She’s now called Baltimore “home” for two decades but in her first visit to the show, we had to shower Rain Pryor with questions (and love) for her famous comedian father and extended the fun to discuss the big “Broadway on Park Heights” event this Saturday night at the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation.
Rain Pryor, daughter of the legendary comedian Richard Pryor, discussed her move to Baltimore, her political aspirations, and her involvement in the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation’s Broadway on Park Heights event. She highlighted her background in comedy and her show “Fried Chicken and Latkes,” which explores her black Jewish heritage. Pryor shared her experiences running for local office, her activism, and her love for Baltimore’s community. She will host the Broadway event on March 22, featuring Broadway star John Rapson. The event aims to raise funds for synagogue schools and educational programs.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Rain Pryor, Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, Broadway on Park Heights, Richard Pryor, activist, political office, fried chicken and latkes, comedy, Baltimore community, Maryland crab cake tour, John Rapson, fundraiser, Jewish heritage, black Jewish voices.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Rain Pryor
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call it Baltimore positive. Hope you’re setting your dial if you’re driving around on am 1570 we’re going to get to some baseball. We’re got football stuff going on, lots of lots of politics happening. We’re doing the Maryland crab cake tour on Friday at Pizza Johns and Essex. Come on out. Get some pepperoni, maybe get a cheese steak, whatever you’re into, some french fries and some proper gravy. All are brought to you by the Maryland lottery. We’ll have the magic eight ball scratch offs to give away on Friday. And then we go on respite as we go north to Toronto, where they love us. Up in Canada right now, the Orioles open up against the Toronto Blue Jays next week. Luke and I will be there and then back for more crab cake tours, beginning two weeks from now, at fadelies on the second of April. This is a young lady I have wanted to get a crab cake with since she began her political trail. She has a famous last name, a really cool first name, and the more I research her, the more I wanted to have her on. I beg the folks over at the Baltimore Hebrew congregation, please, let her come on. In advance of this big event, Saturday night, they are gathering it for Broadway on Park Heights. If you’re familiar with the phc over the northwest side of town, you know they do an event year to year. This is Broadway on Park Heights. It features Broadway star, John Rapson from Broadway, Sweeney Todd. Tickets are available. You can come out. There’s going to be great desserts. I heard all about this and rain Briar, director, writer, actor, daughter of one of my all time favorites, and we’ll get to your debt, your famous dad and I’ve been more turned on by the research on your mother, who’s out in LA doing amazing things, but you’re here in Baltimore, politician, actor, chicken and lockies, we got all sorts of things going on. Rain. Welcome. Thanks for coming on and making a little bit. I recognize my hometown over your shoulders there. That’s right. How did you get to Baltimore, Maryland, you
Rain Pryor 01:56
know, I came here 21 years ago and stayed. I actually, actually came before that. I came in 2004 to do a show at Morgan. And the strangest story is my grandparents used to live in Baltimore, and my grandfather, her bonus, worked in the shipyard, and so it just was one of those things, let me I had two friends, and when my dad passed away, I said, let me just move to Baltimore.
Nestor Aparicio 02:29
What was Baltimore’s reputation? When you wait, you could have moved anywhere. What you moved here, chasing your legacy, your marriage, that,
Rain Pryor 02:36
and it was close to New York, but not in New York, and not as expensive. And I felt like I could have a life outside of Hollywood, and I do, so it worked out. How
Nestor Aparicio 02:48
is that that is fascinating to me, because I’m from Dundalk, right? I’m a Venezuelan heritage. All my people are gang members. Ask the president. My father came here with his very famous cousin. My cousin is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, won the World Series of the Orioles in 66 I am the son of of not a famous man, but a cousin who’s very famous, certainly in Chicago and in Baltimore, Boston, where he played baseball. So I have a little bit of that when I pull out my my ID, that people know who I am, prior, sort of a, you could be anyone and be a prior, but you, I mean, I look at you when you Dad would never deny you, girl, I’ll tell you,
Rain Pryor 03:26
none of us, we all look like him, which is crazy. Even my daughter has the eyes, so the genes are definitely very strong.
