What Richard Pryor Taught Roseanne Barr

How did you cope with how? How do you cope? And did you cope with jokes that don't work? I mean, part of the reason I think I've had a hard time telling jokes on stage is because I get self-conscious halfway through the joke. I get self-conscious; that's really the problem, you know? Then, of course, it doesn't work because I screw up the timing.

But there are a few things more awkward than making a joke that isn't funny. You said you played in some pretty rough places, and obviously, you exposed yourself to enough of that to... But I'm curious about why you were able to tolerate that to begin with. Because it's actually pretty painful to tell a joke that doesn't work, especially if you know it's funny and you just screwed it up.

So, what do you think it was that impelled you to get through those bouts of self-consciousness that paralyze most people to the point where they won't? You know, people are terrified of public speaking, much less doing stand-up comedy. So, how, why, and how did you persevere through that?

Yeah, I wonder that myself sometimes. But it was a... I think it's because it was such a survival mechanism in my family and my childhood. It was a self-defense mechanism for me to survive a lot of crazy and painful things. In a way, I talk—I'm friends with Mike Tyson, you know? And it's a lot like boxing. I always talked about it; we always compared.

When we talked about it, it's so much mental jousting to be on stage and to stay in control of one woman, you know, with no props, with no orchestra. Yeah, yeah, with no video. Just stay in control of a 5,000-seat room just with your voice. Because it's a lot of mental jousting. And well, they're not going to defeat me. Not after what I went through as a kid. I'm not going to let them defeat me because I can't be defeated.

Right, so that's an attitude of challenge rather than fear.

Yeah, it's like, "No, they're not..." You know, like, I always feel somehow it's a God thing to me. It's like, "The devil ain't getting me. I'll take the devil down. That's why I'm on stage." And he isn't going to get me. And so, that's what I do. And when I screw up, then I just, you know, feel bad and embarrassed, but I go home, and I go, "You know, I'm gonna make it better."

I never feel defeated. I don't allow myself to feel defeated because comedy is a living thing, and you can always get better. You can, nobody can stop you from getting better. You can always—right, right, right—and I'm not going to let them stop me. I'm going to just keep getting better no matter what they try to do to stop me. They're not going to, till I have my last breath, I'm gonna be saying "F you" because that's how I feel, you know?

Uh, they're not going to stop me unless they gag me. I mean, there's things they can do to me, I guess they've done enough. But you know, I respect and believe in and live for the truth. And comedy is truth. And, you know, you're trying to tell the truth to people to make the world better. You're not trying to make light of people's suffering; you're trying to get at power and bring it down and make it even.

So, it feels like I guess I feel like a, you know, a warrior—a word warrior. And, you know, for me, it's also like for all the people who were told to shut up, I'm—there, they're there with me too, you know? I see it so deeply like that because, you know, geez, it is like that.

You know, well, it is. Well, I especially think that's the case if you're a comedian who's popular among the working class. You know, because working-class people—the sensible ones—and I think most working-class people over about 40 are pretty damn sensible. That doesn't necessarily mean they're particularly articulate, you know? And people can be wise without being articulate.

And then, if you're a working-class comedian, then you have the, as you pointed out, you have the opportunity and the privilege of articulating that. And that is a big deal, and it is something that's going to make people love you because people like to have the words at hand to say what they know to be true.

And it is a very peculiar thing too... Love the idea—on my show, I've probably written 120,000 jokes. Wow! And part of the joy of it is when I was on my TV show, I would think, "Oh, here's something that some fat lady or some fat guy is gonna say at the water fountain at work." Right, right? So, it's like arming people who may have suffered or felt, you know, marginalized.

Here's a little bit of something for you, you know? Because when I watched comedians as a kid with my dad on Ed Sullivan, and here Richard Pryor—people, man, I felt like I was being gifted. Especially Pryor! But, you know, all of them really. But I loved Richard Pryor; he is my idol and became a friend, which was a wonderful part of being a comic.

But, you know, I got what he was doing as just a little tiny girl. I saw the implication of everything he was doing. I knew that he had gone—I knew that he was inside a stereotype kicking down the walls from the inside. I knew that, and I said, "I can do that."

My friend Michael Malice, I don't know if you know who he is...

Oh, yeah, yeah, I know Michael. He's very—Michael's very funny. He's very funny, and he told me, "God, with you, it's pathological." He always tells me, "Your funny is pathological; you can't turn it off," you know, or like in private. And, you know, it is pathological, but when I'm in the mood for it, but I'm a crusader, and a lot of us are, you know. Richard was…