‘Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling’ Set Biopic Bar Sky High

Richard Pryor’s “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling” (1986) is a harsh, strange and wildly entertaining drama by producer/co-writer/director/star Pryor about his life up to that point.

Ostensibly “The Richard Pryor Story,” though containing only a few stand-up routines, a single scene exploring his film career, and lots of scenes depicting his self-destructive behavior and drug addiction.

When this film arrived in 1986, everyone was all too aware that Pryor, the stand-up sensation who became a massive film star, had been hospitalized after much of his body was severely burned while freebasing cocaine. Pryor’s post-rehab comeback, included concert films, playing the quasi-villain in “Superman III” (1983), leading a few bad movies that were big hits (like the wretched but enormously successful “The Toy”) and even attempting a “Sesame Street”-esque Saturday morning program called “Pryor’s Place” (1984).

If the idea was to endear himself back to his fanbase and connect to a new, younger audience, then the last thing Pryor needed was making a movie like “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling.”

Pryor’s film depicts some of the darkest moments of his life, with Pryor replaying these vignettes, many of which were likely as painful for him to play as they are for us to watch. Here is a work that could have felt congratulatory or cloyingly sympathetic, but Pryor goes exactly in the opposite direction.

His film admirably never plays like a self-righteous plea for forgiveness.

Pryor avoids making excuses or seeking to reshape himself for a mainstream audience. To say the least, it’s a daring work. Long out of print, “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling” is now back, thanks to a great new edition from The Criterion Collection.

Jo Jo Dancer may be the character’s name, but the story is all Pryor’s. The title character is, as Pryor’s bio and especially his stand-up routines informed us, a child who was raised in a brothel. Early promise and failures as a stand-up comedian lead Dancer to explore edgier material on stage, which is when his comic abilities sharpen but also when the temptation and substance abuse starts.

Pryor weirdly has the story begin with Dancer/himself in the hospital, where, wrapped in bandages, Dancer’s soul leaves his body and Pryor, playing a naked ghost, provides acidic commentary (but no ironic self-deflection or excuses) on the incident.

The flashbacks unravel in conventional order, but Pryor often cuts back to the hospital room, where the burned Dancer appears to be a goner, while Dancer’s soul revisits pivotal encounters that shaped his life.

Considering how mainstream, safe and celebratory recent movies on everyone from Freddie Mercury, Bob Marley, Elton John and Tupac Shakur (to name a few) have been, it’s refreshing and downright radical to see how Pryor shapes this.

Pryor’s Jo Jo Dancer is a talented artist and grateful survivor, but that doesn’t mean Pryor is letting himself and/or the character off the hook. It’s as though Pryor made this as a cautionary tale to himself as much as his fanbase.

The story angle of Dancer’s soul cutting loose and looking back on his life could have proven to be a mawkish misstep, not to mention painfully sentimental, but Pryor mostly makes that work.

The reason why so much of this is powerful is due to how terrific Pryor’s performance is. Instead of freezing up in his directorial debut (as well as producing, writing and starring), Pryor’s ability to pull off such a daunting creative juggling act is amazing.

Considering how demanding the role of Jo Jo Dancer is (the harrowing free base scene, a cabaret performance and a public nude scene), Pryor’s extraordinary and mostly dramatic performance impresses for how much nerve it must have taken him.

“Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling” is too limited in its timespan and running time to be definitive and far harder to watch than any of his fans could have expected. However, alongside his concerts “Richard Pryor: Live in Concert” (1979) and “Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip” (1982) and Pryor’s excellent lead turn in “Blue Collar” (1978), “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling” is unmissable.

The Criterion release has an interesting discussion of Pryor’s influence by actor/filmmaker Robert Townsend; I like Townsend (his “Hollywood Shuffle” is wonderful) but a more definitive reflection on Pryor’s life would likely come from his former “Harlem Nights” (1989) co-star Eddie Murphy.

A better feature on the disc is an extended 1986 interview between Pryor and Dick Cavett, which begins well, turns into a trainwreck, overcomes this and grows fascinating, then becomes embarrassing until it ends up with a great discussion.

Cavett asks probing questions and shoots himself in the foot throughout, and Pryor allows himself to be as vulnerable as he is funny. It’s among the most fascinating discussions I’ve ever seen someone have with Pryor.

Over the years, many news outlets have reported attempts to make a new film on Pryor’s life; after Pryor’s death in 2005, everyone from Marlon Wayans to Mike Epps were once attached to announced but unmade movies about Pryor.

Now, in a time when movie biopics have become not only routine but too precious about the people they’re portraying, it’s worth noting that a film about Pryor could cover a lot of ground…and likely wind up nowhere near as harrowing as Pryor’s own movie about himself.

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