Nestor Aparicio 03:34
Well, you know, you got involved with, let’s, let’s promote Saturday, and what you’re doing here, and your work here, um, you ran for political office. I am very, very sorry I did not have you on. I did a little bit of chasing. It was sort of during the plague in some way. And you know, you’re an activist, yes, you would say
Rain Pryor 03:51
yes, yes. I would definitely say that I’m an activist, which is funny. I’m an activist for all people. And you know, just like I believe everyone has a right to their vote. Everyone has a right to their opinion. And as a person who is who, at the time, was running for office, I hate that we get put into the categories of, you know, democrat or republican or independent, because I feel when you’re running for office, you have to represent all the people, and not all the people are going to like what you have to say or do, but it’s really about what is going to be best for the community in Baltimore, and so that was my and as a mother of a child at the time that was being bullied in school, but now is thriving straining student Dean’s List. Hello,
Nestor Aparicio 04:39
good parenting. Obviously, parenting has
Rain Pryor 04:42
made me realize the importance of using our voice and what that means for the community. So, yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 04:50
well, what I mean in running, and I almost ran for mayor, full disclosure, well, I’m a sports guy, right? So I mean, I’m from Dundalk. I lived at the harbor the. Was my home. I lived in the 23rd floor harbor court, very easy to see, brick, big brick building sitting down at the Inner Harbor. I got married. No three moved downtown, did my sports radio crew, then my wife got leukemia in 14 and 15 and fought at Hopkins. Now she’s beautiful. She’s in the other room. She’s a miracle herself, like your straight A student. Daughter born your breast cancer survivor. Hey, Right on man, right. I mean, God bless technology and science, doctors and this country and all of the things that came before us. But I decided, like I watched the mayor situation, I watched Freddie Gray happen in 15 and I thought, you know, we need somebody honest. Let’s start with that. And I put this whole thing together, thinking I was and I never ran for mayor. I didn’t chicken out. I just couldn’t win. I mean, I had a pathway that, if Sheila had won, listen, I was going to run, but you didn’t chicken out. You got your feet in. And I that’s why I like talking about
Rain Pryor 05:52
I did get my feet in, and then the pandemic happened. And I feel like, had the pandemic not hap happened and nothing shut down, I still I would have had a better chance. I still got 36% of the vote, which is pretty good for your first time running, and during a pandemic, I feel I probably would have gotten, you know, a bit more had I had a chance to really knock on doors, go to gatherings, meet, you know, the people, more people in my in District Three, you know, but I learned a lot about politics that I don’t like. And as much as I want to be a change maker for positive and good, there are different avenues I feel for me that might be better, although sometimes I still have that draw towards politics,
Nestor Aparicio 06:45
so you’re not over. You still might throw come back in or No,
Rain Pryor 06:48
I don’t know, like there’s always still that little thing, and it might not be for city council. Maybe it’s somewhere, you know, somewhere else, but I feel so important. It’s so important for us as people of a city in Baltimore, and what we’re seeing happening for change, to make change somehow that benefits a greater group. Um, so who knows? Everybody
Nestor Aparicio 07:12
knew you that knew me, and that’s a pretty it’s a wide circle, really. They were like, they’re gonna like her, and I’m like, I wish I would have had her on. Ray Pryor is here. She is involved on Saturday night at the Baltimore Hebrew congregation in the Broadway on Park Heights Avenue. It’s going to be a nice night. I last time i When you had chilly and on, we sold the desserts. So I know the desserts are going to be phenomenal. I taught my wife into this a little bit your background as an artist, as following your father’s footsteps in comedy and in stage, talk about that a little bit, as in regard to them, inviting you also your background in religion, also with all of this, right? I grew up. I
Rain Pryor 07:53
grew up black and Jewish. I I didn’t know any other way of life. I knew I was black. I knew I was Jewish. I knew Passover, I knew like Yom Kippur. I knew it like it was part of our household, part of our family. And my grandfather was, at one time, very good friends with the head of Mossad in Israel. So it’s like I have strong connections, and at the same time, I’m a black woman in America, and a lot of my work, which is fried chicken and latkes, and also creating art exhibits between black and Jewish and black Jewish voices, is something else that I do. Again. It’s all about bringing communities together and finding commonality. And so it seems fitting that, you know, Baltimore Hebrew congregation would reach out and say, Hey, do you want to host this? And
