The Lenny Bruce Performance Film

Today's standup comedians owe a tremendous debt to Lenny Bruce, a comic who came up during the Eisenhower era and pushed the boundaries of what was considered appropriate material for nightclub audiences. Irreverent and profane, Bruce often shocked the people he was trying to entertain, and his frequent blasts of obscenity got him arrested multiple times. Bruce refers (at length) to his brushes with the law in this 1965 performance film, shot in San Francisco's Basin Street West (one of the city's hippest clubs), a record of his second-to-last live gig before his death in 1966 that shows this inventive, facile performer at his quicksilver best. Even today, 40 years later, some of his humor retains the power to shock, and he continues to be emulated by others. DVD extras include the wonderful “Thank You, Mask Man,” a hilarious animated parody of the Lone Ranger, set to a recording of one of Bruce's stage routines. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (E. Hulse)