Lenny Bruce on Stage Just Before He Died

[Springfieldemcee]

Anyone like to take it in the ass?

[bailinnumberguy]

Today his act would be considered extremely tame. He opened the doors for all that followed him and the establishment went after him w/ a vengeance. A genius who had the misfortune of being born about a decade too early.

[5678567856]

I wonder if Bruce would have defended draw Muhammad day, or, would he have chickened out like the creators of South Park under Muslim threat.

[Chisholm342]

@5678567856 Matt and Trey never chickened out, It was the channel that backed out, They said that in The 14 years they had being doing south park thereis not one episode they would not back, It was comedy central Not Matt or Trey.

[5678567856]

@Chisholm342

Well, someone caved to Islam. Islam will ultimately be victorious.

[DonRMB]

@5678567856 Comedy Central didn't wanna get Bombed xD That's why the episode didn't go on the air!

[5678567856]

@DonRMB

That's for sure. Muslims rule.

[Woodshifter]

In the photo of Lenny Bruce dead, he's got a beard, so this can't be just before he died.

[googalunga]

Lenny was the first of his kind. There was no such thing as "club comedy" at that point, so it was possible for a comedian to do a twenty minute bit and get a laugh at the end. Now you get these fucking club managers that sit in the office with a stopwatch counting the number of laughs per minute a comic gets. Doesn't matter how hack or shitty, just keep 'em laughing and more importantly, drinking. It sucks.

[DrBones666]

Oh no, this is Lenny at the end.  Fixated on his trials.

[jacleafy]

@DrBones666 Yup, just like the end of his 'How To Talk Dirty & Influence People', sadly, disappears down a hole of obsession with court transcripts and, even perhaps, self-persecution. Clear to see how much he informed the work of Bill Hicks.

[shuvva]

better than seinfeld



[jamieblond1]

You've "never found him funny in the slightest" because you're a self-absorbed, humorless dumb-ass.

[rockyrigby]

I appreciate his work, but have never found him funny in the slightest.

[ghostrecon755]

Fuck da police!

[mookfaceful]

@Curiner

I feel I share his paradigm, as many others this day and age do. Unfortunarely for Lenny, being so ahead so ahead of his time made him a pariah in his own land and that takes a toll on your mental health. Without trailblazers like Bruce we'd still be listening to straight man / funny man routines and comedy would have never evolved the crucial elements of political satire which we enjoy today.

[DominionOfTheSword]

@Curiner Yeah there's an excuse for drugs.... seriously

[jawn123]

he must have grown a beard really fast after this then

[blenkarni]

Lenny was great but sadly his anti-christian bias led to nuts like Larry David pissing on Jesus. When Ramzpaul baked Anne franks diary in a gas oven on YouTube none of the leftist Jewish art critics who hail anti-Jesus artworks showed any support.

[CoolerKing37]

@blenkarni Yeah, they should've shitted in Jesus's mouth instead. 

[CoolerKing37]

@blenkarni I shit in the mouth of Jesus.

[blenkarni]

@CoolerKing37 Because you are the sort of cunt who will bring on another Holocaust. Buty go ahead if you have time between drinkling the piss of Arabs.

[CoolerKing37]

@blenkarni Good. Holocausts are fun. You'd be first in the gas chamber.

[unholychunk]

@CoolerKing37 thought that was our thng :(

[MrKirkenstein]

without Lenny...ahhhh....don't even want to think about it.

[xxxeMoforAday22xxx]

This is something you don't hear about in the "perfect" age of American cleanliness, this bloke is a legend!

[kirkleeslater]

thankl god hid mum popped him out of her vadge. he is a prelude to what was to come. the dylan of comedy

[thisNewFoundLand]

...wow. That dude was wild; it's the first footage of Bruce i've seen. Very slick. i see where Bill Hicks drew some of his courage from...thanks uploader.

[TheJomogogo]

Bruce should have died about 5 years earlier, that was when he stopped being funny. I wouldn't pay a nickle to listen to this shitty routine. He became a self absorbed douchebag crying about his legal battles like we cared.

[mgkibbles]

I can't stand Lenny Bruce as a comedian, but I love the material he hits. The dude had some rather large testicles to attack the mainstream ideals he went after.

[TheNotoriousTOM]

It's such a shame that people don't understand why he used "bad language" or "Racist terms". When this man used anything, it had several meanings behind it, he was trying to awaken his audience, get a reaction, then provoke actual conscious thought on the subject matter. Whether you agreed with him or not...

I think his message was lost on the audience of his era. He was definitely ahead of his time. Though there are several comments on this page that makes me think some still aren't ready...

[owenhunt]

@TheNotoriousTOM Bullshit.. You can just talk down to unamed people without justifying why Lenny Bruce ordains you to do so.

