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The Essential Lenny Bruce
s/ His original unexpurgated satirical routinesCollected routines of standup comedian Lenny Bruce. The first 9 chapters of this book were published in 1972 as The Essential Lenny Bruce I .
263 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
22 people are currently reading
434 people want to read
About the author
Lenny Bruce
42 books89 followersLenny Bruce, born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which contained satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon in 2003.
Bruce paved the way for counterculture-era comedians. His trial for obscenity was a landmark of freedom of speech in the United States. In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him third (behind Richard Pryor and George Carlin) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
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.
Bruce paved the way for counterculture-era comedians. His trial for obscenity was a landmark of freedom of speech in the United States. In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him third (behind Richard Pryor and George Carlin) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
December 6, 2020
I have a story which I think really shows the essential Lenny Bruce although it's not in this, or any other book. I was editing one of Jay Landesman's many manuscripts at the time and we were talking about his St Louis nightclub, the Crystal Palace and how Barbra Streisand got discovered.
Jay told me that Barbra who was only 18, had been acting like a madwoman, coming in dressed up like a babushka with a scarf over her head and going from table to table giving the customers apples from her basket and on other nights, other stunts. And all the while begging for a chance to perform. On the last night she got herself into Lenny Bruce's changing room and there they were together and all of a sudden Lenny stabs her bottom with a full syringe of heroin. Barbra goes down screaming, in comes Jaye and off to the hospital go all three.
Lenny was an enthusiastic heroin addict, a sociable one, he didn't like to do it alone and was always trying to persuade people to try it, although perhaps with Barbra, the 'persuasion' was a little extreme.
The only way Jay could get Barbra to calm down and not go to the police was to give her a chance to perform, which she did, singing and performing brilliantly(she was a comedienne as much as a singer) and the rest, as they say, is history.
Jay's book. Did this story make it? No, the lawyers thought that Landesman wasn't rich enough to afford the fallout if Barbra didn't like it!
The Essential Lenny Bruce was a good, long read about an unusual and very iconoclastic man whose fame rested on his tight sardonic satire and his excellent timing. His humour apparently inspired infectious laughter even whilst his delivery was obscene and offensive. I've listened to him, he's brilliant, but I would really have loved to have seen him in person. Even all these years since I read the book, I remember how impressed with it I was and so... 5 stars.
Jay told me that Barbra who was only 18, had been acting like a madwoman, coming in dressed up like a babushka with a scarf over her head and going from table to table giving the customers apples from her basket and on other nights, other stunts. And all the while begging for a chance to perform. On the last night she got herself into Lenny Bruce's changing room and there they were together and all of a sudden Lenny stabs her bottom with a full syringe of heroin. Barbra goes down screaming, in comes Jaye and off to the hospital go all three.
Lenny was an enthusiastic heroin addict, a sociable one, he didn't like to do it alone and was always trying to persuade people to try it, although perhaps with Barbra, the 'persuasion' was a little extreme.
The only way Jay could get Barbra to calm down and not go to the police was to give her a chance to perform, which she did, singing and performing brilliantly(she was a comedienne as much as a singer) and the rest, as they say, is history.
Jay's book. Did this story make it? No, the lawyers thought that Landesman wasn't rich enough to afford the fallout if Barbra didn't like it!
The Essential Lenny Bruce was a good, long read about an unusual and very iconoclastic man whose fame rested on his tight sardonic satire and his excellent timing. His humour apparently inspired infectious laughter even whilst his delivery was obscene and offensive. I've listened to him, he's brilliant, but I would really have loved to have seen him in person. Even all these years since I read the book, I remember how impressed with it I was and so... 5 stars.
February 18, 2019
[extra star added after writing the review]
The kind of comedy I do isn't like, going to change the world; but certain areas of society make me unhappy, and satirizing them – aside from being lucrative – provides a release for me.
So far I've seen a lot of sad clowns, a few very scary ones, but this one is the angriest clown I've met so far. Lenny Bruce is supposed to be one of the greatest stand-up comedians ever, a big influence on some of my favorites (George Carlin and Richard Pryor), so I wanted to get familiarized with his style. I guess my mistake was in picking up the book instead of trying to find one of his videos. A lot of the personality and of the humour comes from the delivery, the body language, the timing, the accents and so on. What I got instead from the book was the anger, and very little of the funny bits.
"He was a sweet, peaceful and beautiful man. We used to go sailing on the bay and Lenny would sit and write poetry about love and beauty – and about his own frustrations. I don't think he was a comedian, really, I think he was a preacher."
