Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was a controversial Jewish-American stand-up comedian and satirist of the 1950s and 1960s.

Overview

Bruce, like his contemporary Mort Sahl, helped change stand-up comedy from the practice of telling jokes to a more daring and experimental form of entertainment.

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His routines took the form of stories, skits, and commentary, often venturing into subject areas considered profane, obscene and otherwise controversial. His penchant for material with high shock value caused his career to be plagued by constant trouble with the law. His obscenity trials are now considered to be significant benchmarks in the case for preservation of First Amendment freedoms.

Related Topics:
Profane - Obscene - Controversial - Shock value - Law - First Amendment

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Bruce was born in Mineola, Long Island, New York. He served in the US Navy from 1942 to 1945. Two years later, he changed his name from Leonard Schneider to Lenny Bruce. In 1951 he was arrested in Miami, Florida for impersonating a priest. He was soliciting donations for a leper colony in British Guiana after he legally chartered the "Brother Mathias Foundation" (a name of his own invention), and, unknown to the police, stole several priest's clergy shirts and a clerical collar while posing as a laundry man. He was found not guilty due to the legality of the NY state-chartered foundation, the actual existence of the Guiana leper colony, and the inability of local clergy to expose him as an imposter. Later in his autobiography, he revealed that he had made approximately $8,000 in three weeks, sending $2,500 to the leper colony and keeping the rest.

Related Topics:
Mineola - Long Island - New York - US Navy - Miami, Florida - Priest - Leper - British Guiana - Leper colony

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Bruce's early comedy career including writing the screenplays for "Dance Hall Racket" 1953 (which featured Lenny and his wife, Honey Harlow, in roles); "Dream Follies" 1954, a low-budget burlesque romp; and a children's film, "The Rocket Man" 1954. He also released four albums of original material, 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 Ku Klux Klan, Jewishness, and the Roman Catholic Church. These albums were later compiled and re-released as The Lenny Bruce Originals.

Related Topics:
1953 - 1954 - Burlesque - Jazz - Moral philosophy - Politics - Patriotism - Religion - Race - Abortion - Drugs - Ku Klux Klan - Jew - Roman Catholic Church

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His growing fame led to an appearance on the nationally televised Steve Allen Show. On February 3, 1961, in the midst of a severe blizzard, he gave an historic performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. Recorded and later released as a double-disc set, the Carnegie Hall Concert was considered by many to be the zenith of his creative powers; critic Albert Goldman described it as follows:

Related Topics:
Steve Allen - Carnegie Hall - Albert Goldman

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"This was the moment that an obscure yet rapidly rising young comedian named Lenny Bruce chose to give one of the greatest performances of his career... The performance contained in this album is that of a child of the jazz age. Lenny worshipped the gods of Spontaneity, Candor and Free Association. He fancied himself an oral jazzman. His ideal was to walk out there like Charlie Parker, take that mike in his hand like a horn and blow, blow, blow everything that came into his head just as it came into head with nothing censored, nothing translated, nothing mediated, until he was pure mind, pure head sending out brainwaves like radio waves into the heads of every man and woman seated in that vast hall. Sending, sending, sending, he would finally reach a point of clairvoyance where he was no longer a performer but rather a medium transmitting messages that just came to him from out there - from recall, fantasy, prophecy. A point at which, like the practitioners of automatic writing, his tongue would outrun his mind and he would be saying things he didn't plan to say, things that surprised, delighted him, cracked him up - as if he were a spectator at his own performance!"

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