Nestor Aparicio 08:52
I Well, you better be funny. You know,
Rain Pryor 08:54
look, I’m a little bit funny. I’m not a lot I’m not I’m not a lot funny, I’m a little bit that’s why I don’t do stand up anymore. I’m a little because I’m also not a depressed person. I’m a very joyous human being. I’m excited to host because I’m excited to bring on other talent. You know, I’m excited for Broadway. I love Broadway. I love the musicals. I I hope one day myself to be there. I got close off Broadway. I got a great review of The New York Times, you know. So I love that Baltimore Hebrew congregation is doing a Baltimore, you know, a Baltimore Broadway night. And these great talents are coming on, you know, to share their gifts with everybody, and I get to introduce them, you know, and maybe make you laugh, I don’t know,
Nestor Aparicio 09:46
like, well, I’m trying to put together another kind of campaign. I was going to run for the mayor of Baltimore. I think I’m going to run for the mayor of royal farms fried chicken, especially with this Justin Tucker situation. So I’m thinking about, I’ve eaten a lot of fried. Chicken I have, I I am guilty. I’ve eaten a lot of crab cakes too, but I have represented royal farms for the better part of three decades, and I think they need a new spokesperson. So I was trying to, like, maybe work something up with you and me. So tell me about fried chicken and lockies. Um, I’ve had them both. Um, I am not Jewish. I’m from gun dog, so I haven’t had as many lockies, but I had a Jewish girlfriend for almost a decade, so I had a lot. Um, so tell me about your show, because I want to laugh, and it just the title alone sort
Rain Pryor 10:28
of opens the world, I think, in a lot, because it’s about growing up black and Jewish in the late 60s, 70s through the 80s, in LA that in Los Angeles, and my dad being Richard Pryor, look at my grandparents are Jews from Brooklyn. Like, you can’t get more Jewish than that in the United States, I think, you know, until I found Pikesville, like, that was the first thing my grandparents said when I was moving to Baltimore. So you’re going to be moving to Pikesville, right?
Nestor Aparicio 10:54
Did you ever see the movie Avalon the Barry Levin? Yeah. Oh, man, you know, like, so it would moving year. That would have been my first recommendation for you 2005 you say, watch that. Let’s start there. Jason,
Rain Pryor 11:07
at one point, I lived in Mount Washington, you know, like a Jason, and it’s, it’s so funny. So fried chicken lock is growing up black and Jewish, and I had a deal with Norman Lear to turn it into a series COVID hit and and now have developed it into an adult animation. So we’re in the process of doing that. It’s won several animation awards for short film animation, and it’s very it’s just an exciting piece, you know, I get to talk about, you know, the both hands and find again, finding commonality and make people laugh, because we have so much in common. We all both love food. You know, fried chicken goes really well with lattes. Believe it or not, fried chicken latte, champagne actually goes really well
Nestor Aparicio 11:56
put the beer in. I mean, I have to get some beer. It’s it’s
Rain Pryor 12:01
the fizziness with that, with the food. I don’t know how fried food and and fizz go together, but they do. And so yeah, she
Nestor Aparicio 12:08
8is rain prior. She is going to be on Saturday night out at the BHC. Come support them. You can find all the information at BHC presents. Uh, my big thanks to everybody out there for inviting us along. We’re going to be a part of this. Broadway star, John Rapson, will be there. Rain Pryor, who’s joining us right now, director, writer and actor, will be the host of the proceedings beginning at 630 on Saturday night. Come on out and be a part of that. So I on your dad and listen, I want to invite you for a real crab cake and like, we’ll sit down and I’ll do inside the actor studio, and I’ll do all lifting. I’ll do all of that with you. I even shave and dress nice. Let my hair out. But I just on the topic of your dad. I’ve been talking to my wife for I thought I was going to have you on years ago, and I had done a little bit of research, and I didn’t, and then the plague, and then the election, like all that. And here you are. And I loved your dad, and I even said to my wife, the stand up way before I should have been watching it, right? VHS, 819, 80. I’m 1112, Silver Streak for Silver Streak was like just still one of my all time favorite movies, and maybe the Gene Wilder connection with Willy Wonka and Young Frankenstein. And then it’s still crazy. And I know that wasn’t the best part of life for your dad, but for me, that was the sweet spot of where I wanted posters of your dad, and
Rain Pryor 13:27
