Wednesday, december 15, 1976
daily nebrssksn
paga 9
Lenny's words soy it
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Review by Rlichsel Zangari
It was a haggard Lenny Bruce who stopped in the mid
'dle of his att in 1965, looked through the haze of a San
Francisco bar and slowly apologized to his audience for
not being funny that nisht. .
"Sometimes I'm not a comic, I'm Lenny Bruce, he
said.
The legal pressures and constant police harassment
would hound him until his death from an overdose of
morphine a year later.
In that rare moment in 1965, Bruce seemed to have a
notion of what was to come. Bruce's own search for
identity, as he became an unwilling martyr, was just
another in a long series of battles he was to lose.
It has been more than 1 0 years since his death. Leafing
through the Bruce legacy, and the post humoroasjresur-V
rections, I'm left with the same questions that must have
faced those who loved him the most.
Irony
"It's ironic that a man like Bruce has been the subject
of at least eight money-making books and three movies,
from the same people who wouldn't even answer the
phone calls from him when he needed help the most.
Bruce died penniless.
What has resulted is the most vicious grave robbing in
this country for years.
The books, and there are plenty of them, are rush jobs,
and for the most part poorly written and turned out in
order to get the greatest possible profits.
- Ladies and Gerdlemmi Lenny Bruce,- for -example, a
comprehensive biography by Albert Goldman from the
journalism of Lawrence Shiller, is so full of factual -inaccuracies
and innuendo it could pass as fiction.
Bruce is pictured as a drug-crazed madman, munching
handfuls of rnesacaline and going off personal vendettas
of insane proportions. .
The mammoth volume does not have an index, and in
most places no attribution.
Tim. ckGhaesv. .
Continued from p. 8
Although this has been typical of the Eagles' produc
tion in the past, it was done because of the group's
reliance on vocal melody and harmony.
With such talented guitarists as Felder and Walsh, it
would be more profitable to forge a synthesis between
vocals and guitars by enlarging the guitars' role in the
music?- "'" -' . . ""r "
Taken as a whole, llojel California is another in a long
line of excellent Eagles albums. Its weak spots are more
manifest than other liagles efforts, but it still provide
a nice blend of soft-rock and simple progressive iuuhi.
Goldman's analysis of Bruce's pain is intolerable.
If taken with a larger than normal dose of salt, a
glimmer of what Bruce's life must have bene like might
come through some of the rambling. For that, the book is
worth reading.
Better than most
Lenny the Broadway play that was later developed into
the movie starring Dustin Hoffman, was written by Julian
, Barry.
Because most of the material for the text comes from
Bruce's own material, it fares better than most. '
The play and the movie intersperse scenes from his
nightclub act with scenes from his personal life.
Although there is not always a direct relationship be
tween his art and his life, this works well. The play is
satisfying, but not entirely so. '
It bolsters the Lenny-as-saint train of thought, and
leaves you with little insight into the man's pain or power.
Bruce was human. His weaknesses are as important as
his strengths. No work has successfully shown this.
v No relief
If exerpts from the upcoming book by Bruce's wife,
Honey, are an example of what is to come, then no
'relief is in sight.
While Honey's facts may be accurate, it is the worst
piece of garbage written about Eruce to date.
We are subjected to the most graphic and least sensi
tive descriptions of Honey's many affairs.
We know what every hair on her body is doing, and
every sound her stomach makes. It seems exploitative
coming from just about the last place you would expect
it-Bruce's wife.
This taken aide, as we finally may get to some badly
needed insight into the nsarriage of the two intense per
sons. The book will be published later this month.
Frank Kofsky's Lenny Bruce: The Comedian As Social
Critic and Secular Moralist, is ss heavy handed as its title.
What makes it better than most books is that it is an
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undisguised analysis in the form of a thesis. .
It is well thought out and surprisingly cohesive. The
small bock has its share of mistakes, but for the most
part, is good.
. Eruce himself published an autobiography, which at
least gives an impression cf what Bruce himself had to
say about himself.
Grala cf sdt . ' . .
Although it too has to be taken with a grain of salt,
moments of intense emotional outpourings say much.
It is also a good sampling of Bruce's form of comedy..
The Essential Lenny Bruce, edited by John Cohen, is
an uneven collection of Bruce monologues. -
There are problems with this because Bruce worked in
a stream of conciousness, flowing from one subject bo
another. He never did two shows alike.
The best approach for those interested in Lenny Bruce
is to listen to him.
, There are a variety of recorded materials available.
Although the early recordings are listenable for a die
hard Bruce fanatic, most seem dated.
The later concert recordings fare better.
Carnegie Hall, The Curm Theatre, The Berkeley Con
cert (if you can wade through the legal references) and
Lenny Emce, What I Was Arrested For, are all exception-
In the end, Bruce1 will be the only one to speak for
himself, and not surprisingly, he does the best job of all.
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