ABSTRACT
In this personal chapter, playwright Howard L. Craft explores the ways Richard Pryor’s stand-up comedy influenced his attention to dialogue as a central element in creating believable characters. Linking Pryor’s characters Mudbone, the Junkie, the Wino, the Preacher, and Pryor’s father to African American folk legends like Br’er Rabbit and Shine, Craft revisits the role of the trickster and bad man in the tradition of African American storytelling and explores Pryor’s use of dialogues rich with humor and sarcasm to create biting political commentary that represents key themes of the African American experience.
