Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986) on Netflix
Stand-up comic Jo Jo Dancer lies in a coma after a freebasing accident leaves him severely burned. His spirit revisits his childhood in a brothel and his climb to fame.
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- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.4/102,612 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes54%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jo Jo Dancer is a popular stand-up comedian whose success has not brought him happiness. After a freebasing accident leaves him severely burned, he lies in a hospital coma. In that state, his spiritual alter ego revisits his life. He remembers a childhood spent in a brothel and the hard odds he faced. Those memories trace his rise to top-rated comedian. With fame comes heavy drug use and womanizing, which wear on every relationship, including his marriages. His spirit watches his past self and tries to persuade him to break the cycle of self-destruction. He must decide whether he wants to go on living.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Richard Pryor plays Jo Jo Dancer, a stand-up comedian who severely burns himself while freebasing cocaine; the film came out six years after Pryor himself set on fire while freebasing.
- Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling was Richard Pryor's first and only directing job, though he is also credited as director on the screen version of his 1983 stand-up concert film.
- Richard Pryor told the New York Amsterdam News in 1986 that he made Jo Jo Dancer partly as "an exorcism for me and a drama," and that he wanted to tell a story paralleling his own life.
