Who Me I'm Not Him

Who Me? I'm Not Him is a fascinating glimpse of early Richard Pryor. He's honest and angry (as always), but here Pryor is closer to crossover king Bill Cosby than XXX-rated Redd Foxx. Like Cosby, Pryor takes the audience back into his childhood: "I was a kid until I was about 8. Then I became a Negro ... I came home. 'Hey Dad, I'm a Negro.' 'Funny, I thought you were Polish.'" That bit, as well as "Weasel" and "Hippy Dippys," could be on any of Cosby's mid-1960s Warner Brothers recordings. Still, the seeds of his 1970s flowering had been planted: routines taken from the seamier side of Pryor's life stand in counterpoint to the childhood memories and (amazingly enough) straightforward impressions. All in all, a fascinating, funny CD. --Michael Gerber