Lenny Bruce: Naughty American
JANUARY 29, 2008
SAN DIEGO (TNA) – In the 1960s, when stand-up comics were entertaining clubs with acts about family life and politics, Lenny Bruce stepped up to the mic and joined in, only his shtick elicited more than laughter. The obscenity-laced routines that poured from his mouth jolted audiences, rattled law enforcement figures and emboldened First Amendment rights supporters across the nation, earning him the Naughty American stripes that he still wears in his grave today.
Comedian Lenny Bruce was jailed several times for violating obscenity laws, but the fact that we can call the folks who arrested him 'cocksuckers' is proof he's an influential Naughty American.
Bruce’s career as a stand-up comedian started sluggish in New York in the 1950s with pedestrian bits composed of mediocre impressions and routines that entertained few. But he eventually morphed into a free-speech pugilist who jabbed and hooked his way into fame with social commentary material on sex, American culture, race relations and religion, among other subjects that offended, yet impressed the masses.
His use of the word “cocksucker,” along with an elaborate and sexual bit on the prepositional phrase “to come,” not only launched him into a sensationalistic stardom, but broke a barrier for performance artists looking to express their opinions in a similar foul-mouthed manner.
But the pathway Bruce blazed for free speech was no easy task. Not only did he fight a heroin addiction behind the curtain, he battled The Man for what he believed in onstage. His vulgar tongue spat what law enforcement officials considered to be venomous to the public – an obscene, malignant poison that could only be restrained by locking up the very monster whose mouth it came from. And so they did.
Bruce was jailed several times for allegedly violating obscenity laws during his acts. His first arrest came Oct. 4, 1961, at The Jazz Workshop in San Francisco. According to “The Trials of Lenny Bruce” (Sourcebooks, Inc.), a chronicle of Bruce’s legal woes by Ronald K.L. Collins and David M. Skover, the comic launched into a bit recalling a phone conversation with an agent who booked him at Ann’s 440, a gay club in San Francisco.
After using the word “cocksuckers” to describe the club’s clientele, Bruce moved on to another bit – a jazz riff in which he jammed on a drum and cymbal while explaining the sexual nature of the prepositional phrase “to come.”
According to “Trials,” the act ended with a jab at the comic’s opponents: “Now, if anyone in this room or the world finds those two words decadent, obscene, immoral, amoral, asexual – the words “to come” really make you feel uncomfortable – if you think I’m rank for saying it to you … you probably can’t come. And then you’re of no use because that’s the purpose of life, to recreate it.”
Bruce's groundbreaking routines about the hypocrisy of obscenity laws have inspired comedians like Richard Pryor and George Carlin.
A San Francisco police officer whose superiors ordered him to watch over the performance reported the findings to top brass and subsequently arrested Bruce, according to “Trials.” After several court proceedings, a jury found him not guilty of misdemeanor obscenity charges. The acquittal pushed Bruce even further, prompting him to extend his middle finger out as far as he could in the face of censorship.
He continued to needle the law and at the same time please audiences with his taboo performances on the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt’s tits and sex with chickens, but his career met a logjam when clubs began to reject his obscene shows – which he refused to clean up – fearing trouble with the authorities. He was arrested again on obscenity charges in Los Angeles, Hollywood and Chicago. Juries deadlocked in the California courts, but Bruce was convicted in Illinois and sentenced to a year in jail, which he avoided on appeal.
Even countries outright banned Bruce from performing. At his first and only show in Sydney, Australia, it has been said that Bruce managed to only say “What a fucking wonderful audience!” before police whisked him off stage and banished him from ever working there again.
Believing New York to be his last refuge, Bruce appeared twice at the Café Au Go Go in Greenwich Village in 1964. At each performance, however, undercover detectives in the audience arrested him on suspicion of obscenity. A six-month trial that made nationwide headlines followed, and on Nov. 4, 1964, Lenny Bruce was found guilty of obscenity.
In December, 2003, New York governor George Pataki gave Bruce a posthumous pardoned for his 1964 obscenity conviction -- the first in the State's history.
His New York conviction came despite testimony and support from numerous entertainers and artists such as Woody Allen, Bob Dylan, James Baldwin, Norman Mailer and Allen Ginsberg. At his sentencing, Bruce pleaded the judge to allow him to perform his act for the court so it would understand his reasons for using the same words and gestures that law enforcement officials found to be obscene. Instead, the judge ordered him to four months in the workhouse on each of three counts of obscenity.
Free on bond during his appeal, Lenny Bruce died of what was ruled as a drug overdose in his Hollywood Hills home on Aug. 3, 1966. Some say censorship took his life.
Nonetheless, Bruce’s death – and life – fed a nation unknowingly deficient of free speech and unlocked its doors for his followers. Bruce has been voted No. 3 of the Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time by Comedy Central, falling respectively behind Richard Pryor and George Carlin, both of whom have cited him as an influence.
In December 2003, more than three decades after his death, New York Gov. George Pataki granted Bruce a posthumous pardon for his obscenity conviction – the first posthumous pardon in the state’s history. In other words, even as Lenny Bruce lies in his grave, he’s still giving his detractors the finger. Now that’s a Naughty American.
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