Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 39

DETROIT FREE PRESS Sundav. Nov. 6, 77 7C "on rt Take Away 000 THEY WANT TO DANCE ON HIS GRAVE My Pry on jr A AA i "I think that racism, black racism, is a charge they want to put on me," says Pryor. "They want to make me a radical or a raving lunatic because I won't play the game because I don't need them. But I'm not that way." Bir.

It J. Lj LA -J. Ni ifa: BV DAVE ZURAWIK Free Presj Staff Writer Two writers were walking out of a Richard Pryor press conference earlier this year. "Who In the bleep does that bleeping nigger think he is?" one of them asked. His partner said, "I've got news for Mr.

Richard (Smartass) Pryor. I've been in this bleeping business 15 bleeping years, and I'll be around to dance on his grave. The censors will kill him." RICHARD PRYOR is not surprised by this story. In fact, he smiled at it. Which tells you something about the way Richard Pryor sees the world: There are people out there waiting to dance on your grave, and it pleases him that he is ing tham at bay.

But Richard Pryor says he is not at war with them or anybody else, and he knows why they want to dance on his grave. Backtrack. Richard Pryor is supposed to be one of the most difficult men in the world to deal with. Incidents. Pryor is doing a nightclub routine in Las Vegas.

Suddenly he walks off the stage, reappears naked, jumps on a casino table and hollers, "Blackjack." Pryor is speaking to a gay liberation fund raiser in Los Angeles. He ends his speech to the 17,000 audience members the majority of whom are gay and white with "kiss my happy, rich black ass." In response to a question about the source of conflict between him and NBC over his TV show this season, he tells a press conference has six or seven thousand people on the payroll whose only job is to with you. You have to fight them. Because once the man gets his foot up your he never takes it out." Richard Pryor sounds like a pretty angry guy. Some say it is this anger that makes people want to dance on his grave.

Richard Pryor says, "Let's talk about it." Backtrack. "You're interviewing Richard one on one," atlack publicist said. "Good luck. Where should we send the flowers?" "You got about a 10 percent chance Pryor will show," a white publicist said. "A zero percent chance he'll talk to you." FRIDAY MORNING.

Richard Pryor is wearing a green zip-up sweater and blue jeans. He is sitting in his suite at the Whitehall Hotel sipping a gin martini. He has just finished the press conference. It was scheduled for 10 a.m. Pryor showed up at 1 0 a.m.

Half of the reporters were late. There was only one tense moment. About 15 minutes into it, Pryor stopped and said: "Please, could I just take a break here to take a deep breath. I feel like I'm getting a little behind on the questions." Everybody nodded and just went right on asking him more questions. Pryor made few jokes, dodged no questions and seemed terribly polite, even to the point of shyness.

Later, with just one interviewer in his suite, a question is put to Pryor: "What are you so mad about? Is it racism? Do you hate whites?" Pryor doesn't flinch. His voice becomes quiet. He seems more like the man who last summer, before his TV show started taping, told his crew: "I don't want to be on TV. I'm In a trap. I can't do this.

I'd rather you people know it than 50 million people. I've bit off more than I can chew. They give you so much money you can't refuse." Pryor is not in tears as he was during that meeting. But occasionally he'll bend over, head in hands, as if trying to either rub something out or pull something from memory. "What angered me about the television show was worse.

Don't take away my words because without them, I am nothing. If I'm insulted, I can retaliate with words. Without my words, all that's left is violence. You have to use a gun at that point. Can you understand that? "Language, communication are everything.

They are the way to avoid frustration. The way to be a man or a woman "See, I don't have a large vocabulary, like William Buckley. I couldn't compete in a Buckley form. But I can communicate AAAA- SAAAA Warner Brothers, a 50-50 spilt, all those slick white boys go, 'Damn, how'd dat nigger get such a deal without working through us? Damn "See, I don't have to go to parties and kiss asses and play the game with the Hollywood Establishment, because I got my people out there. Maybe, It's only a couple of million, that's a small movie audience, but it's enough for me to make it.

