Rain Pryor

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CBS MORNING NEWS
Rain Pryor: Shalom, My Brothers
April 18, 2004


Rain Pryor took center stage in the place that launched her father, Richard Pryor, into the comedy stratosphere � The Comedy Store.

"I mean, here I am at the Comedy Store! On the very stage, in the very place that history was created by my father ... Richard Pryor," says Rain Pryor. "I used to sleep in booths out here."

The Comedy Story is now a door to her future, as CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker reports.

"Is it intimidating at all? Of course it is," she says. "It's intimidating, because I know, without a doubt, there's someone who's thinking they're coming to see me, but they're really coming to see my dad � They better go rent a video, because this ain't my daddy's standup."

It's her show, "Fried Chicken and Latkes." Rain has been polishing and performing it in theaters around Los Angeles. It's about her life as the conflicted daughter of a celebrated black father and a Jewish mother.

"So there I was, this black and Jewish kid growing up in Beverly Hills, which meant I was proud, ... but felt so guilty for it," she laughs from the stage.

She says she has wanted to do the show for the last decade, but she wasn't ready until now.

"I wrote this show in three-and-a-half weeks, you know, and it was out and it was done," she remembers.

Vivid characters came pouring out as a result. She portrays white teenager Samantha:

"Oh, my God, Rain. Your hair is soooo big! Oh, I can barely see the mirror through your big hair! Like what do you have in there, anyway? You are soooo Afro-sheen Barbie!"

Like a chameleon, Rain changes into Wanita:

"As a matter of fact, girl didn't know she was black until she met me. And she was always going out with white boys. But she did date a black boy like, what? Once. And he wasn't all the way black. He was like -- blackinese."

"There's not a thing about her that doesn't work," says actor/director Carl Reiner. "She sings, she moves, she does humor. She knows who she is."

Rain fills the stage with characters who filled her life, such as her Jewish grandmother:

"Why do we light the Friday night Shaboos candles? We do this to welcome in the weekend by reflecting back on what we have done during the week. But we try not to reflect too hard, because that's why we become depressed."

Pryor also transforms into "Mama," her father's grandmother:

"Rain was born on her father's side to a prestigious line of pimps, madams and prostitutes. See, Richard Pryor is a fine and generous man. You can ask any hooker."

And woven throughout the show is Rain's complex relationship with her father.

"Papa, can you hear me? Papa, can you see me? See me? He barely even knew me. He was too busy making movies and [mimics smoking] had way too much on his mind," she says in her act.

In her work and her life, she has had to come to terms with Richard Pryor, the man the world knows as a tragic comic genius.

Rain knows all about his genius and his flaws: his womanizing and, as she told Sunday Morning's Russ Mitchell in 1995, his drugs.
"It was really Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When he wasn't experimenting with chemicals, he was there. When he was, it was another -- it was tough," she said in the interview.

It was also tough on her strong-willed mother, who raised Rain after Richard Pryor left them.

In "Fried Chicken and Latkes," she remembers her mother saying:
"Rain, take that plastic bag off your head! This won't bring your father to visit. You know why, Rain? He doesn't care, Rain! He doesn't care! When he left us and we went on welfare, it was me who got us off, Rain! I am the black man in your life, Rain."

She says she talks about some very painful things in her life because life is painful.

"I've survived a lot of stuff that I think someone of 34 shouldn't have to really survive, but I survived it, and I think with that, there comes a freedom," she says.

It's that freedom to make comedy out of her own battle with drugs and alcohol, her string of failed romances and her father's succession of wives.
The show is what she's always dreamed of doing.

"Out of the womb, the day I was given the rainbow-colored Afro-wig, the diva in me came out," she laughs.

She found work early as a regular on the sitcom "Head of the Class" and on stage in the musical "Sisterella."

But even as she played a lesbian junkie on Showtime's "Rude Awakening," Hollywood told her she wasn't black enough, she wasn't white enough, she wasn't pretty enough.

"Then I wasn't working at all and it was really hard for me, because for years after that, all I heard was, 'Yeah, she's talented, but God, she's ugly,'" remembers Pryor.

Casting agents just couldn't figure her out. Now she's finding herself, a process that may have begun with her father's illness. She took questions after one performance.

"When he got sick with multiple sclerosis, I think it put everything to me into perspective. I think there comes a place where you really have to have peace," she says.

Accepting her father, she came to accept herself. In the mid-'90s, they even played father and daughter in a "Chicago Hope" episode about M.S.
By her 2002 wedding, he couldn't walk her down the aisle, but he was there. And Rain Pryor's mother, Shelly Bonis (former hippie and civil rights advocate), is out advocating for her daughter. Bonis is out in the streets and fairs giving people cards about her daughter's play.

