Rick Rosner: So, you asked about Lenny Bruce. Here’s what I know. He was a character in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I also saw part of the movie Lenny, which focused more on his sleazier side and his love affair with a stripper. His character in Maisel was more of an upstanding figure, mentoring Midge and helping her navigate the world of stand-up comedy.

He was one of the pioneers in comedy, moving away from generic joke-tellers like Henny Youngman and shifting to talking about personal experiences. As his struggles deepened, he remained witty, but his humour became less about punchlines and more about observations. That style wasn’t widely understood or appreciated in 1962. However, 20 years later, you had people  Spalding Gray, a professional storyteller.

It’s similar to what NPR does—or used to do—I don’t listen anymore, but like it’s still going, where people share personal stories. The show has a bird in the title. Anyway, Lenny Bruce was ahead of his time in some ways, but in others, he was an angry guy with substance abuse issues. Still, he was smart, a sharp observer of the world, and would have thrived in modern podcasts. Marc Maron comes to mind as a modern equivalent, though Maron doesn’t have a substance abuse problem. Maron is a comedian who finds things in the world to be sincerely angry about.

When I mentioned Henny Youngman, he’s the guy who goes on stage and says, “Take my wife, please.” It’s standard schtick, but he was good at it. His jokes weren’t personal, however.

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Rick Rosner, American Comedy Writer, www.rickrosner.org

Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Independent Journalist, www.in-sightpublishing.com

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