R.I.P. Rudy Ray Moore

Tuesday October 21st, 2008 - Seymour, IN

I was very sad to read that Rudy Ray Moore died today. He was a unique comedian who had a rabid loyal cult following and I was one of them. He was a true pioneer and had his character called ‘Dolemite’ that combined rhyming and rapping with XXX rated material.

He called himself the ‘king of the party records’ and in the ‘60s and ‘70s he recorded an impressive array of albums with titles like ‘Eat Out More Often’ and ‘That Pussy Belongs To Me’ with a picture him holding a cat on the cover. He knew his market and served it.

Rudy Ray Moore was a creative and marketing genius. He built a following in clubs and then sold his underground records which built his name and he carved out a whole career for himself for many years. He did a lot of things right and I admired his work for years.

A lot of black comedians are shocked to know that I know who Rudy Ray Moore is but I am a fan of any kind of entertainment that’s done well. I don’t like opera but I’m a huge fan of Pavarotti. He was a great entertainer. So was Johnny Cash. And so was Dolemite.

His material was as filthy as filthy gets and is not for everyone. I find it hilarious but not all people do. Like Redd Foxx though, Rudy was serving a market that couldn’t be served any other way. They were providing a product that couldn’t be purchased anywhere else.

There was an art to what those guys did and how they did it. They weren’t just spouting off dirty words like many so called comics do today with no real reason. I flip out about it all the time because there’s no need for it in the club setting of today. It’s not that any of it offends me it’s just that it makes it hard to follow and it taints an audience in a bad way.

I grew up around bikers and the actual words don’t make me flinch at all. My grandma swore like a truck driver and could make sailors blush but when she went to church she’d curtail it for an hour. The same thing needs to be done in comedy clubs. There’s an art to standup comedy and blue material is hard to do in a classy way. Now I sound like a prude.

Redd Foxx was an extremely sharp guy and I have to believe Rudy was too. I never had a chance to meet him but I would have loved to shake his hand and tell him how much of a fan I was of not only his work but his marketing savvy. He put together an original idea.

I bet it would have surprised him a white guy 35 years younger than him would know of his work but I also think it would have pleased him to know how much it was appreciated too. It’s hard enough to make a living as a comedian but it had to be especially hard to get paid on the ‘chitlin’ circuit’ where he worked back in a time when they all got ripped off.

I hope Rudy had a happy and rewarding life but I read that he died in a nursing home in Akron, OH from complications of diabetes. That doesn’t sound like a happy ending and if I could have driven there to visit him I surely would have. There are a lot of performers in the world but very few can be called trendsetters. Much respect to a true creative genius.