Elizabeth Pryor -- Richard other half-Jewish daughter from another marriage -- came to see Rain's show. And, the two have fallen in love.

"I think I didn't realize there was only one other black Jew who was Richard Pryor's daughter, and that was my sister," says Elizabeth Pryor. "When I saw 'Fried Chicken and Latkes,' I thought 'Black, Jew, Richard Pryor's daughter -- oh, my God! We have a lot in common!'"

But Rain's personal story, which she considered so idiosyncratic and so outrageous, seems to have something to say to most everyone who comes through the door.

Now clean and sober, married, happy and with plans for Broadway, Rain's past is powering her into the future.

"Because I'm standing on my own two feet and I have become Rain, I am comfortable with being a Pryor," she says. "I feel it's my right, it's my legacy. What I'm doing up there on that stage is the real tribute.

"I'm black and a Jew! Shalom, my brothers! Oy vey!"






TV GUIDE
Tuesday, September 2, 2003
Rain Pryor: A Class Act
by Daniel R. Coleridge

Rain Pryor is proud to be a �sublebrity�. She is, of course, the daughter of comedian Richard Pryor. And, at 34, the actress still is best known for playing tomboy T.J. Jones on Head of the Class as a teenager. ("That's the only thing I'm known for!" she says, laughing out loud.) In her life, she's faced dysfunctional relatives, racism, drug and alcohol addiction, relationship angst and more. But Rain won't go away. Instead, the half-black, half-Jewish spitfire has bundled all her woes into a one woman show, Fried Chicken & Latkas. L.A. is buzzin' about it; celebs seen rolling in the aisles have included Kim Coles, Andy Dick, Camryn Manheim and Carl Reiner,. Here, Pryor tells TV Guide Online why she's baring her soul for a showbiz comeback.

TV Guide Online: What led to this one-woman show?
Pryor: I really wanted to write a book that was positive about my life, but I was turned down by every book publisher because they wanted something tabloidy. I don't know how to write like that.

TVGO: So they wanted Richard Pryor dish? Like Daddy Dearest?
Pryor: Exactly. It's never gonna happen. That's not who I am. I don't have an axe to grind; it takes too much energy to do that. I'd rather forgive and move on and work through it.

TVGO: You plainly discuss your dad's troubled past in Latkes. Is it hard to always be known as his kid?
Pryor: About a year and a half ago, before I got married [to family therapist Kevin Kindlin], I didn't want to be a Pryor anymore. I wanted to be Rain, for once. I just wanted to know what a normal life felt like. What's funny is, because of my husband, I get that normalcy. I can't run away from it � no matter where I go, if someone finds out who my dad is, they're gonna talk about it. What am I gonna do, tell them to be quiet and act like it doesn't exist? No, I might as well embrace it instead of throwing it away. The only way I could do that is by coming to peace with my childhood. I don't want to be jaded and bitter. I want to come from a place that's full of love and gratitude. If I didn't grow up in a crazy household with all the drama, I wouldn't be who I am.

TVGO: What's the biggest assumption people make about you?
Pryor: Just because I'm a Pryor doesn't mean I'm a standup comedian. I'm funny, but I'm not a standup by any means. I sing, I do so many things... I really do consider myself John Leguizamo meets Bette Midler!

TVGO: Do fans still recognize you from Head of the Class?
Pryor: (Laughs) I like to call it Giving [Expletive] to the Class! The show everyone thinks they know me from is The Cosby Show or A Different World. I guess if you've seen one black girl, you've seen them all.

TVGO: That's sad!
Pryor: Or else, people are like, "Hey, weren't you on Saved by the Bell?" (Laughs) I don't know why it's all about Saved by the Bell. Because if there wasn't Head of the Class in the late '80s, there would be no Saved by the Bell, you know?

TVGO: Do you really mean what you say in Latkes about telling yourself "I love you" in the mirror?
Pryor: Yes. I had no self-esteem earlier in my life. I am a codependent � I drank because, if you drank, I drank. I lost everything I owned to a relationship. I lost a house, a fancy car, a bank account, because I was like, "What can I buy in order for you to stay with me?" I really had to learn that I could love myself as I am, that I didn't have to be Halle Berry to be beautiful and feel good about my life.

Steppin Out Magazine
July, 2004

Chaunce Hayden: I could spend hours talking to you about your life and what it must have been like having Richard Pryor as a father.

