Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Richard Pryor
Produced by Richard Pryor
Written by Rocco Urbisci
Paul Mooney
Richard Pryor
Starring
  • Richard Pryor
Music by Herbie Hancock
Production
company
Indigo Productions
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
  • May 2, 1986 (1986-05-02)
Running time
 97 min.
Language English
Box office $18,034,150[1]

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling is a 1986 semi-autobiographical[2] film starring Richard Pryor. This was the first[3] and only feature film he directed (although he is credited as such on the screen version of Richard Pryor: Here and Now).

Plot

Pryor plays Jo Jo Dancer, a popular stand-up comedian who has severely burned himself while freebasing cocaine. The film came out after Pryor had set himself on fire in 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.

Cast

Production

The earlier parts of the film were shot in Pryor's hometown of Peoria, Illinois.

Reception

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling received mixed reviews from critics. It currently has a 55 percent "Rotten" rating on the movie review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

References

  1. ↑ "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling", Box Office Mojo.
  2. ↑ Gene Siskel (May 4, 1986). "Richard Pryor Comes Clean In Harrowing Recap Of Life". Chicago Tribune.
  3. ↑ "Short Circuit A Box-office Live Wire". Sun Sentinel. Retrieved 2010-11-08.

External links


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