Bruce was so far ahead of his time. He laid the groundwork for people like Pryor, Carlin, Cambridge, and Gregory.   All brilliant satirists and comedians. Unfortunately you now also have people (mostly on Comedy Central and many clubs) who use smut for shock effect with no point whatsoever.

I have some Lenny Bruce material on recordings and a few of his routines I was able to play on my radio show---notable the Southern Used Car Salesman commercial for Fat Bobs Cars. He could do dialects very well. He skewered all the bigotry in that one. Another was the hypocrisy of racism where people said--"...would you want your sister to marry one?.. His punchline to that routine was--(paraphrase)"..your sister will jump over 10 Charles Laughtons to get to one Harry Belafonte and you will jump over 10 Kate Smiths to get to one Lena Horne".

Sadly the court cases pushed him over the top and he became unfunny and then drugs took him for good.

A bit of trivia---do you know his first TV appearance? Scroll down--










Arthur Godfrey's talent Scouts. His mother introduces him and he does impressions--Peter Lorre, Bogart, etc;

Bill Hahn