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“There were so many hookers coming in and out of the house that I accepted it as a fact of life, as my father (Richard Pryor) had done in his own youth, and their comings and goings resulted in an incident some years earlier that became part of the Pryor family lore.

It was Thanksgiving. Dad had a lot of friends and family there. He also had a couple of girls stashed in the bedroom, who were still recuperating and it seemed like they were taking their sweet time about going home.

Finally, Mama called everyone to the table. I remember walking past Dad’s bedroom and hearing the girls saying they were waiting on their money, so when I got to the table I sat down and immediately turned to my father. ‘Daddy,’ I said. ‘The whores need to be paid.’

For a moment, everyone looked at me in stunned silence, then they all burst out laughing. When the laughter died down, Daddy went off to pay the whores and then we had ourselves a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.”

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When we first read this part of her book over here at ILOSM, we all laughed, but then we quickly realized that it might have been kind of wrong to laugh, because that wasn’t necessarily a good thing for Rain to see firsthand, as a little girl…but as an adult looking back at that story, it sounds funny now. So don’t feel completely guilty if you laugh at this one ILOSM fam.’ I know, it’s complex, just like Richard Pryor’s comedy was about his own personal struggles in life. It was always hilarious after the fact, when he was standing on that stage telling the story about burning himself damn near to ashes, but it was not funny at all when it happened. I guess Rain Pryor has that same natural knack as her Pops, of turning pain into pleasure, so to speak.