Pryor was a genius at simply telling it like it is. His act always seemed more like a story he just had to tell you and not a collection of random one liners or simple jokes. His comedy ran deeper. The painful parts of his life, things that most other people would never talk about, became something to smile at. When he told you about his drug problems you laugh both because of the way he tells the story and also because you'd think, "Wow this guy's been through something and is still here today to laugh about it. If he can laugh about it, then I guess I can too."

"I had some great things and I had some bad things. The best and the worst... In other words, I had a life," Pryor said of himself.

Hanging around a brothel and pool hall run by his grandparents in Illinois, Pryor had many a joke to tell about his experiences not least some of the behind the scenes mundane life of the prostitutes. His stories about the crude and stern nature of his father are enough to make you recoil but also choke on laughter all at the same time.

Recalling his mother's funeral and the bitter Illinois winter, Pryor recounts his father's hurried words to the preacher at the burial site, "Get to the part with the dirt!"

Battles with substance abuse, several marriages and re-marriages were never enough to slow him down. In 1980, he lit himself on fire when smoking freebase cocaine. Pryor's skin healed and his spirit did too; the issue became part of his act. He'd light a match and say, "What's this? It's Richard Pryor running down the street."

Even when he fell ill to Multiple Sclerosis, a debilitating disease that targets the central nervous system, the laughs kept coming and his spirit never wavered.

"At the end, there was a smile on his face." said his wife Jennifer Lee Pryor of Pryor in death.

We should all be so lucky. Thanks Rich.

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