The huge price one comedian paid (Lenny Bruce) so that George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and others

[RKP5637]

could make it big

This is a very interesting read!

http://www.upworthy.com/the-huge-price-one-comedian-paid-so-that-george-carlin-richard-pryor-and-others-could-make-it-big?c=upw1&u=60ac1b338bbda6986b6cc1ea39c4a30877a3952b

Lenny "Bruce" Schneider blazed a trail for comedians starting in the 1950s, and our world has never been the same.

Before George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and others radically pushed the boundaries of comedy in our culture, there was one comedian who hurled himself against the roadblocks of conservative American society in the late-1950s and early-1960s and, ultimately, didn't survive it.
Lenny Bruce considered himself a jazz wordsmith, riffing layers of complex ideas and thoughts into word streams while onstage. His mother, a jazz musician herself, inspired him to think in those terms. He liked to speak his mind freely without censoring himself. In 1959, "Time" magazine wrote about comedians like him who tried to break down some of these barriers, calling them "sick comics."

In March 1964, the "New York Post" wrote, "Bruce stands up against all limitation on the flesh and spirit, and someday they are going to crush him for it."

In all, he was arrested seven more times over the next three years, twice for narcotics possession (both fabricated charges) and the rest for "obscenity." His last arrest and sentence of four months in a workhouse (for using profanity in a comedy routine) was still being appealed when he died of an accidental overdose in 1966.

Ultimately, the 1960s saw a huge cultural shift in our country, and the world for that matter. Lenny Bruce was a harbinger of things yet to come.

When Lenny Bruce died in August 1966, all the press reported it as a heroin overdose; however, it was an accidental overdose from morphine. He was a pauper at the time, having spent every dime he had on legal defense and trying to clear his name.

More at: http://www.upworthy.com/the-huge-price-one-comedian-paid-so-that-george-carlin-richard-pryor-and-others-could-make-it-big?c=upw1&u=60ac1b338bbda6986b6cc1ea39c4a30877a3952b

[olddots]

1. he was the father of rock & roll

in the comedic sence .Its scary listening to his stuff from 1958 that sounds like tomorrow .

[RKP5637]

2. Yep, I know exactly what you mean, I thought we had passed that era. n/t