Los Angeles Club Renaissance 1962

Item Information

Title:
Los Angeles Club Renaissance 1962
Description:
Presented here is a digital version of a recording of a Lenny Bruce performance at Club Renaissance in Los Angeles, most likely in 1962. The recording begins with the set in progress. Bruce does some bits about air travel. He tells a story about having run into bandleader Les Elgart in Detroit. It was surprising that Elgart was smoking pot, but Bruce figures it's because Elgart's wife left him for a hipster. He feels bad that Elgart was arrested for pot, but decides maybe now he considers himself a Big Daddy. Another incident in Detroit, a scam promise of a dirty show reminds him about the top-notch brothel he went to in Algiers. He mentions scandals in Pennsylvania and entertainers Charlie Weaver and Dinah Shore. He suggests what may have been going on between Shirley Temple and Bojangles. He does short jokes about Liberace, Richard Nixon, Paul Robeson, Sammy Davis Jr. and Sophie Tucker. He refers to the fact that the previous Sunday he'd only sold 500 tickets for a show at the Curran Theater in San Francisco, leaving 1100 empty seats. He relates a scenario in which 1100 tickets are given to winos, along with a pint of whiskey. The drunks cause trouble, pass out and stay in the theater for the next engagement, a play starring Dana Andrews. He mentions a German friend from the newspaper The Californian. He talks about how Englishmen can say crap' and it sounds classy. He discusses whether various ethnic groups have paid their dues, and says midgets get away with everything. He says the midgets are getting ready for the world's fair in Seattle (the Seattle World's Fair was in 1962). He does The Romans Segregated Christians with Lions and Black Black Woman White White Woman. He talks about people living in the San Fernando Valley, describing them by the terms body and fender men, eating instant potatoes and Starlac Milk, where children have too-small t-shirts and grape jelly on their navels, and they're waiting for Hoover to come back. He does a bit on mothers of different ethnicities and says the Negro cat is the only cat I know can go home at 40 years old with no bread and be welcomed unconditionally by his mother. Jewish and Italian mothers expect their sons to chip in. A black son can even bring his kids home with him: his mother will wash windows and wear men's shoes, that's a haimish mother (Yiddish for homey). He says the more assimilated an ethnic group becomes, the thinner their lips get, and that goyim have no mouths at all. He imagines a movie about a nun about to quit not out of a conflict with the Catholic Church, but because she wants to show off her nice legs. The movie's theme is that the Bomb has been dropped, but has only hit bomb shelters. Jonathan Winters will play a lunatic rapist who is disappointed when the women's ward he busts into is full of nymphomaniacs. He comments on the band who usually plays at the club (since it's Sunday, they took their drums). He mentions the club owner Benny (Ben I. Shapiro). He looks behind the curtain to backstage. He does Santa Claus interviewed by Edward R. Murrow. The set ends. The first part of this file repeats the material on file LB_64a, some of which is also on LB_39. Full length copies of the recordings are available for use in the department. Please contact the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, Brandeis University for more information.
Date:
1962
Format:
Audio recordings (nonmusical)
Location:
Brandeis University Libraries
Collection (local):
Lenny Bruce Audiorecordings
Series:
Lenny Bruce Collection
Subjects:
Bruce, Lenny
Comedians--United States
Stand-up comedy--United States
Jewish comedians--United States
American wit and humor
Comedy--Social aspects
Extent:
25 min., 34 sec.
Link to Item:
http://hdl.handle.net/10192/33050
Terms of Use:
Material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Please contact the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, Brandeis University.
Contact host institution for more information.
Language:
English
Notes (funding):
Funded in part by a grant from the GRAMMY Foundation ®
Identifier:
LB_57