Rain Pryor: When I was younger it was really great because my dad was famous. As a kid that was really appealing. Know what I mean? To walk down the street with him and have everyone go, "Are you Bill Cosby?" and have him answer, "No, I�m Richard Pryor." (Laughs) I always found it really cool that we could fly on the Concord and take trips to Paris.

As a young girl was it difficult growing up the daughter of Richard Pryor and a white Jewish mother?

For me growing up.. I didn�t see color until someone called me a nigger. I had no idea!

But at home the word nigger was used fairly liberally as a term of endearment. Did you know it had a different meaning outside of home?

I knew it was something bad by the tone of the person who used it, who�s mother turned out to be the head of the Beverly Hills School Board by the way! I also learned that that child was taught that. You just don�t hate. You�re taught to hate.

Did you understand how famous your father was?

Right. Both my parents knew I wanted to be an actor but as I got older that became a hindrance because than everyone expected me to be him� And I�m not!

How could anyone live up to that expectation?

It�s really hard because people expect me to be hysterically funny. I think I�m funny but I�ve studied Shakespeare. I�ve studied real acting. I�ve never studied stand-up!

Was there ever a moment in your life when you considered trying stand-up comedy?

No. My dad and mom thought that I should be a stand-up comic, but no way!  I said, "Dad, no way! You�re Richard Pryor, that�s not fair!"

If you�re dad wasn�t Richard Pryor would you have pursued comedy?

I don�t know. In the real world maybe I would have tried it. I remember I tried it once and I was so terrified when I got up on the stage. I remember thinking, "I can�t do this!" I wasn�t terrified that my material wasn�t funny. I was terrified that they really wanted to see him. Unlike Joe Schmo who can go up and perform and nobody expects anything, so they can just be funny or not!

Have you ever considered changing your last name?

I have thought about.

What stopped you?

I was 19 years old and already known for being on a television series. I felt it was a little late now. But what�s really funny is being a biracial child, had I not been a Pryor, opportunities would have been better. Like Jennifer Beals. People don�t know if she�s black or if she�s white. I think I would have had more opportunity had my last name not been Pryor. I still have that black thing going on, yet, people don�t know where to put me.

So than does being a Pryor help you or hurt you in terms of your career?

Um.. I don�t think it�s done anything for me. When I was younger it got me into clubs. (Laughs)

But it hasn�t opened any showbiz doors for you?

No! I didn�t do anything for me. I don�t know why? Maybe people didn�t think I was talented. But it didn�t open any doors because of it.

Do you think your father�s bad boy image made people afraid of you?

Definitely! Everyone has me down, as this big drug addict whom I think is really funny.

Why?

Because, have I been drunk at a club? Yes. Have I done drugs? No! But because my dad did cocaine, people assume I must have done a lot of it to. The truth is, I tried it once and it scared me. I thought, "Oh my God this stuff could kill people!" (Laughs)

Did you know that your dad was doing cocaine when he was at his worst? Did you understand what was going on?

I don�t think I understood it, but I knew what he was doing. I knew what cocaine was and I knew what hookers were. I grew up surrounded by whores my entire life.

Why were whores all around you as a child?
Because my dad grew up in a whorehouse�.

But you didn�t.

Yeah, but I did. Because when I was around him, I was around that element. Although he lived in a huge mansion, his environment still surrounded him. So the prostitutes and the hangers-on were all there. It was creepy!

Talk about being a dysfunctional child. Yet, you seem so normal and down to earth.

I am actually! (Laughs)

But you did have your moments. Weren�t you an alcoholic at one point?

I guess you could call it being an alcoholic. I think that now that I�m getting older that I was very young when I started drinking. I was 18 when I would really go out just to get drunk. But when I was 23 I felt it was boring, so I stopped.

It�s amazing you aren�t more self-destructive.

It wasn�t my path. I hung out with junkies but I never did junk. My problem was co-dependency. I�m addicted to people liking me and loving me. Drugs are the last thing I want to be doing. Because I really want you to like me. I want to look good.

Is that because you could never get your dad�s attention?

Of course! If you blinked at me and you were a guy I thought to myself, "Oh, he loves me!"

You desperately needed love.

Yes!

How is your dad doing today?

He�s not great. He doesn�t speak anymore. But me and my sister Elizabeth have a way of speaking to him. We have our own communication. For certain questions he blows kisses. We ask him yes or know questions and he�ll blow us a kiss for yes or no. We have our own way of speaking to him, so we get to enjoy our time with him� and we cherish that.

What�s happened to your father seems so tragic. How do you see it?