His friends (Enrico Banducci in the quote above) and most of the people that actually met him speak very highly of Lenny Bruce, and, at the rational level, I very much agree with what he is trying to do. Lenny is a modern incarnation of that very important Medieval institution: The King's Jester, the only one at Court allowed to speak Truth to Power. A job that more often than not ended with his head on the chopping block.
Like the fabled jester, Lenny Bruce was unsatisfied with the politically correct style of jokes he came across when he started his stand-up comedian career. He also couldn't muscle his way in without an angle to separate him from his peers. So Lenny chose to be deliberately provocative on stage, to push the limits of what is acceptable to say and what is taboo.
"Here's a rich church, and next door's poverty – so it's hypocracy."
Midwest small town audiences were not really ready to have their religion, their politics and their sexual prejudices challenged in a very aggressive and profanity-laced manner. So they called the cops on Bruce, then tried to justify their meanness in terms of preserving public decency. That's the point I think where everybody agrees that Lenny Bruce suffered so that future comedians can do their skits without major interference from distressed Powers. And why we need to still be vigilant of these liberties against tyrants. Only last weekend (Feb 2019) such a tyrant asked for a satire show (SNL) to be shot down and destroyed because it dared to make fun of him.
There's even a short passage in the book that reads ominously prescient of the kind of empty, rambling, nonsense language used by politicians, especially of the orange variety:
In this country, regardless of race, color or creed, the color has a right to know it becomes everyone's duty, the duty that has become the right of every man, woman and child, a child that one day will be proud of his heritage, a child that only in these perilous times, when a man-born menace, a horrible bomb, that can only disfigure and defame its creator,a horror, an evil, a bad, a lazy, a lethargic.
Lethargy and complacency we cannot fall into. We've got a bomb that can wipe out half the world! If necessary. And we will! To keep our standards, the strength that has come from American unity, that we alone will build for better schools and churches.
>>><<<>>><<<
I have very strong opinions against people who toss F-bombs casually in normal conversations or routine daily activities, but Lenny Bruce is a special case. He has a license to cuss (he's the King's Jester, remember!), and more than enough reasons in his personal life to be angry about. I just wish I could say I found his skits funny. But I would be lying. Most of them are disjointed, rambling (heroin, maybe?) and the topics fairly limited to religion, sex and police abuses. These are the true sins of society that Lenny Bruce had often had to deal with in his personal life, the absurdities and the persecutions he needed release from through foul language and angry rants. Why? Hypocracy!
'Because knowledge of syphilis is not an instruction to get it.'
The hypocracy is on the rise today, and we probably need our Lenny Bruces more than ever. Priests and politicians who embrace abstinence-only education, deny science and have secret assignations in highway toilets. Censure of sex and cuss words, but not of explicit violence. Mass shootings and pro-gun lobbying. Police abuses and accommodating judges. All of these are issues Lenny Bruce discussed in his shows. And he got arrested for it.
I might occasionally disagree with the form he had chosen to present the issue, but not with the underlying message or with the need for exposure. Lenny used to argue his obscenity court cases in front of the audiences, often in terms of the First Amendment. In this, I am reminded of the movie 'The People vs Larry Flint.' Yes, it's important to have the right to annoy other people with words. Beating them up or blowing them to pieces because you disagree with them is a whole different matter, but words should be freely expressed.
In fact, that's why we left England years ago – because we couldn't bitch about the church, the Anglican Church, we Protestants. And we had underground meetings.
"I'm tired of this shit, let's go somewhere else, let's go to a different country where we can have our meetings and be Protestants. Let's go somewhere else so we can be disgusting. And do disgusting shows. No one can stop us – flaunt it in their faces."
or, quoting a Supreme Court decision,
"And the words 'vulgar' and 'disgusting' shall not apply, since human liberties are at stake."
Some people might say Lenny Bruce was asking for it, by being deliberately insulting and obscene, and they would not be very far off the mark. But the correct reaction is to not go to one of his shows instead of calling the cops to muzzle him. Or to go to one of his shows and actually trying to figure out what made him angry in the first place. But that's asking too much from bigots and racists
I may not read another of Lenny Bruce printed collections, but I am still interested in a live show.
The kind of comedy I do isn't like, going to change the world; but certain areas of society make me unhappy, and satirizing them – aside from being lucrative – provides a release for me.