it was too career wise, all of that. You know, Long Beach,
Nestor Aparicio 13:31
you know what I mean, like so you just stuff like that from back in the day. What do you think of your dad? Or some jack wagon like me has you on to promote something cool you’re involved in they’re going to talk about your dad. And your dad is a revered figure in my mind, in my life, even though I saw after the burn the incident, I even saw the stand up that he did about the incident and all that. But when I think of your dad, I think of laughs and joy and fun. And I think most people do, and I know that’s probably not always the experience for those in and around it, you know, you know, look, my
Rain Pryor 14:03
dad was hilarious period. He was ahead of his time. He was genius in his stand up. You still talk about my dad and George Carlin to this day, letting Bruce all of it. You know, those were and red fox and and moms, maybe, or whatever. Those are the people that were, that were coming up, that were very prolific in their in their humor. My dad was that. My dad was prolific. He was funny. He was terribly wounded, which is why I don’t do stand up. I feel like most stand ups are terribly wounded people. And I’m a happy like, for me, I’m a happy, really happy person. So I’m like, how do you make jokes about being happy? Nobody wants to. They want to hear about how back to life, you know my dad was so honest, and I think that’s what people you know related to, he he put his soul out there. And I do that in my writing. When I write scripts, I do that I think through my direction, when I’m directing people, and it’s just, I mean, yeah, he’s you. Can’t get better than him, really. I
Nestor Aparicio 15:02
think the one thing I didn’t realize was about your age that you had, I thought you were younger and maybe didn’t have so much life with your father in regard to you’re not the same age. So every point where I experienced him on a screen, you were experiencing him in real life. And I didn’t realize that, yeah,
Rain Pryor 15:18
yeah. I mean, look, that did at home. He was a dad. That’s what people, I don’t think, really understand. Like it was, we would have arguments, because my dad would say, you know, you have to be home at this time, like he was strict. And my best friend, Malik Berger, the only other black Jewish girl I ever knew growing up, by the way, Malik Berger and I, we would go out, sneak out of the house, go to clubs, and my dad would show up at her house smoking marijuana with her mom, and then get mad at us for coming home late and sneaking out. Like, that’s how like it was, Do as I say, not as I do, you know. And it was hilarious.
Nestor Aparicio 15:55
Well, is there any point where when you have a sort of a strangely because I had a strangely conflicted childhood as well. It’s your families that it builds some level of resilience. If you can survive, it doesn’t it? I
Rain Pryor 16:07
think it does. I think it does. And lots of therapy, I think it all works together. You know, you want to be a well adjusted person in the world, you know, I didn’t want to, I think that’s also why I moved to Baltimore, you know, I didn’t want to be a statistic. I didn’t want to be like, oh, there goes rain down the rabbit hole. You know, in Los Angeles, I was like, let me get out of here and have a life, you know. And, and I love, that’s what I love about Baltimore. There’s so much richness and humor and and art. You know, it’s not all, not all the art is in Los Angeles or New York. Like it’s here in Baltimore, and it’s thriving, and it’s, it’s pulsating. I love it.
Nestor Aparicio 16:47
Why I go back to the first thing I almost said to you is, I’m from Dundalk, and I, I’m from here. I live here. I’ve thought of living everywhere else. I’ve been to most of the continents. I’ve been there every I mean, I’ve been a lot of play. I’ve been like, you, like a What’s the song? I’ve been everywhere, man, right, like Johnny Cash. I I still live here. I’ve lived in Dundalk, White Marsh, downtown in Towson. I’m making my way. I might get to Pikesville. Might be at the Westminster, but I’ve people that move here and come here. I’m just fascinated by the draw of it, especially when they’re from a place where it used to be warm. Well, you
Rain Pryor 17:22
know, exactly. I mean, that was a little getting used to, and now I love it, and I love going to visit LA I still go because, you know, I still have family in Los Angeles, so I’ll go and visit once in a while. But Baltimore gives me that I don’t know, there’s a sense of community here I never had in Los Angeles, you know, I try to tell people, there’s, I know all my neighbors. My neighbors know me. They know my daughter, my daughter and and plus, my daughter was born here in Baltimore, so she’s a native and and watching her thrive and go and we went to LA for a little bit, and she didn’t like it. She wanted, you know, she wanted to come back to Baltimore. So here we are. We’re back.
