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But not always.

Because you really didn't

know for sure

what was going to happen

on the night you went.

He was irreverent,

an individualistic,

and wasn't trying

to please anybody.

And people said

"too smart for the room.

Too dirty,

too this or that."

We were all

on the high wire.

We worked

without a net.

If I hired them,

then I put 'em on stage,

let them do

what they want to do.

You hired them

because you had faith

in what they

were doing.

So then don't tell them

what to say

and what not to say,

it's not my business.

If it wasn't for

Lenny Bruce,

you wouldn't have

Richard pryor

or George carlin.

You wouldn't have

these guys.

He really opened the doors

to what is today modern comedy.

He kicked that door down.

And as a result

usually it's the first guy

through the breech

that takes all

the bullets.

[Radio static]

Two persons really helped

Lenny Bruce during his career.

One in the press

and one on t.V.

Hugh Hefner

and Steve Allen,

were both very important

in Lenny Bruce's career.

Ladies and gentlemen,

here is a very

shocking comedian,

the most shocking comedian

of our time,

a young man who

is skyrocketing to fame,

Lenny Bruce.

Here he is.

[Audience applauds,

music plays]

[Gold]

He came from vaudeville,

that was the interesting thing,

and his mother, you know,

grew up in vaudeville,

and he grew up

in vaudeville.

And he just totally

bucked that trend

of, like,

ba-dum-bum jokes

and setup punch line,

"take my wife,"

and to get up there

and start talking

about yourself,

and to get really deep

and personal,

and talking about the world

you're living in,

and politicians

and racism

and class, it's like,

that's unbelievable.

Lenny went beyond

what any other mainstream

comics had done at the time.

[Lonow]

He began to speak in

the verbiage

that they would speak

at a table at canter's,

which nobody did.

You know, can I say

the word "f***"?

Yeah.

Well, I couldn't

say the word "f***"

in 1952, or four or five

before Lenny Bruce,

because they were

banned words.

It was a banned word.

And there were many.

But what happened

was his patter,

the type of speech

he used,

became very personal

on a level that

all the comics

of the fifties,

couldn't do, wouldn't do,

and they were, you know,

protective of the fact

that they wouldn't do that

in public.

You know, people

would be offended.

Holy sh*t, I can't

say that on stage.

Well, I guess Lenny

either wasn't offended,

or provoked it.

He went into a direction

no one had really gone into.

And, uh...

And mort Saul

in a sense was doing it,

but Lenny was pushing...Um,

pushing further.

He responded to injustice.

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