Digital Project: Becoming Richard Pryor
Becoming Richard Pryor by Scott Saul, takes a deep dive into the life of Richard Pryor’s early childhood to young adult life, essentially talking about his life in Peoria and how his early childhood experiences shaped who he became and how he incorporated it within his work: comedy.
Pryor’s response was heartbreakingly evocative: “Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor the Third. And magic dust.” Growing up in Peoria’s red light district, the young Richard felt radically alone, with nothing to rely upon but himself and what his imagination could conjure. (Becoming Richard Pryor)
Pryor was born in Peoria, Illinois to unmarried parents, Leroy “Buck” Pryor and Gertrude Thomas. He grew up in very unfortunate conditions, his father was a pimp and his mother was a prostitute, he lived primarily with his grandmother in a brothel. Growing up in these conditions, Pryor was exposed to many drunken brawls and other lasting experiences that stayed with him for years to come. He was labeled as “emotionally unstable” and was even molested by a local teenager, according to his memoir. He ended finding his first home on stage at the George Washington Carver Community Center, and that acted as his foundation for comedy.
The digital project goes into depth about where he is from, his parents, environment, early childhood, upbringing, and much more.
This digital project was created by Scott Saul, a professor at UC Berkley in California where he created this project. Saul was also the author of the book, Becoming Richard Pryor, which was published in 2014. The book took him 8 years to research and write meaning he started writing the book in 2006. The digital project began in 2012 but was fully finished and updated in 2014, the same year that the book was published. Along with Saul publishing and editing the book, William Bottini was the site designer, and Christopher Church, Scott Paul McGinnis, and Alex Tarr were the site developers. Camille Brown, Maya Kronfeld, Ismail Muhammad, and Alex Tarr were the site writers. Erik Steiner was the cartographer-in-chief and Ethan Goldstine was the design guru.
: Scott Saul
Book Cover :
The goal of the project is to bring light to Pryor’s early life and give viewers a chance to explore what his life looked like and how it shaped him to be the superstar comedian that he was. Why this project was made can directly be told from the project, “These documents — many of them ephemeral and fragmentary, and all of them generated out of a particular moment, place, and confluence of interests — were pulsing with life and meaning. I wanted others to feel that life, and find their own meanings.” (Becoming Richard Pryor)
This digital project has a psychological feel due to the in-depth detail it provides on Pryor’s experiences and upbringing. Many of his life circumstances and the experiences he went through can heavily impact the mental of many people; which is likely what happened to Pryor.