I'm confronting you here and now to elucidate exactly what Lenny Bruce achieved here.

[TheNotoriousTOM]

@owenhunt Lenny Bruce didn't "ordain" me to do anything. I was stating his angle on how pointless it was to hold fear and hate inside words, just because they are considered bad. It's not a complex concept, at least it's not today. To his live audiences it would have been a shock. He didn't necessarily achieve anything, people are offended by words more than ever.

I made that comment because some people could not look past the words he said, to see the effect he was using them for...

[owenhunt]

@TheNotoriousTOM I am from the place where the concept of two (middle and index) finger comes from. It is an insult to the French in that the archers whom did not have their removed by the French before the Battle of Agincourt stuck them up as a gesture of defiance and pride. I understand the concept of stigmatic gestures and words to a tee.

My offense with your comment was largely a reaction to the lack of closure on your part as to how people were falling short as comedy fans.

[owenhunt]

@TheNotoriousTOM I'm not vying to win this argument, no, I am hoping for a genuine explanation from yourself on the significance of what Bruce was doing here.

No one should be condescending on Youtube, but to be fair, you haven't been so, yet. ;)

[TheNotoriousTOM]

@owenhunt I'll just stop you right there, watch that Hoffman clip of "Lenny Bruce hard words" that should be on the right -->

I couldn't explain in great enough detail, so just watch that. I hope you see sense in his message. I didn't even know a movie existed, but it portrays the events brilliantly...

[owenhunt]

@TheNotoriousTOM Yes. I have seen that clip and to be fair, not enough of America has seen that movie or heard that routine to realise how innocuous a stigmatic word could be.

This is why forgiveness for those who can't understand his verbal wanderings on racism here as politically mobile, is deserved.

Maybe we should have a large post-it on this video directing any viewer onto the 'hard words' clip before passing judgement on what they see here.

Thanks for cooperating with me.

[blackezi3]

Kind of surreal, but i see ALOT of Lenny Bruce in Louis CK...

[lajollajoe]

He was a revolutionary of our times.

[PatrioticAstronaut]

You gits aren't hip enough for this.

[loetzfan]

I've never heard a Lenny Bruce act in my life. Now that I have I find him rambling, stumbling, boring and completely unfunny. Unless there aren't more than the three people in the audience that I hear laughing his contemporaries apparently agreed with me.

[superturtle1969]

@loetzfan he was a genius, your not to bright

[loetzfan]

@superturtle1969 Don't tell me, tell the 98% of his audience in this clip who were sitting on their hands while he bumbled, stuttered and stumbled through amateur hour. But hey, at least he made it OK to make fun of gays and call black people niggers in public...yeah that's pure genius...

[delysid22]

Is it really his last public appearance ?

[EdMahoney19]

Gee. What a hero. He defended the right to use dirty words in public. Also, aren't those racist epithets and dirty words funny? That's all he ever did. Such talent. So original. I don't think anybody would have thought of using dirty words and racial jokes in a comedy act. He's just pure genius. Too bad he was a junky. We missed out on him vomiting out more junk.

[superturtle1969]

@EdMahoney19 your an idiot

[onthetide]

"Take away the right to say "fuck" and you take away the right to say "fuck the government"." - Lenny Bruce

[lifepod2036]

BTW  he sidetracked around 3mins but I guess that's part of his act. to throw you off then reel you back in.

[lifepod2036]

without looking at wiki.. what killed Lenny?

[TheFilmerDudes]

@lifepod2036 He overdosed on morphine.

[lifepod2036]

@TheFilmerDudes Oh ok. Most of them did in the day. Damn beat nics >:[

[spagandtuna]

To me, the real tragedy of Bruce is that he felt so persecuted and probably isolated that he really did seem to forget what his day job was. Today, someone would probably have conveyed successfully to him that the outlets for a processing of his travails might more appropriately have been a combo of his therapist, writing, and/or a college professorship. If I had to listen to this shit, I would have stormed the box office for a refund. 

[shervman]

I always say the trinity of comedy were Bruce, Pryor and Carlin. May they all rest in peace!

PS. Fuck religion and fuck the government!!

[thegirl44]

An amphetamine addict that died of a heroin overdose.

Sounds like an open and shut case to me.

[IRELAND130]

i agree jerry lewis was clean...more innuendo than smutty......but lenny pushed some buttons...and paid the price...he was a pioneer....RIP

[Roggiedodgie]

He was an attention starved jackass

[giles422]

This appearance is from December 1965, and Lenny's last appearance was June '66 at the Fillmore in SF. It's not exactly just before he died, but it is his next to last show.

