Jo Jo Dancer

Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling (1987)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Richard Pryor direct, wrote, produced and stars in this film about a famous stand up comic who begins to rethink his life after catching himself on fire. If you've seen any of Pryor's three concert films then most of this film will be familiar since this is clearly an autobiographical film dealing with stuff we're heard Pryor discuss before. Everything from growing up in a whore house to his various marriages all the way to the fire incident, which nearly cost him his life. The director isn't the strongest in the world but Pryor's performance is right on the mark and the screenplay does a nice job at showing off these various stages in his life. The film has some very hard hitting moments and some touching ones just like his concert films.

I found this film to be a really good depiction of Richard Pryor's life. But, I would've used the actual story of his life instead of using a fictional character to depict his life. Only a suggestion though Richard. But besides that, it is a great bio that has charm and laughs along the way (that later reminded me of Andy Kaufman's Man on the Moon). Trivia note- Pryor wrote, produced, directed (his first real film, though he directed Richard Pryor Here and Now) and starred in this film, which would be his last film to have writer, producer and director on his credits (he now has MS). A-

I've always enjoyed "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling" but it does have more than its fair share of flaws. The movie just doesn't work as well as it should have. Maybe Richard Pryor should have handed the direction off to a seasoned veteran rather than trying to do it himself. I don't know. The alter-ego stuff works well in some scenes and not that well in others. Visually the alter-ego is almost never convincing. "Jo Jo Dancer" is well acted but it seems to be longer than it actually is. The scenes with young Jo Jo are great. The "accident" scene is heartbreaking. Much of the stand up stuff isn't that good, especially Jo Jo's strip scene (ouch). I still watch this movie from time to time but it's just not completely satisfying. (I saw "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling" in the theater when it first came out.)

Jo Jo Dancer (Richard Pryor) is a successful comedian. In a drunken haze, he severely burns himself. His spirit watches his wounded body in his hospital bed and recalls his journey to that point. As a child, Jo Jo grew up in the brothel with his mother. As a young man, he decides to go to the big city Cleveland to try his hand in stand up. His father beats him up and his young wife is too afraid to go with him. He gets a gig at a strip club. As his career rises, his marriages suffer a roller-coaster ride of drug use and other difficulties.

This is a thinly-veiled personal docudrama. I think it's probably a mistake for Pryor to direct the movie himself. It's technically competent but the material is there for something much more compelling. The story never gets much tension. It's coated in a functional lifetime docudrama. An experienced director would be able to bring something more interesting in the structure and also a deeper performance from Pryor. I love Pryor as a comic and an actor. I don't love this movie quite as much.

...this movie resonates all the more of the difficult life he lived and the humor that somehow came out of it.

Pryor begins life as the son of a Prostitute, later turns his hyper energy into Theatre (thanks to a school teacher who he later gave his 1st Emmey to), turns to drug and alcohol addiction, is savagely burned during a bad freebase accident, is diagnosed with MS, is forced to spend his life in a wheelchair and throughout goes through many divorces. And the man is funny - what a genius (campare to Beethoven's life).

Props to Richard Pryor for sharing his life and also for being the 1st African-American comedian to take on 'race' and actually making it work.

Pryor was the Man!