Nestor Aparicio 18:02
I was gonna ask you when the black Jewish play as a comedy act and chicken lock is you said you had one girlfriend who was black. How many black Jewish folks do you meet in the course of your lifetime? I mean, I’m missing a finger, and it seems like I meet every person that’s missing a finger. You know, we find each other. You know what? I mean,
Rain Pryor 18:21
I never knew until I started my solo show, and then when I started fried chicken and latkes, and it was playing off Broadway, all these people that look like me, or, you know, whatever, started coming around. And I was like, Oh, my God, there’s a whole community of us. Like, where were you when I was growing up? I needed to it’s such a different generation, right? And I’m watching all these younger people and now, you know, and especially being here in Baltimore, and part of you know, working with Dr Harriet WIMS, who’s part of the mish Bucha project, and also for bipoc Jews and third space Rabbi Jesse Dresden, like working with all these people in this great, great community, you know, I traveled to Israel with, with the head of the JCC and Owens Mills, you know, and became good friends. And it’s just like this is, there’s so many of us and so many intersections of us that exist. And again, like I said, it’s finding commonality. And then, of course, Broadway, so you know, will
Nestor Aparicio 19:32
you go sing for us on Saturday night? Are you going to dance? You go to, we go to story tell. What are you doing for us at the BHC, I am
Rain Pryor 19:39
seriously. What I’m doing is going high and ring. Pryor, thanks so much for coming and next we
Nestor Aparicio 19:46
I gotta write some jokes for you, or something that we gotta get something together.
Rain Pryor 19:49
They ask. It’s funny because they asked me, Do you want to do some shtick? And I was like, No, not really. I just want to straight up and be like, and coming up next. And as we see in there. An auction going on in the back, and
Nestor Aparicio 20:03
I’m gonna fight your whole thing about doing stand up comedy and having to beat suicidal while you do it, because I, I think you we can get you some good jokes. We can work my
Rain Pryor 20:12
solo show. I did it for 20 years, standing ovation, comedy, drama. It had music in it. It was, it’s a whole thing, you know. And now I seriously, I think I’ve gone to mom mode, you know. I wear mom jeans, Mom shirts, you know, my whole life is Rain’s mom and Lotus is mom, you know, and, and I’m okay with that, like, I love it. I love that’s what I love about Baltimore, like, this amazing life that I’ve created for myself outside of holly, weird, I call it, you know. But yeah, there are some people I can still pick up the phone and call and say, Hey, how are you, you know, that are famous, but yeah, I like it here. I like what we’re doing. I like, you know, Baltimore Hebrew congregation and being a part of of that community as well. And I just think that, you know, we’re everyone. We’re expanding in the world and during the times that we’re having, which can feel very tumultuous, we need joy, and this is part of the joy that we get to have on the 22nd Well, part
Nestor Aparicio 21:17
of my joy was a young man named Ethan felderstein That was my my intern about 15 years ago. His dad wrote to me about two months ago and said, We’re doing this big night. You gotta help us out. Rain. Pryor is going to host. We got John Rapson coming in. It is the Baltimore Hebrew congregation established in 1830 presenting Broadway on Park Heights Avenue. It’s Saturday March 22 that’s this Saturday. Get over there earlier. You’ll miss the desserts. If you don’t get there really early, I’m going to eat all the desserts. The fundraiser sustains the synagogue schools and the educational programs they create and inspire at phc, you can learn more at BHC presents.com Rain Pryor, it has been a pleasure to get to know you briefly. Do you eat crab cakes? I know. No. All right, if you’re shellfish and I love what. I love
Rain Pryor 22:03
crab though, like, I love cracking and eating crab. I’m just not a crab cakes either. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 22:10
it’s even better. That’s that makes you more social. Because when you sit and eat crabs, that is really where you’re breaking bread and having spirit. Anybody can have a sandwich together. If we’re having crabs together, we’re gonna like you don’t invite you exactly, you know exactly,
Rain Pryor 22:22
and good beer.
Nestor Aparicio 22:25
You’re speaking my language. I knew I was going to like you. Ray Pryor is our guest. Yes, she is the daughter of Richard Pryor. Yes. She ran for local council a few years ago, and she’s still active out there and and if you see someone just hanging out in Northwest Baltimore, say that looks a little bit like it could be Richard Pryor’s daughter. It probably is. Um, thank you. Thank you so much for making a little bit of time. And, yeah, come and even though you don’t have crab cakes, I’ve had a few shellfish into I don’t eat crab cakes. I can’t do the crab cake to I’m like, it’s just what we call it. We don’t make you eat the crab cakes. If you don’t want to eat you get chicken sandwich. You can have vegetables if you want. I’ll get you a he tuna stack, whatever you’re into. But thank you very much, and we will see you on Saturday night. BHC presents is the way to get tickets for this event. It is Saturday night. Doors open at 630 performances, eight o’clock. Get there early for the desserts. Don’t expect rain. Pryor to be too funny, because she’s not miserable, so she’s happy. She’s just gonna host this thing, and John RAFs is going to come down from Broadway. I gotta get back up to New York through little Broadway as well. Right? I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, T, A, M, 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive, including these cool things happening on Saturday night. You.
