Lenny Bruce: The Making of a Prophet
by W. K. Thomas
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Book Summary Information
Author: W. K. ThomasEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-05-01
ISBN: 0208022376
Number of pages: 149
Publisher: Archon
Book Reviews of Lenny Bruce: The Making of a Prophet
Book Review: "To Stare Down The Barrel of a Loaded Microphone"
Summary: 5 Stars
Lenny Bruce never waited for the television censors to not be listening before he delivered his punchlines. Lenny Bruce was never afraid to improvise a skit where the characters were shallow one dimensional vehicles whose sole purpose was to give life to his punchline, much like Karl Marx who created characters of similar depth in his monumental work, "Das Kapital" characters who were used to breathe life into his economic examples. Lenny Bruce was a stand up comedian who traveled across the country from gig to gig with two suitcases, the first suitcase was packed full of paperback books, the second suitcase was packed full of newspapers and magazines. When Lenny came on stage he did so with a newspaper tucked under one arm, he would clutch the microphone with one free hand and hold a cigarette in the other hand. He looked like, "a late night existential detective who was solving one case while beginning to investigate a new one." Lenny bought black silk oversized "kleenex" suits for each night he had a gig, he hired fraternity house renegade jazz drummers who dropped out of college. He would ask the college renegades, "What were the most influential books you have ever read?" Lenny would then track these books down, read them and discuss them with the jazz drummers. It was not drugs or four letter words that made Lenny Bruce dangerous, it was his ability to not only be literate but to comprehend what he had read, but what makes the material of Lenny Bruce transcend the label "dangerous" and allows it to enter the realm of entertainment was his ability to sew it all together and aim it at the hypocracy of society or his audience, this is what makes the comic ability of Lenny Bruce a gift and not a gimmick, very few comics have come close but none will hit the mark the way Lenny Bruce did. If you, the reader, want to learn the truth about Lenny Bruce from the perspective of a man who was his friend in the final years of his life then buy and read this book, "Lenny Bruce: The Making of a Prophet" by William Karl Thomas. In conclusion I can only qoute from, "Constantly Risking Absurdity", by Lawerence Farlenghetti, "And he a little charleychaplin man."
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