this movie: "Throughout the picture, I felt I was walking a narrow edge between my own reality and Jo Jo's fantasy. Which is which? I'm still not sure."
Reflecting on his own addictions, Richard Pryor said, "There's a reason they call alcohol 'spirits'. There are demons in all of us which booze and drugs awaken, which grow stronger the more we continue to use them." Before he could exorcise his own demons, Pryor first had to "hit the wall, bottom out". Then came a process of personal reflection like taking stock that Pryor called "taking inventory". He said, "When you mess up, and remember, you're talking to an expert, the only way to put that stuff behind you and get on with your life is to be brutally honest. Self-deception is one of the worst drugs there is." Out of his inventory emerged the first shadowy perception of the character of Jo Jo Dancer, and a decision to accept a challenge which he'd anticipated throughout his career, yet had frequently rejected.