Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986)

Country: USA
Director: Richard Pryor
Production Co: Columbia Pictures
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: 6.4/10
Length: 97 mins

Storyline

In this film that closely parallels his own life story, Richard Pryor plays Jo Jo Dancer, a popular stand-up comedian who has severely burned himself in a drug incident. As he lies unconscious in a hospital, his spiritual alter ego gets up and begins a journey of his own. He 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 brings new problems as he develops a tragic pattern of substance abuse that begins to screw up his life. All the while, Jo Jo's spirit watches these events and attempts to convince his past self to turn off from his path of self destruction.—Kenneth Chisholm

Plot Keywords

comedian, young boy, mother, grandmother, father, emotional, moving, illinois, city, stage, los angeles, hospital, stand-up comedy, fame, drug addiction, self-destruction, coma, near-death experience, wretched excess, discovery, 1980s

Short Review

Pryor has taken some major risks in this movie. He has played straight and honest with his story, but he also has shown that he has a real gift as a director; the narrative scenes in the movie have a conviction and an interest that grow and hold us.