Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

“Why don’t we get some coleslaw and serve this up?”

How do you review a performance from Richard Pryor? I mean, it’s either the funniest thing you’ve ever seen or it’s Superman III. There’s no two ways about it. The man who redefined the comedy album, took feature films by storm is a talent unto himself. There will only ever be one Richard Pryor. And his lifestyle and drug addiction almost took him away from us decades before he gave us everything he had left to give. 

After his notorious freebasing incident nearly took his life, Richard Pryor needed to make a come back. After numerous successful tours, comedy albums, and movies, Pryor needed to get back to basics. He needed to get back to what made him a great comedian. He needed to get back on stage and deliver one of his greatest standup shows.

Live on the Sunset Strip is a little bit of everything that is Richard Pryor. It’s his usual acerbic self full of wit and pitch-perfect delivery of a full range of jokes. But the jokes aren’t about this and that, they’re all about him. Every aspect of his life from his childhood as a thief (even though his family had money) to his numerous relationships and wives to his trip to Africa to his fateful freebase inferno in 1980 - nothing in his life is off the table. 

And while he’s delivering some of his funniest material ever, he’s also playing up every incident of his life like a caricature version of himself. For 81 minutes, it’s like watching Richard Pryor playing a version of the Richard Pryor we’d come to know and love - but then adding extra barbs of self-reflection. The show might start slow, and it might start small, but by the time he's describing what it’s like to be on fire, his material is burning down the house. 

Since this concert film came out the year I was born I wasn’t around to see it in theaters (I was unleashed about four months later). But I spent the better part of my formative years devouring Pryor's material. Thanks to my Dad finally opting for DirecTV, my home got numerous channels of great content and a full run of premium movie channels and Pryor’s standup shows were regular guests. As a kid, I grew up with his 80s comedies like Brewster’s Millions and The Toy. I knew who he was, but it wasn’t until I was in my early teens I got to enjoy his unrestrained standup material. It felt like every day for a month, Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip was on TV after school. Occasionally 1979’s Live in Concert and 1983’s …Here and Now would be on but Live on the Sunset Strip was the one that hooked me. I like the other shows, they’re funny, but it’s the charm and self-deprecating honesty he shows in Live on the Sunset Strip that made me a true fan of the man's work - that is of course when he’s not poisoning Superman with tainted Kryptonite. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
After languishing on DVD for decades, Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip leapfrogs over 1080p Blu-ray for a full-on single-disc 4K + Digital release. Interestingly enough, this 4K version is actually pressed on a BD-50 disc - which makes sense considering it’s only 80 minutes long and there really aren’t any bonus features outside of the theatrical trailer. So 99% of the disc space used is all video transfer. The disc is housed in a standard black case with identical slipcover artwork and loads to a static image main menu.

As excited as I am to have Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip on 4K, I’m also perplexed that we didn’t get this on regular 1080p Blu-ray (at least here in the States). Again not really complaining, it looks great in 2160p with Dolby Vision, but I can’t help but wonder how this film would have fared on a standard Blu-ray disc (and also how much better it might sell?). And as I mentioned above, this does appear to be a standard BD-50 disc, but the encode is terrific with bitrates maintaining high 70mbps and beyond.

Outside of some shots of Los Angeles in the beginning and a few cutaways to the laughing audience, most of the show is Richard in a stylish bright red suit under a harsh spotlight - there’s not a lot of visual flair that screams out “THIS NEEDS 4K!” But I’ll say it again, it does look very good on the format. While the photography is pretty standard for a comedy concert film, it’s nicely cinematic. Close-ups we get to see fine textures and clean lines, Richard’s face, and occasionally audience members like Jesse Jackson will pop up. I’d say the film looks its best when we get a nice wide shot, then we’re seeing more of the stage and the venue and that sense of depth really kicks in. Middle shots and closeups look great, but there’s nothing else but Richard and a gray curtain. Film grain is retained throughout with a natural cinematic veneer.

Dolby Vision grade for this one doesn’t get stressed out too much, it’s all reds and blacks really. Richard’s suit is a nice bright crimson. Depending on the camera used for any given shot, the spotlight could cause a little blooming, but nothing severe. If you’ve seen the show you know that’s always been there. Black levels are nice with some great shadows for added depth. So while it’s a nice 4K, if you’re so outfitted it’ll look great, I’ve got to say we could have used a standard Blu-ray too.

On the audio side, we have a nice healthy DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio mix. And since this is a comedy concert, really the only main audio element is Richard Pryor’s voice - and he sounds great. There’s never any issue to hear what he’s saying and outside of audience laughter, there’s nothing for him to compete with. The editing of the show is timed well to let the laughter die down a bit before Richard gets back to doing his thing so you never miss a setup or a punchline. Not the most aggressive mix ever, but it works for this film.

Frustratingly there are no real bonus features for this release. There have been enough documentaries about Richard over the years that some of those would have been a nice accent piece. If we couldn’t have gotten a really good documentary, one or two of his other standup shows would have been awesome, but all we get is the trailer… and it’s only 32 seconds long. 

• Trailer (HD 00:32)

Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip is one of the all-time funniest standup comedy concert films ever. It was a smash hit and would be the highest-grossing comedy show - for at least a few years until Eddie Murphy: Raw blew up the box office. But this is Pryor at his best. After nearly killing himself, this was his big comeback and it was a true testament to his talent as a laugh master. What makes this particular special so great is how he’s mostly aiming his barbs at himself, even spending over 20 minutes on his freebasing incident and recovery. I’ve caught this film dozens of times and its always a riot. But now after years on DVD, it’s skipped Blu-ray and jumped right to 4K UHD which is weird but welcome. I’m perplexed why this film didn’t get a standard 1080p disc in the States and this set doesn’t come with one, but I won’t complain about this 4K presentation. It’s very good. Certainly not the best thing the format has ever seen, but very good and Pryor fans should be very pleased with the A/V results. The lack of bonus features is a bummer, and I would have loved to have at least one more of his shows on the disc to really make it a premium product. As is, I’m calling Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip Recommended