I wonder if anyone out there remembers Lenny Bruce. I’d like to know what people thought of him. I was sort of young when he was around and I understand he caused quite a lot of controversy. I remember listening to a tape of a couple of his routines. I think they must have considered him to be the first “shock” comedian. He made Howard Stern look serious. His biography according to Wikpedia:

Lenny Bruce (October 13,1925 – August 3, 1966) – born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was a controversial American stand-up comedian, writer, social critic and satirist of the 1950s and 1960s. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was also controversial, eventually leading to the first posthumous pardon in New York history.

Leonard Alfred Schneider was born in Mineola, New York, grew up in nearby Bellmore and attended Wellington Mepham High School. His youth was chaotic, his parents divorced when he was five years old and Lenny moved in with various relatives over the next decade. His mother, Sally Marr (Sadie Kitchenberg), was a stage performer who had an enormous influence on Bruce’s career. After spending time working on a farm with a family that provided the stable surroundings he needed, he joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 17 in 1942, and saw active duty in Europe until his discharge in 1946.

He released four albums of original material on Berkeley-based Fantasy Records, with rants, comic routines, and satirical interviews on the themes that made him famous: jazz, moral philosophy, politics, patriotism, religion, law, race, abortion, drugs, the klu klux klan, and Jewishness.  These albums were later compiled and re-released as The Lenny Bruce Originals. Two later records were produced and sold by Bruce himself, including a 10-inch album of the 1961 San Francisco performances that started his legal troubles. Starting in the late 1960s, other unissued Bruce material was released byAlan Douglas, Frank Zappa, and Phil Spector, as well as Fantasy. 

His growing fame led to appearances on the nationally televised Steve Allen Show, where on his debut Lenny commented on the recent marriage of Elizabeth Taylor to Eddie Fisher by making his first line an unscripted ‘will Elizabeth Taylor become bar mitzvahed?’ He also began getting mainstream press, both favorable and derogatory. Hy Gardner, the syndicated Broadway columnist called Bruce a ‘fad’ and ‘a one-time-around freak attraction,’ and Variety  declared him ‘undisciplined and unfunny.’ Influential San Francisco columnist Herb Caen was an early and enthusiastic supporter, writing in 1959:

‘They call Lenny Bruce a sick comic, and sick he is. Sick of all the pretentious phoniness of a generation that makes his vicious humor meaningful. He is a rebel, but not without a cause, for there are shirts that need un-stuffing, egos that need deflating. Sometimes you feel guilty laughing at some of Lenny’s mordant jabs, but that disappears a second later when your inner voice tells you with pleased surprise ‘but that’s true’.’

On February 3, 1961, in the midst of a severe blizzard, he gave a famous performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. It was recorded and later released as a three-disc set, the Carnegie Hall Concert. 

Despite his prominence as a comedian, Bruce only appeared on network television six times in his life. In his later club performances, Bruce was known for relating the details of his encounters with the police directly in his comedy routine; his criticism encouraged the police to eye him with maximum scrutiny. These performances often included rants about his court battles over obscenity charges, tirades against fascism and complaints of his denial to the right to free speech.

He was banned outright from several U.S. cities, and in 1962 he was banned from performing in Sydney, Australia. At his first show there, he got up on stage, declared “What a fucking wonderful audience” and was promptly arrested.

Increasing drug use also affected his health. By 1966 he had been blacklisted by nearly every nightclub in the United States, as owners feared prosecution for obscenity. Bruce did have a famous performance at The Berkeley Community Theater in Dec. 1965 before his last performance on June 25, 1966, the latter at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, on a bill with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. The performance was not remembered fondly by Bill Graham, who described Bruce as “whacked out on amphetamines”. Graham thought that Bruce finished his set emotionally disturbed. Zappa asked Bruce to sign his draft card, but the suspicious Bruce refused.

At the request of Hugh Hefner, Bruce wrote his autobiography with the aid of Paul Krassner. Serialized in Playboy in 1964 and 1965, this material was later published as the book How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. Hefner, a long-time foe of censorship, had long assisted Bruce’s career, featuring him in the television debut of Playboy’s Penthouse in October 1959.

delete reply starfishred wrote on Feb 28, ’08 I always liked him.Yes he was crazy but what is crazy?Also remember he was always disliked by the ‘conservative right for various reasons first he was jewish and black in those days being jewish and black were super bad,and he was himself and he was successful,people loved him.

edit delete reply lauritasita wrote on Feb 29, ’08 I remember he talked really fast like Robin Williams. I couldn’t keep up with him ! I was a bit young at the time, but I remember some of the fuss people made about him.

delete reply starfishred wrote on Feb 29, ’08 lauritasita said I remember he talked really fast like Robin Williams. I couldn’t keep up with him ! I was a bit young at the time, but I remember some of the fuss people made about him. I thought he was sooo cute and my mom would say he is to old for you hehehe.

edit delete reply lauritasita wrote on Feb 29, ’08 I’m watching the video I posted about him on Penthouse Party, hehehe.

delete reply starfishred wrote on Feb 29, ’08, edited on Feb 29, ’08 Too bad he died so young and too bad the establishment was out to get him.Such great talent to die so young is such a waste.Thanks for this neat video and article.

edit delete reply lauritasita wrote on Feb 29, ’08 Maybe I’ll post a few videos and get more familiar with him.