Richard Pryor’s youngest son said he could hear his father up in heaven telling him, “Boy you better not mess this up!”
Maybe next time, Dad.
Mason Pryor acknowledged he “bombed” during his standup comedy routine on Fox’s “Showtime at the Apollo” recently. (Watch it above.)
A flat routine about President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin generated a torrent of boos. The 30-year-old comic told the crowd to “have some respect,” and he walked off mid-set.
“I bombed when I shouldn’t have,” he said backstage. “I wasn’t funny.”
Host Steve Harvey, a standup pro, encouraged Pryor to return to the stage for some type of closure on Thursday’s show. Pryor took the advice and did, with a quick hit on the split between his dad and mother, Geraldine Mason, that got some laughs.
But boos erupted again, Harvey explained on his iHeartRadio show. According to the host, Pryor told a woman in the audience in his return to the stage, “Shut up, B,” and later picked up and dry-humped the tree stump that performers traditionally rub for luck ― and nearly dropped it.
Despite the rough night, Pryor received some encouragement from fans on Facebook after what he called his first big-time gig. He told TMZ that it was a learning experience and that he would take the advice of fellow comics and streamline his material next time.