Divine Comedy

Lenny Bruce has been unfairly pigeon-holed into a “dirty word” comic category. Lenny’s insight into the Jewish/Gentile divide was perceptive, funny, ahead of its time.
Forget the “dirty words”.
Listen to the Yiddish he often used. Listen to his stories about his aunt. Listen to his bit on Moses and Jesus coming back to earth.

hi i knew lenny and hung out with him 1n 1964..wavy gravy asked me to help him help
lenny.. i was there the night he was busted at the cafe au go go and helped organize
a demonstration in the courtroom the next morning…we all still love lenny
he helped us get through the 1950′s

I think that when Steve ben Israel tells us what is, he is like Lenny’s soul son…yes, and George Carlin was a disciple. Too many disciples to name.

Frank Zappa, an original Lenny disciple (his label was Lenny’s last professional home), spent the ’60s complaing, laughingly, about art with “no commercial potential (NCP)”. The fact that Lenny Bruce, especially in the last years of his tragic and crazy life, savored the idea his work had “no commercial potential” clearly affirmed Bruce as an outsider. In this respect he has no progeny. Who among all the comedians who came after Bruce was/is willing to abandon the quest for money and laughs in order to make salient commentary about society. Bruce was funny, but he was also painful. He was also a man of his moment. His struggles with authority are a critique of America in mid 20th century. One of the most obvious reasons he has no true disciples is that his life and work are as immediate as yesterday’s newspapers. I still love him, though.

Perhaps Liel has a point, but he misses what cost Lenny Bruce his audience. It wasn’t the dirty words, or even the political rants; it was when he forgot to be FUNNY. He did long bits in his later career about his drug busts and his jail time, but they were humorless diatribes, not the stuff of comedy. He seemed to have taken himself too seriously, which is poison for a comic. There is no doubt as to his political courage, esp. at the time. And he was, tragically, of his time, which may be why much of his stuff doesn’t linger in the public consciousness. And I disagree with Liel as to his “disciples”, and lack thereof. He has used the wrong word. He should have said “descendants.” Because there are many of them who have sprung from the comedic tree whose seeds he planted, and bred with others, evolved into what we love today. He and Mort Sahl (politics) led to Dick Gregory led to Robert Klein led to Chris Rock. He and Dick Shawn (improvisation) gave birth to Steve Martin, who, in turn, spawned Conan O’Brien. He and Jonathan Winters (conceptual) became Don Novello became Gilbert Gottfried became Larry David. The forbidden apple he first plucked (and suffered the consequences for) led the way out of the comedic “Eden” into the darker and, arguably, more abundant garden we know today.

I always like to be reminded to think of Lenny. I would call him an early hero for me as well, even if the first stuff I heard was his “skits,” a clear red vinyl album my dad had, with LB doing the discovery of airplane glue as a way to get high, then reading “How to Talk Dirty & Influence People,” as non-affiliated California half-Jew, perhaps my first sense of connection to my judaism.

Just to say, I have often sat listening to Jon Stewart, thinking he was in Lenny’s lineage.

Compared with a price quite a lot of saving money.