It's the people on the streets. The women up here emptying ashtrays, cleaning up the bathroom, they know what I'm doing. I listen to them and as long as I.do, they'll support me. "But if you let the Establishment crowd run your life, they'll just rip you off. And then in a couple of years, I'm broke and all the newspapers come around saying, 'Poor Richard Pryor, ain't got But he was bad and deserved "And then, I get to go on 'The Merv Griffin Show' and say how sorry I was for being bad.

And then they'll get me little parts. ain't gonna happen to me. "DID YOU HEAR everybody laugh this morning when I said I was going to school to get a realtor's license? Well, it's true. My wife wants me to do it. She has her license.

She also suggested I try law school. I never thought about something like that before. That's the thing. "See, I'm not angry or frustrated or ready to explode, because with my wife I can talk about these kind of things. We communicate and get it all out.

We have the words to do it. "Let me give you an example of how this works. I was at a club, a nightclub. And I was standing in line behind George Carlin, talking to him. The man at the door let Carlin in and then slammed it in my face.

I could hear Carlin hollering, 'Hey, that's Richard Pryor, let him The man said, 'I don't give a who it is. The nigger ain't gettin' Finally some people inside made him let me in. But that kind of thing is terrible. "And without the ability to use words to articulate that feeling through my work, I don't know how I would have dealt with it. You can't use pretty words to describe those kind of feelings." THE INTERVIEW was scheduled for half an hour.

It lasted an hour and a half. "I don't regret," Pryor said just before leaving, "any of the controversial things I did. I got where I am by saying what I feel. I'm not gonna back off. I regret none of the controversy." And then he smiled, and you remembered another Hollywood agent's warning: Pryor can charm your socks off if he wants to with that boyish smile.

Don't let him con you. Richard Pryor was charming, but not because he tried to be boyish. Thsre was nothing boyish about it. "It was just the two of us sitting here and talking," Pryor said. "Each a little scared by the encounter.

Trying to be honest enough to admit it. Yeah, there's a lot of fear. Life can be really frightening." Comedian Richard Pryor with his wife, Deborah McGuire, after their wedding in September. She wants him to get a realtor's license. want to make me a radical or a raving lunatic because I won't play the game because I don't need them.

But I'm not that way. I found a kind of happiness on my own. "See, I don't have a manager. I don't have an agent. I have my attorney in Atlanta.

And we've got it straightened out to where I'm wealthy. I have some of the most lucrative contracts in Hollywood. And I don't use the publicists and agents who make a living off other talents. "So, when I get a 50-50 deal with on my terms. But when they say something like, 'Oh, no, you can't use the word 'censor' on TV, they are taking my words." The voice becomes even quieter here.

"AND, NO, I don't hate whites. I have been married to two white women and I've had children by them. And I love them very much. There are a lot of whites in my organization that I keep in the job. "I think that racism, black racism, is a charge they want to put on me.

They The Man Who's Replacing Lou Gordon Won Demand Any Confrontations 11 "Vm not going to swagger in there, some guy from the East, and say, Tm going to make you forget Lou: Farber's TV Show Needs Some Spark "The Barry Farber Show," which bows at 10 p.m. Sunday on Channel 50, starts in low gear, so low that its 90 minutes crawl interminably. Not even the change of faces in four separate segments makes the pace less pedestrian. Farber's guests are former University of Michigan football star Billy Taylor, who served time on bank robbery charges and now is In labor relations and studying for a doctorate at Michigan; former U.S. ambassador to Uganda Thomas Melady and his wife, Margaret; Dr.

Edgar Keemer, head of a Detroit abortion clinic, and Janey Jimenez, the deputy U.S. marshal who guarded Patty Hearst during her San Francisco bank robbery trial. The Meladys and Ms. Jimenez are plugging books about their experiences. ALTHOUGH the physical setup of the show suggests confrontation, there is none.

