Lenny Bruce Biography and List of Works

American stand up-comedian and brilliant satirist, who aroused much controversy in his lifetime because of his use of so-called 'dirty words' in his nightclub comedy act. The satire and black humour of Bruce's largely improvised shows often overstepped the bounds of 1950's and 60's respectability. Bruce was one of the first performers to usher in the new, more honest, more permissive, and more indulgent brand of American art.

"I'm totally corrupted. I mean, really. My whole act, my whole economic success, whatever that is, is based solely on the existence of segregation, violence, despair, disease and injustice. And if by some miracle, the whole world would suddenly tranquilize, be pured, I would be standing in an unemployment line somewhere. So you see, I'm not a moralist."
(Dustin Hoffman in Lenny)

Bruce was born in New York. He served in the Navy During World War II and first appeared as a night-club performed in Baltimore. In the mid-1950s he drew national attention with his daring style of satire, in which Bruce probed taboo subjects such as racial fears, sexual fantasies, Jewish-Christian tensions, and the lives of American presidents. Bruce imagines Hitler in show business and stewardesses jettisoning infants from overloaded airliners. The black sheep among salon tyros and young comics, such as Joe E. Lewis, Buddy Hackett, Alan King, Bruce played to intellectuals, wearing jeans, not tuxedo. His wit and inimitable frankness won him an admiring audience and made his act celebrated in liberal literary circles.

"I really dig what they do with a homosexual in this country. They put him into a prison with a lot of other men. That's a really good punishment."
(Dustin Hoffman in Lenny)

In 1961 Bruce was imprisoned on obscenity charges and in 1963 he was refused permission to enter Britain. His show was banned both in England and in Australia. When nightclub owners started to avoid police trouble and rejected Bruce's show, his career collapsed. Bruce was prevented from working and in his later years he became addicted to heroin. In 1963 he was found guilty of illegal possession of drugs. Bruce died of an overdose in 1966.

"People should be taught what is, not what should be. All my humour is based on destruction and despair. If the whole world were tranquil, I'd be standing in the breadline, right back of J. Edgar Hoover."
(from The Essential Lenny Bruce, ed. by J. Cohen)

Lenny Bruce dramatically expanded the style and subject matter of stand-up-comedy. His style has had a lasting impact on many performers. Years later Eddie Murphy for instance, uses language and material which in comparison makes Bruce seem innocent. His life is the basis for Bob Fosse's film Lenny (1974), which had several Academy Award nominations. - The idea for Bruce's autobiography, HOW TO TALK DIRTY AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE, was suggested by Hugh Hefner in 1963. It appeared in Playboy over the next two years and in book form in 1965.

"Lenny Bruce is dead but he didn't commit any crime
He just had the insight to rip off the lid before its time.
I rode with him in a taxi once, only for a mile and a half,
Seemed like it took a couple of months.
Lenny Bruce moved on and like the ones that killed him, gone."
(Bob Dylan in 'Lenny Bruce', from Shot of Love, 1983)

For further reading: Society, Language and the University: From Lenny Bruce to Noam Chomsky by Sol Saporta (1994, paperback); Lenny Bruce: The Making of a Prophet by William Karl Thomas (1989); Lenny Bruce: The Comedian As Social Critic and Secular Moralist by Frank Kofsky (1974, paperback) - See also: Lenny; a play, based on the life and words of Lenny Bruce by Julian Barry; Ladies and Gentlemen: Lenny Bruce by Albert Goldman; Honey: the life and loves of Lenny's shady lady by Honey Bruce; The Essential Lenny Bruce, ed. by J. Cohen.

Lenny (US 1974, 111 min., black and white film), dir. by Bob Fosse, written by Julian Barry, photography Bruce Surtees, starring Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine, Jan Miner, Stanley Beck, Gary Morton. - A rags-to-riches story, depicting Bruce's career of obscene comedian, his friends in the show business from strippers to musicians and his struggles with law. Bruce is portrayed as a martyr for freedom of speech.