[vivascargill]

@inbetweentics absolutely!! in fact sometimes I think liberals were the people he had most contempt for.

[Stronghurst]

Lenny Bruce was a confidental police informant putting the finger on the pushers who sold him dope.

[pernaaa]

a true beacon of reason and logic . briliant analyst of reality

[meterman432110]

Lenny was a comic ahead of his time some of the things he said made sense maybe not in good taste but made sense.Yes the powers that be didn't like him because of what he said offended them but old Lenny set the example for Richard Pryor to Redd fox even Eddie Murphy they took away or right but they couldn't take talent nor legacy rip Lenny!!!! 1926-1966

[ZEITGEISTism]

what the hell are you crapping on about ?? and who the hell is "mike scott canada" and who is sarah silerman ?? in OTHER words Be clear if you have a legitimate point to make ! or you are in danger of sounding like a frigging LOONY (And you do )

[woodskier]

no one has wireses to yer brain

[Unclemoparman]

Riveting.

[hasbor]

Arrested for impersonating a priest while attempting to solicit "donations".

Blacklisted by nearly every comedy club in the United States, not because they didn't want him, but because they were afraid authorities would shut the clubs down.

Died naked August 3, 1966 of a morphine overdose.

[Kingofmean]

On stage right before he died?it must of been a while before he died because died with a full faced beard,naked on the floor from an OD of morphine.

[david510152025303540]

Genius "Lenny Bruce in substance" perfect. RIP

[nycblaz]

@BJZnRPZ

[oliverecords]

@BJZnRPZ and Hitler is serving tea.

[nicklang4444]

one of comedy's founding fathers

RIP

[SuperSkurre]

Why did you cut it?

[cricketclaps]

just a year and some before he died. Unless he grew that beard that night.

[AndreaElizabeth100]

Did he die on stage? I used to think it would be cool to die on stage. These days people even die on tv.

[nycblaz]

@AndreaElizabeth100

[AndreaElizabeth100]

When did he die? This is sad sad he died. He seems so cool.

[acerb45666555]

the cat knew the deal!

[rouzbehazshab]

let's face it we are nothing but a cluster of infentile ignorant no good for nothing beings who think too highly of ourselves.

people like bruce lenny only point that out.

and they allways get concdemned or at best just not understood.

[feyd8194]

good, smart, original people die and dumb, recycled people run amok. blame republicans.

[BiggieB99]

apparently you fall into the latter category; otherwise you would blame republicans and democrats, with emphasis on the dems.

[franzy1]

Anyone who loves comedy must acknowledge that Lenny was necessary for the evolution of the melieu. No Lenny, no Chris Rock, no Saturday Night Live, etc. Jerry Lewis was cutting edge pre-Lenny. This was a protean force of nature. It's easy to sit at your keyboard with your pants around your ankles admiring your smug putdowns. What have you done to merit your critic's voice?

[Strafvollzieher]

no lenny, no 2pac, no bill hicks.....

[alaazahra]

@franzy1 also george carlin !

[franzy1]

the 1st law was the religious law

"We sleep in area A, we eat in area B, we throw our garbage in area C"

A guy wakes up and gets a faceful of garbage.

"I thought it was A B &C?"

"Well it's a religious holiday and you're not religious, so it's your ass."

And this guy started the first guy separating the church and the state!

Real freedom of expression died in America in the 60s. It's still dead. RIP Lenny.

[606Spruce]

This is fascinating. If you haven't seen Dustin Hoffman in "Lenny", you might enjoy it. It is a great film.

[LuckyLukarse1981]

A great thought from someone who looked a society with clear gaze and a nihilistic wit, love this to bits

[davidgeorge11]

Lenny thought he was a lot funnier than he was. Granted, he was funnier than the competition at the time, because there really wasn't any.

[badgeeater]

He's not really going for comedy here.

[Universalcorps]

nope, he was pissed.

Have you never been so pissed till you start to laugh?

I know I have, and making a joke of it is always good.

[drummer1brt2gzs]

wow!

[Istandbyme]

Wow he was handsome too!

[margotdarby]

maybe a year...I saw him on Alan Burke in 1966

[jonpcab]

this is not before he died . . . unless he managed to grow a beard right before he OD'ed . . .

[secondwindrecords]

jonpcab... if this is not before he died, then it must be pretty soon afterwards.

[AmanteFennes187]

@jonpcab

Everything anyone does, cannot be done at any other moment than before they die. Dig?

[gabsylv]

@AmanteFennes187 said JUST before he died diggeth?

[pweek]

@jonpcab No it's definately before he died. Well it could be after.....but that would be strange.

[fuckamericanidiot]

@jonpcab this isn't before he died? surely not afterwards!

[kristin7858]

i love him

[cirujapops]

Genio.