Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986) review

While in the hospital after having set himself on fire freebasing cocaine, popular entertainer Jo Jo (Pryor) reflects on his past: growing up in a brothel in Ohio, getting married, leaving for Cleveland to try working in showbiz, threatening Italian mobsters with a starter pistol because they don't want to pay him and then becoming more comfortable doing his routine in front of increasingly larger crowds.  This is (technically speaking) Pryor's feature directorial debut (he is credited with directing the 1983 special Here and Now) and, considering this is partially autobiographical, it's interesting for fans of his to see his take on his life (he co-wrote the screenplay with Rocco Urbisci and long-time associate Paul Mooney), but it doesn't exactly show off his brilliance as a performer: he's considered by many to be one of (if not the) greatest stand-up comedian of all time, but you wouldn't know it by watching this, as he's just following the usual "template" for how a biopic "should" be structured.  If you listen to his records (which I strongly encourage), you'll get a better sense of his timing, delivery and insight.