This period, along with his late-'60s work, served as the basis for an onslaught of LPs issued by the Laff label throughout the 1970s while a part of his official discography, the material found on albums like 1977's Are You Serious?, 1978's Black Ben the Blacksmith, and 1980's Insane was already many years old by the time of the records' release. Pryor continued performing safe, toothless comedy for another couple of years, but during a 1970 Las Vegas appearance he snapped in the middle of the routine, he rhetorically asked, "What am I doing here?" and walked offstage, effectively going underground and playing only small black clubs for much of the early part of the decade. At the outset of his career, Pryor struggled to find his own voice: on his self-titled 1968 debut, he slavishly imitated the rhythms and themes of Bill Cosby on routines like "Adam and Eve" and the nostalgic "Girls," and only a bit about a black superhero - dubbed "Supernigger" - offered any hint of things to come. By the age of 14, he was performing with a local amateur dramatic group, and in 1964 he relocated to New York City to pursue a career in standup. Living in the worst slum in the Peoria area, he often found himself the target of gang violence his sense of humor was his only defense mechanism, and Pryor soon developed a reputation as a class cut-up. His early life was confusing and difficult raised in the brothel owned by his grandmother, Pryor's mother was herself a prostitute, and his father was a pimp. Richard Pryor was born December 1, 1940, in Peoria, Illinois. But while Gregory used the standup stage as a pulpit to preach messages of peace, equality, and social change, Pryor seethed with bitterness and anger his was the foul-mouthed voice of the growing Black Power movement, uncompromisingly decrying the continued oppression of the conservative establishment while reporting on the African-American experience - warts and all - with honesty and conviction. Like Dick Gregory before him, Pryor explored issues of racial inequity with great insight and depth, tackling taboo topics that mainstream white America would have preferred swept permanently under the rug. The most groundbreaking and daring comic talent since the heyday of Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor was also the most controversial.
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