Remembering Lenny Bruce

Remembering Lenny Bruce August 3, 2016 marked the 50™ anniversary of groundbreaking comedian Lenny Bruce’ s death from an overdose of morphine, while his New York obscenity conviction at Café Au Go Go was still on appeal. On that same day he received a foreclosure notice at his Los Angeles home. But it wasn’ t a suicide. In the kitchen, a kettle of water was still boiling, and in his office, the electric typewriter was still humming. He had stopped typing in mid-word: “Conspiracy to interfere with the 4" Amendment const” ...constitutes what, | wondered. Lenny was a subscriber to my satirical magazine, 7he Realist and in 1959 we met for the first time at the funky Hotel America in Times Square. He was amazed that | got away with publishing those profane words for which other periodicals used asterisks or dashes. He had been using euphemisms like “frig” and asked, “Are you telling me this is legal to sell on the newsstands?” | replied, “The Supreme Court's definition of obscenity is that it has to be material which appeals to your prurient interest.” He magically produced an unabridged dictionary from the suitcase on his bed, and looked up the word “pruient.” He closed the dictionary, clenching his HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030187