“Prince “He doesn’t understand things like you and me,” an assistant of the artist explained to the perplexed director Kevin Smith, desperate to understand how to shape a series of films about the star, destined for a documentary. The woman said without any irony that the artist who competed in popularity with Madonna and Michael Jackson in the 80s, “has lived in Prince’s world for a long time.”
In that universe, Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958, Minnesota) could wish – for example, true story – for a camel at three in the morning, in the middle of winter. The arguments about the impossibility of counting animal size in those conditions did not make sense to him. Unfortunately, he had forced the entire world to stop calling him by his name in the 90s, in exchange for an unpronounceable symbol. He was “the artist formerly known as Prince,” revealing a certain humor in the midst of the identity refoundation.
At just seven years old he wrote his first song. At 19 she had signed with Warner releasing the debut for you (1978), where he composed, arranged and played all the instruments. At one meter and 57 centimeters tall, he wore heels his entire professional life, destroying his knees, until he became addicted to painkillers that caused his death on April 21, 2016. He put the world at his feet with a string of phenomenal hits, brimming with exuberant and diverse musical talent. By 1989 it was impossible not to have heard and danced to Batdance with its six minutes and 13 seconds, an unusual feat for a pop song.
Make-up, wrapped in gauze and extravagant suits, Prince looked like an unmistakably sexually charged enigma with the sign of an insatiable womanizer. At the peak of his fame he made his way to events riding on the back of a gigantic guard nicknamed Big Chick, suggesting princely and outlandish status, as an exclusive resident of Prince’s world “for a long time.”
If the urban legend relates that Elvis used to give Cadillacs to people he knew in random situations, there are testimonies of those who claim to have opened the door of their houses to find Prince himself preaching the divine word, as a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Among many facets, Prince was something of a comic actor with unusual performances. Here, some of his most curious episodes.
According to Jimmy Fallon, he bent down to get the ball, caught it, got up and Prince was gone. The host and comedian left the place, reached the street and met Questlove, the drummer of The Roots, which at that time was also the stable band on his program. Confused, Fallon asked him about Prince. Questlove responded that he had just left in his limousine.
Rewind.
Prince attended Jimmy Fallon’s beat to present a new song. The late-night talk show production was warned: Prince was a fan of ping pong and wanted to play a game on screen. The star went, sang and never brought up ping pong.
A month later, Jimmy Fallon was having dinner with a friend when he received a message from Prince’s manager: the singer was waiting for him to play ping pong at an exclusive New York club. Fallon took a taxi to Spin, the name of the place, and went down stairs to a reception. Hesitantly, he asked about Prince. A woman showed him a room; The comedian advanced and crossed a curtain. There was a ping pong table and in the back, in a velvet suit and a flowing shirt, Prince held a paddle close to his face, like James Bond holding his gun.
Without greeting, he challenged Jimmy Fallon:
“Are you ready for this?”.
The game begins and the host realizes that Prince is a natural player, a boss. The creator of Kiss (1986) crushes it, goes for the match point and wins. Fallon bends down to look for the ball in a corner, gets up, turns and the singer is not there. He had disappeared.
Meanwhile, Questlove, aware of the match, had arrived at the club and saw Prince approaching the site in a limousine. He approached the singer, curious about the meeting and its outcome.
Prince lowered the glass of the luxurious vehicle and responded briefly:
“Ask your boy.”
Then he rolled up the window and drove away.
“Like Batman,” Jimmy Fallon would say.
Director of Clerks (1994), Mallrats (1995) and Chasing Amy (1997) was on the crest of stardom when he received a call from Prince’s assistant, announcing that the artist wanted to talk to him. After a series of calls to warn that Prince would speak at the next contact, Smith waited a full day. When he finally appeared on the other end of the line, he began a long monologue of spiritual and religious contours, with emphasis on the figure of Jesus Christ.
The director was summoned to Paisley Park, Prince’s mansion, where he was again made to wait an eternity to meet the singer. Prince wanted a documentary to spread his message, which Smith still didn’t understand. He was releasing a new album and had summoned a group of fans to listen to it and start a debate.
Known for his comedies and completely alien to the documentary genre, Kevin Smith never understood what the hell Prince wanted, beyond a messianic thing where he mixed his creed as a Jehovah’s Witness and his own figure eager, for example, to eliminate swear words as offensive, one of the demands on Smith to work together.
After filming for a week and seeing Prince at unusual times to have conversations that left him more confused about the purposes of the film, Kevin Smith realized that he was wasting his time and decided to leave. It was then that he spoke to his assistant who tried to explain Prince’s strange world, with his late-night dealers and various eccentricities.
As a consolation, the woman revealed that Prince had filmed 50 completely unpublished video clips with complete production, kept in a locked trunk.
Kevin Smith was never paid for his services and Prince never said goodbye either.
The Roots’ drummer and leader had ten invitations to see Prince live in Philadelphia. He summoned several friends and a girl he had a first date with.
Upon entering the concert, he realized that he had not considered his own ticket. Distraught, he contacted Prince’s entourage. Reluctantly, an assistant of the star allowed him to see the show sold to the last seat, at the foot of the stage. In the middle of the concert, the woman sent Questlove a message: Prince wanted to go to a club, play pool, listen to music and check the entrance. The drummer moved immediately and accomplished everything, including laboriously carrying a pool table up four floors. Questlove, who also made a living as a DJ, went looking for vinyl, preferably choosing the music of Fela Kuti, sure that Prince would border on the African star.
Already at the club, Prince started a game of pool with Fela Kuti in the background, until Questlove was surprised by the guest of honor.
“Play something else,” Prince ordered.
Questlove managed to play a faster song by Fela Kuti, still convinced of enchanting Prince with his music, and then moving on to George Clinton. After a while, a woman arrived with a DVD case without a cover and handed it to Questlove. It was a copy of Finding Nemo. Prince’s assistant added “cut the music.”
Questlove realized that it had been replaced by an animated film.
Three years later, the musician went to a party at Prince’s house in Los Angeles accompanied by his partner, the same girl from the first date at that concert. The Roots’ drummer couldn’t believe what he heard when he arrived. Through the speakers he blasted the same Fela Kuti song that Prince had ordered him to silence.
Various testimonies agree that Prince was a lover of nightlife in clubs, and that he often invited to weekend parties at his house.
One night in 1985, he met Eddie Murphy and his entourage at a venue telling his brother Charles, also a comedian. The group headed to the musician’s mansion until, later in the reel where there was no shortage of beautiful women, Prince suggested a basketball game. The guests reacted with laughter, it seemed like a joke. But the creator of 1999 (1982) – that hit shamelessly copied by Phil Collins in Sussudio (1985) – was bored with the party, and the proposal was serious.
His assistants brought sports clothes to the Murphy brothers’ team, who changed outfits while still laughing. Already on the court, they could not contain their laughter when Prince appeared supported by his closest friends, including his half-brother who was very tall and a professional basketball player, dressed in the same club clothes.. It was the time of Prince and the Revolution, when the singer looked like a glam version of Zorro and his musicians wore velvet suits, which looked like they were taken from an 18th century European royal court. The most striking thing was Prince’s shoes, with 15-centimeter heels.
Barely containing his laughter, Charles Murphy proposed that the teams be baptized Las Poleras and Las Blosas.
Once the match began, and just as would happen years later in the ping pong match with Jimmy Fallon, Prince turned out to be an ace of the game, despite his short stature and heels. In Charles Murphy’s opinion, he played “incredible.”
Las Blouses crushed Las Poleras. Prince celebrated the victory by serving pancakes.
