HOW TO TALK DIRTY AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE
Fireside, 1992
Stand Up Comedy
During the course of a career that began in the late 1940s, Lenny Bruce challenged the sanctity of organized religion and other societal and political conventions; he widened the boundaries of free speech. Critic Ralph Gleason said, "So many taboos have been lifted and so many comics have rushed through the doors Lenny opened. He utterly changed the world of comedy."
Although Bruce died when he was only forty, his influence on the worlds of comedy, jazz, and satire are incalculable. How to Talk Dirty and Influence People remains a brilliant existential account of his life and the forces that made him the most important and controversial entertainer in history.
Comédia / Humor
"Here he is, Lenny in his own words, words that mean almost more today in this age of Jesse Helms and George Bush than when they were first uttered. "Saint Lenny...died for our sins. As the pendulum slowly shifts, we are back in such conservative times as those that spawned him in the first place, and so now's the time to read him." -FROM THE INTRODUCTION BY ERIC BOGOSIAN
Lenny Bruce, the scathing and hilarious social satirist and comedian, died in 1966 at age 40 of a morphine overdose, During the course of a career that began in the late 1940s, he challenged the sanctity of organized religion and other societal and political conventions he perceived as having hypocritical tendencies, and widened the boundaries of free speech. His performances were intensely controversial for both the subject matter and the vocabulary employed, and his fight for the freedom of expression has made possible the work of subsequent generations of provocative perform- ers. Critic Ralph Gleason said, "So many taboos have been lifted and so many comics have rushed through the doors Lenny opened. He utterly changed the world of comedy."
"The word's suppression gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness." -LENNy BRUCE