So far I've seen a lot of sad clowns, a few very scary ones, but this one is the angriest clown I've met so far. Lenny Bruce is supposed to be one of the greatest stand-up comedians ever, a big influence on some of my favorites (George Carlin and Richard Pryor), so I wanted to get familiarized with his style. I guess my mistake was in picking up the book instead of trying to find one of his videos. A lot of the personality and of the humour comes from the delivery, the body language, the timing, the accents and so on. What I got instead from the book was the anger, and very little of the funny bits.
"He was a sweet, peaceful and beautiful man. We used to go sailing on the bay and Lenny would sit and write poetry about love and beauty – and about his own frustrations. I don't think he was a comedian, really, I think he was a preacher."
His friends (Enrico Banducci in the quote above) and most of the people that actually met him speak very highly of Lenny Bruce, and, at the rational level, I very much agree with what he is trying to do. Lenny is a modern incarnation of that very important Medieval institution: The King's Jester, the only one at Court allowed to speak Truth to Power. A job that more often than not ended with his head on the chopping block.
Like the fabled jester, Lenny Bruce was unsatisfied with the politically correct style of jokes he came across when he started his stand-up comedian career. He also couldn't muscle his way in without an angle to separate him from his peers. So Lenny chose to be deliberately provocative on stage, to push the limits of what is acceptable to say and what is taboo.
"Here's a rich church, and next door's poverty – so it's hypocracy."
Midwest small town audiences were not really ready to have their religion, their politics and their sexual prejudices challenged in a very aggressive and profanity-laced manner. So they called the cops on Bruce, then tried to justify their meanness in terms of preserving public decency. That's the point I think where everybody agrees that Lenny Bruce suffered so that future comedians can do their skits without major interference from distressed Powers. And why we need to still be vigilant of these liberties against tyrants. Only last weekend (Feb 2019) such a tyrant asked for a satire show (SNL) to be shot down and destroyed because it dared to make fun of him.
There's even a short passage in the book that reads ominously prescient of the kind of empty, rambling, nonsense language used by politicians, especially of the orange variety:
In this country, regardless of race, color or creed, the color has a right to know it becomes everyone's duty, the duty that has become the right of every man, woman and child, a child that one day will be proud of his heritage, a child that only in these perilous times, when a man-born menace, a horrible bomb, that can only disfigure and defame its creator,a horror, an evil, a bad, a lazy, a lethargic.
Lethargy and complacency we cannot fall into. We've got a bomb that can wipe out half the world! If necessary. And we will! To keep our standards, the strength that has come from American unity, that we alone will build for better schools and churches.
>>><<<>>><<<
I have very strong opinions against people who toss F-bombs casually in normal conversations or routine daily activities, but Lenny Bruce is a special case. He has a license to cuss (he's the King's Jester, remember!), and more than enough reasons in his personal life to be angry about. I just wish I could say I found his skits funny. But I would be lying. Most of them are disjointed, rambling (heroin, maybe?) and the topics fairly limited to religion, sex and police abuses. These are the true sins of society that Lenny Bruce had often had to deal with in his personal life, the absurdities and the persecutions he needed release from through foul language and angry rants. Why? Hypocracy!
'Because knowledge of syphilis is not an instruction to get it.'
The hypocracy is on the rise today, and we probably need our Lenny Bruces more than ever. Priests and politicians who embrace abstinence-only education, deny science and have secret assignations in highway toilets. Censure of sex and cuss words, but not of explicit violence. Mass shootings and pro-gun lobbying. Police abuses and accommodating judges. All of these are issues Lenny Bruce discussed in his shows. And he got arrested for it.
I might occasionally disagree with the form he had chosen to present the issue, but not with the underlying message or with the need for exposure. Lenny used to argue his obscenity court cases in front of the audiences, often in terms of the First Amendment. In this, I am reminded of the movie 'The People vs Larry Flint.' Yes, it's important to have the right to annoy other people with words. Beating them up or blowing them to pieces because you disagree with them is a whole different matter, but words should be freely expressed.
In fact, that's why we left England years ago – because we couldn't bitch about the church, the Anglican Church, we Protestants. And we had underground meetings.
"I'm tired of this shit, let's go somewhere else, let's go to a different country where we can have our meetings and be Protestants. Let's go somewhere else so we can be disgusting. And do disgusting shows. No one can stop us – flaunt it in their faces."
or, quoting a Supreme Court decision,
"And the words 'vulgar' and 'disgusting' shall not apply, since human liberties are at stake."
Some people might say Lenny Bruce was asking for it, by being deliberately insulting and obscene, and they would not be very far off the mark. But the correct reaction is to not go to one of his shows instead of calling the cops to muzzle him. Or to go to one of his shows and actually trying to figure out what made him angry in the first place. But that's asking too much from bigots and racists
I may not read another of Lenny Bruce printed collections, but I am still interested in a live show.
