Richard Pryor released the 1982 concert film Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip.
The film records Pryor performing at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. It followed a difficult period in his life, including serious health problems, and became one of his best-known filmed performances. The special is especially notable because Pryor openly discusses his 1980 freebasing accident, turning painful personal experience into material about survival and recovery.
The title is sometimes confused with Richard Pryor: Here and Now, another concert film released in 1983. They are separate films, although both document Pryor’s stand-up work near the end of his career. Live on the Sunset Strip was directed by Joe Layton and distributed theatrically, helping establish filmed stand-up as a major form of comedy entertainment.
Pryor’s candid storytelling, physical performance style, and influence on later comedians made the film an important document of American stand-up.