Tuesday afternoon, Richard Pryor’s legendary first special, Live In Concert, was added to the National Film Registry.
For those unfamiliar, being added to the National Film Registry is a prestigious honor for films that are noteworthy for historical or various other reasons that would make that film worthy of landmark status. Pryor’s 1979 special – that was released theatrically – was one of 25 selected this year, and to our knowledge, is the first stand-up special that has ever received the honor.
The film was shot at the Terrace Theatre in Long Beach, California on December 10, 1978. It was produced and distributed independently and was the first full-length feature movie consisting of only stand-up comedy. The double album Wanted: Live in Concert was recorded on other dates during the same tour, and features much of the same material included in the film.
In her review of Richard Pryor Live in Concert, Pauline Kael commented, “Probably the greatest of all recorded-performance films. Pryor had characters and voices bursting out of him …. Watching this mysteriously original physical comedian you can’t account for his gift and everything he does seems to be for the first time.” Eddie Murphy has called it “the single greatest stand-up performance ever captured on film.”
The first Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was presented to him in 1998. He was listed at number one on Comedy Central’s list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him first on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
