It is inevitable to have certain expectations of celebrity offspring who thrust themselves into the spotlight but Rain Pryor will be the first to say that she doesn’t want to build off her father’s legendary status. As she tells the audience from the off, “If you want to see Richard Pryor, turnaround and go buy a video.” That said, a trip to Fried Chicken and Latkes will give you a small glimpse of Pryor Senior, as she does a mean impression of her daddy.
In fact, Rain treats us to a number of great impressions as she takes us through her formative years and the trials she went through as a black Jewish girl growing up in Beverly Hills. Strangely enough, while this is all her own material, her parodies do reflect a number of her father’s traits and we can see his influence coming through occasionally.
While it may seem hard to find sympathy for the daughter of a millionaire comedian, but Rain manages to pull gently at our heartstrings by interspersing her funny anecdotes with moments of sad observation regarding her philandering father. It is clear that this was never meant to be a pure stand-up show but it is all the better for it, as this kind of performance gives us an opportunity to see all of her amazing talents.
Fried Chicken and Latkes may be a comedy show about growing up amongst confusion but the high point of this show has to be Rain’s musical numbers. This is not to belittle her comedy or theatrical talent, both of which are pretty fabulous, but simply to emphasis just how powerful her voice is – I’d happily pay just to see her sing, as her singing simply grabs me.
Please don’t go to see Rain Pryor expecting to see an hour of foul-mouth, yet hilarious stand-up but do go and see her – she is simply magnificent!
4/5
Richard Biggs
