Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling
| Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling | |
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 The movie cover for Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling. |
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| Directed by | Richard Pryor |
| Produced by | Richard Pryor |
| Written by | Rocco Urbisci Paul Mooney Richard Pryor |
| Starring | Richard Pryor Debbie Allen Michael Ironside |
| Music by | Herbie Hancock |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 2, 1986 |
| Running time | 97 min. |
| Language | English |
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling is a 1986 film starring Richard Pryor. This was the first[1] and only feature film he directed (although he is credited as such on the screen version of Richard Pryor: Here and Now).
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[edit] Plot
Though Pryor insisted the film was not autobiographical,[2] Pryor plays Jo Jo Dancer, a popular stand-up comedian who has severely burned himself in a drug incident. The film came out after Pryor had severely burned himself while freebasing cocaine in 1980. Though he later claimed the incident was not an accident at all, but actually an attempted suicide.
As Dancer lies hospitalized in a coma, his spiritual alter ego revisits his life, from growing up in a brothel as a child and struggling to beat the long odds to become a top-rated comedian. However, his success leads to extensive drug use and womanizing that takes its toll on his life. Jo Jo's spirit watches and attempts to convince his past self to end the cycle of self destruction.
[edit] Production
The earlier parts of the film were filmed in Pryor's hometown of Peoria, Illinois.
[edit] References
- ^ "Short Circuit A Box-office Live Wire". Sun Sentinel. http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-05-14/features/8601290218_1_short-circuit-jo-jo-dancer-blue-city. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
- ^ movies2.nytimes.com
[edit] External links
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