Looking for Lenny

[Radio tuning]

[Big band music plays]

December 7th, 1941...

A date which will live...

In infamy.

[Announcer]

This is the news

that electrified the world.

Unconditional surrender.

Thanks, Jean,

I'll be there.

[Martin Luther king]

Injustice anywhere

is a threat

to justice everywhere.

The most shocking comedian

of our time,

Lenny Bruce.

Here he is.

No, I promise, continuity,

I'll behave myself.

[Kennedy]

Ask not

what your country

can do for you...

Will Elizabeth Taylor

become bar mitzvahed?

[Audience laughs]

[Announcer]

There are a few

isolated flare-ups

between whites

and negroes.

By the way, are there

any niggers here tonight?

[Audience laughs]

That's what we're doing

in Vietnam.

[Audience laughs]

[Man]

The United States

of America

was suddenly

and deliberately attacked.

[Bruce]

The reason I got busted,

arrested,

i picked on the wrong God.

There are words

that offend me.

Let's see,

governor faubus,

segregation offend me.

What has happened

to our moral values?

Don imus.

[Imus]

That's some nappy-headed

hoes, there.

You might be interested

in how

I became offensive.

[Piano music]

Lenny set the bar

for comedy, for everybody.

He pushed the envelope

at a time

when things

were tightening.

He opened the door for anybody

who ever stands in public

and speaks

and says anything.

The public

and their reputation

created the guy

that he became

and ultimately led

to his downfall.

People that paid to see

Lenny Bruce

came and they saw a man

starting to crumble.

Hold everything.

What's the matter?

It's all over.

What's all over?

The hair

on that man's head.

Oh, come on.

My grandfather knew Lincoln's

gettysburg address.

Well, what's so great

about that?

Everybody knows Lincoln's

gettysburg address.

Yeah, but he knew

his telephone number, too.

Ahhh.

Before Lenny Bruce,

comics were really people

who introduced strippers.

They would do ten jokes,

you know, and here's Sally,

and she's going

to show you her stuff.

When I first got into

stand up comedy on nbc,

you couldn't have

a cleavage

or your knees showing.

It's all different

than it was when we started

because, except for

a few comedians,

you couldn't use any

blue material.

You couldn't touch

on anything

that was controversial

in politics and religion.

What was I, 21

when I discovered Lenny Bruce,

and I started doing

stand-up at 17.

And the first few years

I heard of Lenny Bruce,

and I was like,

"who's this Lenny Bruce?

"Who cares? Some old guy,

he died, whatever,

heroin overdose."

And then I went

to the museum,

the museum

of radio and television,

and I started watching.

And again,

you're just in awe

the moment you

start watching the guy,

because he did have

his own style,

and, you know,

his whole hip thing, man,

you know, dig.

Lenny was discovered

by Paul Desmond,

the alto saxophonist

with brubeck.

Lenny was working

a strip joint

in the San Fernando valley

as the emcee.

'Cause I remember he started out

doing impressions.

So many of the great comedians

started out doing impressions,

you know.

Guys like Eddie Murphy

and Jim carrey. Me.

There were kids that,

eight and nine years old,

that were sniffing

airplane glue.

[Audience laughs]

To get high on, you know.

So I had sort of a fantasy

how it happened.

The kid is alone

in his room.

And it's Saturday.

The child is played

by George macready.

[Audience laughs]

[In a gruff voice]

Well, let's see now,

I'm all alone

in the room,

and it's Saturday.

Mother's away

and what'll I do

that's good

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