March 9, 2015
I think you had to be there. The page doesn't come alive without Bruce's voice. Some of it seems so dated and yet the last few chapters,10 through 16, were excellent.
June 4, 2017
For years I've picked through this book, and have probably read it in its entirety more than once, but I decided recently to read it through 'properly', front to back, and really absorb it.
When I was first reading this book, the big Michael Richards/heckler thing happened and my view of it was that Richards was not only being gravely inappropriate, but it was a Lenny Bruce bit. It's right in the front of this book, and all I heard was Lenny Bruce's bit, and I wondered if anyone else, amidst the outrage, would realize this. But no, Lenny Bruce is nearly forgotten.
He may well find renewed importance in this era, with the way things are going. In any case it's a worthwhile historical document. The style of transcription leaves much to the imagination, so you should listen to a bit Lenny Bruce every now and again to cement the delivery style, to keep it in mind while you read 1/3rd of the performance (transcribing comedy brings up interesting problems and issues).
Similar to Burrough's connection between heroin and power, Bruce connects indecency with violence, and argues his point quite passionately. This book is a document of its time. It's certainly dated, and it's filled with slurs and would still be censured today, for somewhat different reasons than while Lenny was alive. It's a great historical document for that reason, as well. Perhaps not quite palatable to this era, or the one it came from. As a dissent enthusiast I can only admire that.
It's charming. I didn't understand some of the references to dusty news stories and now-obscure figures. Much of it, however, is timeless. My favorite chapter was the one about comedy, but the last four chapters detail obscenity and the 'good-good' culture and this is where the philosophical crux of the book lies.
It's an important book to read if you're a comedy enthusiast, have even a passing interest in the not-entirely-different America of the late 50's/early 60's, or are a counterculture nerd.
When I was first reading this book, the big Michael Richards/heckler thing happened and my view of it was that Richards was not only being gravely inappropriate, but it was a Lenny Bruce bit. It's right in the front of this book, and all I heard was Lenny Bruce's bit, and I wondered if anyone else, amidst the outrage, would realize this. But no, Lenny Bruce is nearly forgotten.
He may well find renewed importance in this era, with the way things are going. In any case it's a worthwhile historical document. The style of transcription leaves much to the imagination, so you should listen to a bit Lenny Bruce every now and again to cement the delivery style, to keep it in mind while you read 1/3rd of the performance (transcribing comedy brings up interesting problems and issues).
Similar to Burrough's connection between heroin and power, Bruce connects indecency with violence, and argues his point quite passionately. This book is a document of its time. It's certainly dated, and it's filled with slurs and would still be censured today, for somewhat different reasons than while Lenny was alive. It's a great historical document for that reason, as well. Perhaps not quite palatable to this era, or the one it came from. As a dissent enthusiast I can only admire that.
It's charming. I didn't understand some of the references to dusty news stories and now-obscure figures. Much of it, however, is timeless. My favorite chapter was the one about comedy, but the last four chapters detail obscenity and the 'good-good' culture and this is where the philosophical crux of the book lies.
It's an important book to read if you're a comedy enthusiast, have even a passing interest in the not-entirely-different America of the late 50's/early 60's, or are a counterculture nerd.
February 12, 2010
Dad had this book on the living room shelves and I read it in high school. Later, in college, a friend, Steve Slatin, played a bunch of LPs he had of Lenny Bruce performances. Since then, not that long ago, I saw a video of several performances. Frankly, I think I was too young to appreciate his work as much a persons of my father's generation did. The concept of obscenity was virtually nonexistent during my upbringing--unless, of course, you extend it to such things as the military adventurism of the USA, its effects on people all over the world and how its sold to people here at home.
May 31, 2014
The Essential Lenny Bruce by John Cohen (Douglas Books 1970)(nonfiction). The collected standup routines of Lenny Bruce without censure. He was the Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy of the fifties. My rating: 7/10, finished 1978.
March 23, 2024
At this point in time, with Bruce gone nearly 60 years and book banning seemingly in vogue throughout various jurisdictions, it is worthwhile to read this book and ponder not only the offence he may have caused some, but also his accuracy about much of the hypocrisy that is central to efforts to censor. Whether addressing his apparent obscenity while on stage or attacking books in 2024, his position remains a compelling touchstone and his assessment of those who sought to censor him and seem him arrested holds true. Those small-minded people have greater issues with their consciences than their pursuit of purity or clean speech or the good good is all laid on a little too heavy to be worth trusting in the public domain.