(Pause) I think it�s tragic when you�re in denial about it. That�s tragic. I think it�s tragic when you�re in denial and there�s no hope. For me I support the National MS Society. I�m a big supporter of it. I�m a believer in the MS Foundation. I believe in medicines for MS. I have a lot of hope, so I don�t see it as tragic. It�s an example. This is my dad�s path. I have a very spiritual outlook on it. Let�s look at it that way.

Do you think MS is something would have happened to your dad regardless of his lifestyle?

It�s interesting. Although people say that cocaine does effect your central nervous system and MS is a disease that effects the central nervous system, I�ve met several people who have never done cocaine that have MS. So I think that regardless, this was in his path.

Is Richard aware of what�s going on around him? Is he happy?

When I�m around him and my sister is around him, his mind seems to be very on and he seems very alert. Both of us see that desire and his need to communicate with us. So we have our own language with him in which we do that.

Does he feel sorry for himself?

Noooooo. I don�t think so. I think he�s sorry about the choices of people he�s put into his life. But I don�t think he feels sorry for himself.

It seems like such a sad thing to have happen.

Of course it�s sad when you have a genius who�s making the world laugh for years and all of a sudden that magic and
that gift is taken away by something he can�t control.

You said you�re father can�t speak anymore. Do you recall the last words he said to you?

Let me clarify� He makes sounds. Like, (mimicking) Errrrhhh, errrrrhhhh, errrrhhhhhh, and you have to interpit what those sounds are. There are moments when he hasn�t been able to communicate at all. We just blow kisses at each other. Than, as I go to leave, all of a sudden he takes every once of his being and says, (barley audible) "I love you baby." And I just ball my eyes out. I love my dad. All his kids love him. I was there in the hospital with him every single day for hours and hours when the ability for him not to be able to speak came on and he needed a feeding tube. I was by his side.

Aren�t there medications that can improve his condition?

There are medications. However, I feel there is someone in his life controlling whether or not he takes those medications. Apparently some magazine in Scotland wrote that my dad is a vegetarian and refuses to take MS medications because they�ve been tested on animals. I�m like, okay, that doesn�t sound like my dad! My dad loves animals and is a big supporter of animal rights. But the last thing my dad would ever do in terms of something that could make him possibly stronger and better, knowing his strong will, would be to refuse to take MS medications because they were tested on animals. Half of the MS medications were tested on animals.

That sounds crazy.

It does sound crazy! I�m a big supporter of animal rights and I hate the abuse of animals and I hate the use of animals for facial make-up� you know what I mean? But I draw the line when it�s about someone�s survival. When it�s about cancer, MS or AIDS I am a supporter! I�m a supporter of the research! I also wish they would practice on humans! (Laughs).

Your dad is married at the moment�

I guess you could say that.

(writers note: Richard Pryor is currently married to Jennifer Leigh Pryor)
This may sound horrible. But do you think it would be in her best interest if your dad didn�t survive this disease?

Put it this way. If you�re a women who this man used to beat up for years and years and years. Like even his children watched him beat her up..right? And than all of a sudden when he�s at his sickest, sickest, sickest moment and can�t speak you marry him? Why? What�s the motive? And now your name is on everything. When there�s something about him your name is on it and his children don�t exist. You don�t talk about his children. It�s like none of us were ever born. That�s a horrible situation. That�s tragic. But he�s not tragic.

Legally there�s nothing you can do to get your dad out of that situation?

I�m an adult child, I have no rights. The truth is, it�s one of those things, a long time ago he made the choice to unfortunately invite this women back into his life with the belief that she was really going to help him. This is how she has helped him. She has hired wonderful caretakers to take care of him. They clean the house and they live with him. They make sure his feeding tubes are in and out and they love him. That�s what she has done. The rest is.. Who knows what�s really going on? On the surface everything looks really fine and dandy and wow, isn�t she doing a great job. But she hired people to do a great job for her. She doesn�t do a great job. I�ve wiped my dad�s butt! You know what I mean? (Laughs)

It sounds like a terrible situation for the family.

It is what it is. The belief of my and my sister is that as long as our father knows that his children is so deeply loved by his children. As long as he knows that, that�s all we care about. The rest is the rest.

Do you have access to him or are you denied visits with your father?

We�re denied when we can visit. We�re on a restrictive vist [policy] and it�s not because of him, it�s because of whatever had been conjured up to make that a thing. We visit once a month. Would we like to visit more? Yeah! But there�s this rule that we can only visit once a month.

[Writers note: On July 18th Page Six of the New York Post printed portions of this interview that pertain to Jennifer Lee Pryor. On July 19th Jennifer Lee contacted our office and stated that she does not believe in animal testing for medical research but that she is giving Richard Pryor the best care available. She also stated that Richard�s children are only allowed one visit per month because more frequent visits are departmental to his medical condition and that she doesn�t personally clean Richard because his medical insurance covers those specific duties. Jennifer Lee�s attorney, Gary P. Kohn has stated via Email that his client Jennifer Lee Pryor has no further comment regarding this matter.]

You would think�.

Yeah, you would think! But that�s not the situation. Hello, that�s why I created a show!

Do you talk about this situation with your dad in your one-woman show?

I talk about everyone that is in my life. The most important thing to me is that when I do talk about my dad in the show, because it�s a very minimal part, is that I make sure that the audience and my dad know that we love him. That�s my goal.

Has your dad ever seen your one woman show?

No, but I have done part of it in front of him. Because I actually do him during the concert. So I had to ask him for permission to be able to use some of his material and he said, "Yes." (Laughs). After I did it for him he said yes.

Do you wish he could see the entire show?

Yes! Of course! I think he would love it.

Could that ever happen?

No. No. Like I said, there�s something that stands between all of the kids and my dad. We have to be willing to play the game. We either get a lot or lose a lot. It�s one of those things. It�s not about him. My focus has to be about my dad. It�s not about her, it�s not about this, it�s about us and our dad. The truth is it�s about love.

Does this situation weight heavy on your mind?

No. I really have a spiritual belief that things happen to a reason and that my job is just to show up and more will be revealed.

Would you describe your one-woman show as therapeutic?

Oh it�s totally cathartic. Yeah! Please!

So does the show change as events in your life change?

Yes. For instance my husband and I are talking about having children right now. But people go, "But what about the show?" Yeah, but it�s my show. Wouldn�t it be great to have that become part of my show! What a complete full circle because I talk a lot about parenting and how I was brought up. So how great than to be able to talk about that part of life in terms of myself. I just hope in many ways I have the strength and perseverance as my mother and from my father I have his magic and his tenderness to pass on.

What would you tell your children about your father?

The truth. I would tell them about who he is and what he was. That�s it.

And if they want to be stand-up comics?

I would say, "Okay, let�s talk! Be a doctor or lawyer! Anything but a comedian!" (Laughs)

As someone who�s an actress who grew up in Hollywood, what is your impression of that town?

It�s plastic and make believe. I think to survive Hollywood and Beverly Hills you have to have a sense of self and worth. Everything if fleeting as styles and music change.

You�ve been described as extremely talented. You can sing, you can write and you�re acting has been praised. Do you feel that Hollywood hasn�t welcomed you the way it should?

Of course not! I just don�t know why. I�m just not a good auditioned. I get nervous! I get nervous when I�m judged. I don�t get nervous when I�m performing. I just don�t know how to do that. I�m also not a good networker. My mom hates this about me. I don�t know how to smooze! I�m really shy and I like to be isolated.

I guess you don�t have a lot of celebrity friends.

No. When I was younger I hung around those kind of people. But none of us were really friends. None of us really knew each other. Where are they today? Who knows!

What�s the oddest thing you�ve read about yourself?

I�ve read bad things about myself.

Like?

That I�m ugly. Especially on the Internet.

How did that make you feel?

That really hurt. It�s so odd. I�ve actually heard it from casting directors to! I�m not a model and I don�t want to be a model. I�m an actor. It�s just horrible. That�s just the card that has been dealt me and that�s who I am. I am a unique beauty and I enjoy being a unique beauty. I don�t want to look like everybody else. I don�t want to fit the cookie cutter mold.

You don�t want blonde hair and a nose job?

No! But I thought about it. I told my husband that I�m going to get a face job! I�m going to get my chin shaved off so it�s more angler and round! My husband said if I do he�s divorcing me.

So you suffer from low self-esteem.

Of course I do. But sometimes I don�t! Like right now I think I�m looking hot! When I�m happy I feel beautiful and when I�m about to get my period forget about it!

Is it true your one woman show is going to be turned into a movie?

Yes! It�s a dream come true! I�m lucky to have found independent filmmakers who believe in me and want to do this. It�s going to be the stage version of my show, meets film, meets documentary. It�s going to be very 3 dimensional.

What�s the most shocking thing you can recall seeing as a child?

Watching my dad�s wife getting beat up. That was the most shocking thing. Also, when you�re sitting at the table and your dad introduces you to someone and you turn to your sister and go, "No, that�s a whore!" (Laughs) And your dad cracks up because he knows his kid is smart!

Finally, what advice would you give to another half black, half Jewish daughter of a brilliant comic?

(Laughs) I love that! I would say, know who you are and believe who you are and know that what ever you want to do you can accomplish!