Farber and his guests face each other directly across a desk, but Farber acts primarily as a prompter, leading his guests through their stories. Farber does not probe; there is not even a sense of genuine conversational exchange. An invisible wall seems to block interaction. It's admirable not to fall into the trap of picking a fight for the sake of fighting, but with the selection of subjects available, there should have been a spark somewhere. Those who have never heard Farber on his radio show will wonder what special quality made him the choice for the TV show.

Those who do know the radio Farber, a man of firm opinions he does not hesitate to express, will wonder what happened to him this first time out. -BETTELOU PETERSON Use' gether primarily by Miss Eisman and the staff of Channel 50 with some assistance and suggestions from Farber. Farber said he hopes the series will use more discussion than confrontation. "Artificial hostility is bad," he said. "With Billy Taylor (the former U-M football player who is the first guest on the first show), I could have challenged him on how he blew his chances when he got involved in the bank robbery.

But, I felt to scold him was insensitive. "It's not a good Idea in the short run to go for the barroom brawl. We'll look for the genuine fights on things like gay rights, welfare, foreign policy, or for someone who is genuinely outrageous. I like to think we will find enough people who demand confrontation that we won't have to invent it." ft Ji 1 'A BY BETTELOU PETERSON Frtt Frwi TV Writer "The worst thing I could do Is try to be Lou Gordon," Barry Farber said. "It's like being a stepmother.

The worst thing she can do Is try to imitate her children's real mother. She has to say, 'Look, I can't be her. I have qualities of my "I know Lou Gordon only from legend. I never saw his show. But I'm not going to swagger in there, some guy from the East, and say, 'I'm going to make you forget Farber, 47, begins as host of "The Barry Farber Show" Sunday on Channel 50 in the 10 p.m.

time slot that Gordon made his own. And Gordon's fans surely will be among the most interested watchers. Farber is a New York radio personality whose North Carolina background still can be heard in the soft edges of his speech. (In his first show, Sunday, he makes much of the "difference between Northerners and When we talked, he was in a Brooklyn telephone booth taking time from his campaign to be elected mayor of New York City. He is running as a conservative and, although he says "everyone has a chance to win," he concedes that had he felt his was a genuine chance, he would not have committed himself to the TV series before the election next Tuesday.

"We for use In all five cities where Field Communications has TV stations Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Detroit. THE SERIES is Farber's first for television, but he is no novice at talk shows. He was heard on New York's WOR radio for 16 years on his own talk show before he ran for mayor. He may go back to doing the radio show, he said, but not all night, as before. Farber was part of a summer-long parade of guest hosts for "Crossfire," the talk show that Channel 50 produced after Gordon died last May.

It was produced by Miss Eisman, who had joined Channel 50 to do Gordon's show. She did only one before he died. The show will be put to are trying to make the conservatives heard, building for the future," he said. Farber, who is divorced, will continue to live in his Riverside Drive apartment in Manhattan. He will commute to Detroit once a week to tape the TV show "the same as if I were going to Los Angeles or any other production center," he-said.

The show won't have a uniquely Detroit or Michigan viewpoint as did one of the two shows Lou Gordon had each weekend on Channel 50. Producer Audrey Eiseman said, however, that Detroit experts', rather than imported ones, are likely to be used in the show whenever possible. Farber's show, like the other of Gor-don's two, is being produced "4 i 4 I Vf'J jf. 4 The Western Savoyards of Vancouver, B.C. In An Evening of GILBERT SULLIVAN Distinguished Company of 4 with highlights and scenes from 'The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, lolanthe, Ruddigore, Pirates of Penzance, Gondoliers, Trial by Jury." DEC.

1, 8:30 p.m. CLEAFSY Windsor Tickets: $6.00, $5.00 at Hudson's (Downtown, Northland, Eastland) ftiitariiMairritVnirtiini Barry Farber had a New York radio talk show for 16 years, but his show on Channel 50 is his first television series. :30 pm DSO Saturday, November 12. Wayne State University ANTAL DORATI, cc Ml htfarJMo SARAH BEATTJ HILDGRRY Tuesday, November 8, 8:30 pm JUILLIARD QUARTET Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127 Quartet in minor, Op.