It would be intriguing to determine who much censorship Bruce, perhaps in the form of this book, continues to be censored or whether the ephemera of his spoken word has made him less of a threat now than he was in the 1960s. Contrasted with the staying power of books that continue to be targeted, this book becomes an interesting artefact and point of reference for reviewing issues around censorship today.
It would be intriguing to determine who much censorship Bruce, perhaps in the form of this book, continues to be censored or whether the ephemera of his spoken word has made him less of a threat now than he was in the 1960s. Contrasted with the staying power of books that continue to be targeted, this book becomes an interesting artefact and point of reference for reviewing issues around censorship today.
November 26, 2021
Being a fan of George Carlin (who, if I recall correctly, rode to jail with Lenny Bruce once), I decided to check this out.
Like other people say, it's probably better to listen to this than read it. I found some sections tedious.
It lost a star because it has "unexpurgated" in its title, but the material was "edited" by John Cohen. Sorry, you can't have both.
Like other people say, it's probably better to listen to this than read it. I found some sections tedious.
It lost a star because it has "unexpurgated" in its title, but the material was "edited" by John Cohen. Sorry, you can't have both.
October 22, 2020
"Satire is tragedy plus time."
Read
October 22, 2020One of the funniest books I read as a teenager. Looking forward to it again.
November 3, 2023
Its still insightful.
dnf
April 15, 2024Loved his depiction in Mrs. Maisel, but oh I am not edgy enough to enjoy this…
September 19, 2024
I don't know if I loved this just because I really like Lenny Bruce or because I was amazed at his story.
May 24, 2015
This book was a real hoot - a game of a book. I often get more out of reading a play than watching it, and these priceless monologues give me the opportunity to really study what LB was trying to do, and didn't distract me from all the nonverbal stuff he would do in his stand-up act, and also all the hype surrounding his legend. You can really understand from reading these monologues that Bruce was a social critic of the highest calibre; that he served a function in society by pointing to what cannot be said, what cannot be done, and what cannot be thought. And he takes on all comers: ''Communism is one big phone company. That's it, man. Can't go nowhere else.'' (of course this doesn't make sense now that Ma Bell has been long broken up). I didn't realize how much Yidddish LB used in his act - I learned a few words: emmis (''what I'm telling you is the whole truth) and schtarker (the heavy; a hulking gangster type) are two of my favorites. Anyway, I'll come back to this book later, because I want to write a novel about what it would be like if we had an LB in our world today - what would HE be saying?
December 26, 2012
This really gives you insight into the original comic who broke the barrier on using 4-letter words in public. He sacrificed at least 70% of his income, plus a fair degree of freedom to stand up for free speech/expression! When you read his routines, in context, you really wonder what all the fuss was about. & you learn how he accepted how there was religious bias at work with the police, prosecution, & judges. . . but he never discarded having respect for those with the difficult job of representing the people(his audience and his decriers)
June 9, 2010
Great collection of Lenny's skits, shtick, rants and philosophisings transcribed and indexed by subject. Particularly useful if you're one of those who occasionally has issues deciphering the great comic's Long Island accent, not to mention those Yiddish phrases you that can drive a klutz verklempt as a meshugeneh kolboynik, dig?.
January 30, 2013
I decided to read more comedian books this year. This is a collection of a number of Bruce's bits. My high school debate coach had a copy of this in his office and I remember leafing through it a couple of times. I'll admit some of this was excruciatingly dated, but a number of it was funny and still rings true. Worthwhile reading.
April 22, 2008
If you've ever heard an old L.B. recording, you'll know the guy was: 1) clearly on drugs and 2) not a very good stage comedian (he rambles foreeeeeever). This book edits all his brilliant ideas and monologues into a couple hundred pages and is the best way to really experience his humor.
February 27, 2008
I don't think you can love the first amendment and not love Lenny Bruce.
July 9, 2022
Acquired Sept 23, 1998
Cheap Thrills, Montreal, Quebec
Cheap Thrills, Montreal, Quebec
September 14, 2008
Hilarious and genius.
March 13, 2010
This man's crazy. It's entertaining though, imagining how people must have reacted to him when he was saying all these insane things...
August 1, 2009
Poor Lenny was crucified by J. Ogre Hoover for doing the kind of schtick that made Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy millionaires.
May 18, 2015
Very period
August 12, 2016
Lenny s own comedy routines and sketches in one volume .
June 28, 2012
Far ahead of his time.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews