Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling

1986
R
1h 37m

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

2.1K

YOUR RATING

Richard Pryor in Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986)

After severely burning himself in a drug incident, a comedian has a near death experience in which he reviews his life.

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Stand-Up Biography Comedy Drama

After severely burning himself in a drug incident, a comedian has a near death experience in which he reviews his life.After severely burning himself in a drug incident, a comedian has a near death experience in which he reviews his life.After severely burning himself in a drug incident, a comedian has a near death experience in which he reviews his life.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

2.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination

Trivia
The dark side of Jo Jo's (Richard Pryor's) growing acclaim in the film's story line is a reliance first on booze, then drugs. It is an aspect of the film which, Pryor admits, was painful to evoke as a writer, director, and actor. He said, "I look at the movie now and ask myself, 'Why did you show people that?' But I had no choice. It was something I had to do. I won't cop out, trying to explain why Jo Jo, or I, did drugs. I know why. I understand it even better after making the picture. But it's all there on film for people to take as they see fit. I'm one of the lucky ones. I was gone, crazy, out of my mind. But I'm alive."

Goofs
A 1980's Lincoln Town Car appears twice during the "Young Jojo" sequence: Over Young Jojo's shoulder during closeups when he looks back at "Older Jojo" sitting at the corner store, and then again briefly parked in front of the family house a few minutes later when he returns home and is chastised by his grandmother for playing on the lawn.

Quotes
Jo Jo Dancer: [to his wife as he gets on the bus] I'm gonna write you, I'm gonna write you.

Connections
Featured in At the Movies: Last Resort/Short Circuit/Jo Jo Dancer Your Life Is Calling/Broken Rainbow (1986)

Soundtracks
My Destiny
Produced by Arif Mardin, Philippe Saisse and Chaka Khan
Written and Performed by Chaka Khan
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records

User reviews16

Review

Featured review

7/10

A near miss.

I've always enjoyed "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling" but it does have more than its fair share of flaws. The movie just doesn't work as well as it should have. Maybe Richard Pryor should have handed the direction off to a seasoned veteran rather than trying to do it himself. I don't know. The alter-ego stuff works well in some scenes and not that well in others. Visually the alter-ego is almost never convincing. "Jo Jo Dancer" is well acted but it seems to be longer than it actually is. The scenes with young Jo Jo are great. The "accident" scene is heartbreaking. Much of the stand up stuff isn't that good, especially Jo Jo's strip scene (ouch). I still watch this movie from time to time but it's just not completely satisfying. (I saw "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling" in the theater when it first came out.)