59, No. 2 Tickets: $8.00, 6.50, 5.00 it The Hilberry Graduate Rep CLAUDINE6XFUAON, mezzo-soprano ertory Company iri musical THATR version of Moliere's GEORGWJJflTlEY, tenor EZIO FLAGELLO, bass Wayne State University Symphonic Choir Symphonies No. 8 9 30pm-DSO Thursday, wove ANTALC 'or Symphonies No. 6 7 1 TT If rli bTS I tm imi mi win Sunday, November 13, 7:30 pm Eugene Isaac Leonard ISTOMIN-STERN-ROSE TRIO Trio in minor, Op. 1, No.

3 Trio in flat major, Op. 70, No. 2 Trio in major, Op. 70, No. 1 Tickets: $3Ser 5.00 Balcony seats only The Ipi School "The Amorous Flea" The Greatest Family Show On Ice! Featuring the Muppet characters from Sesame Street AT OLYMPIA STADIUM Nov.

29 Dec. 4 Friday, November 11, 10:45 am Chamber Music Concert ILSE VON ALPENHEIM, pianist GORDON STAPLES, violinist PAULSCHALLER, clarinetist DONALD BAKER, oboist ROBERT WILLIAMS, bassoonist EUGENE WADE, hornist Piano Sonata No. 21, Major, Op. 53 Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op.

47 Quintet for Piano Winds, Op. 16 Tickets: $c00, 6.50, 5.00 presents Opening Night (Nov. 29). W-ott IMMIMIM HI MUPPETS, INC 1971-76 utawuiii wuuna avdimuie an odnaers irViPrt? in Metropolitan Remaining tickets for Beethoven Festival events available at Ford Auditorium Box Office only. (961-0700) Sorry, no phone orders accepted.

HURRY! MAIL THIS COUPON TODAYI TA. Olympla, 5920 Grand Rtvar v. nalrnll. Ml 4911 WeeknlghU 7:30 p.m. Saturday 12 noon, 4:00 8:00 p.m.

Sunday 1:30 5:30 p.m. I Performance desired: DAY- DATE Tickets: $7.00, $6.00, $4.50 Chltdrtn (14 nd under) and Senior Cttlztng ADULT by Jerry Oevine end Bruce Montgomery "It's nonsense in the classic vein- as funny, lively and gay as a first-rate little musical should be." Judith Crist Preview Nov. 12, at 8:30 Official Opening Nov. 16 Continues in repertory-alternating with ROMEO AND JULIET and YOU NEVER CAN TELL For tickets call 577-2972 week days between 10 end 6. price ill wfknlght both Saturday I nr-Kms The live performances of all Beethoven symphonies will be videotaped by Channel 56 lor presentation next year as a series over PBS national television network.

The series is being made possible by a special grant from the Ford Motor Company Fund. At: Olympla, Olympia Travel (Slrm.) all Montgomery Ward Stores and Windsor Arena OtfMaV by mall, phone (313) 895-7000 NAME ADDRESS PHONE CITY STATE ZIP PLEASE CHARGE THIS TO MASTER CHARGE LTD LUED lXDLXILXI LT3.LXI Slgnilure GOOD THRU Pitua endow itunped, MlfiddrwMd envtlop OFP 1 14 PiMie tnclou itwnptd, Mlftddrmud envelop OFP 114 XZZl, or at Olympia. concerts during the Festival will not be seated until the conclusion of the complete Beethoven symphony being performed at that time. a 'Because of videotaping at orchestral performances, no one will be admitted during or between movements of a symphony. Those patrons arriving after the beginning of any of the tour orchestral INFO and GROUPS (25 or more) CALL (313) 895-70C0 Buy and Sell Through Free Press Wont Ads Ss "Cooklt Monitor" at J.C.

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