Lenny Bruce fans?

[unionworks]

I don't really consider myself a "fan", as I don't own any of his records and never studied his material. However, I did watch a few clips on youtube from the movie that just floored me, especially the parts about how we give words the power to hurt. Also, I once found real "Lenny Bruce Kosher Beer" at my local microbrew shop. Had his picture and a brief bio on the label. It was a rye flavored ale, and good grief it was wonderful. It saddens me to see such a comic genius die such a wretched death...

[Omaha Steve]

1. He paved the way for many comedians

Some good. Some not so good.

[unionworks]

2. George Carlin

...among the finest. I didn't know that a lot of Georges ideas were based on Lenny's stuff. From the stuff I saw in the clips, Lenny couldn't open his mouth without getting arrested.

[csziggy]

3. I've only seen bits out of his routines

And once a brilliant biography of him, years ago, maybe a PBS one, that made me wish I had been able to go to one of his performances.

And the one time I ever played Trivial Pursuit, the answer to one question my team drew was Lenny Bruce, but not one of the other players had heard of him and insisted on naming George Carlin. I tried to explain that George Carlin was an benefactor of Lenny Bruce's previous work, but no one would listen. Oh well.

[ohiosmith]

4. Have some old Bruce LPs. Get a copy of his book How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. Also see

Lenny staring Dustin Hoffman. Pretty good except names are changed to protect scumbags like Milton Berle.

[unionworks]

5. The Hoffman movie

...was the one I saw the clips from. Will check out the book first chaance. Thanks.

[ohiosmith]

6. There are some good cuts on YouTube as well.

[unionworks]

7. Yeah I saw a few...and tried to use

...Lenny's thing about how we give words the power to hurt by suppressing them, as related to people trying to control words they don't like on DU. To no avail...

[ohiosmith]

8. George Carlin did a brilliant bit about there not there not being any bad words, just bad thoughts.

Words are not the enemy, thoughts are.

[unionworks]

9. Precisely

Words only have the power we give them.

[cliffordu]

10. Try and find "Fat boy's used cars" and "Religion, Inc."

tame by todays standards, but back in the day, hilarious and dangerous....

He also played word games with oral sex and racial stereotypes in his monologues.

REALLY non-pc in this climate.

But dangerous and hilarious.

[unionworks]

12. I did hear the

"Fat Boys Used Cars" bit. In those days they referred to Lenny as a "sick" comic. It wasn't Lenny who was sick. People didn't like the mirror he held up to societys face. So they destroyed him.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. He was, like most real satirical geniuses, a very smart man who had a real message

I continue to believe his view on our societal empowering of words.

[unionworks]

13. from what I read

... Lenny had made remarks that offended Kennedy. Kennedy had him blacklisted via J Edgar Hoover so he got arrested in every city he played in.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. There's more to the story than that.

Lenny Bruce had a short life and a loooooong story.