is going to be talking about pork that's my right you see as an american citizen to discuss pork and stage although disgust all of you vegetarians and jews and moslems that is my right and if you obscenity has one specific meaning to appeal to the present interest to get you horny that's the senate see if that's why strip doesn't get arrested for being obscene they came out the door horny dance to do it yes want to rape somebody who didn't see the show fuck you daddy i would like an honest equation for many at least grammar school graduate is a waste son of a bitch less obscene to you than motherfucker really it's just the fact that a catholic president called all business out of the bench isn't a jewish comic related motherfucker if you're interested in the meaning of obscenity imo it's obscene and the president is the word motherfucker stimulates your in new york lenny bruce was the iconic american stand up comedian social critic and satirist of his time one of the most profound and kind of clips the voices in the popular culture of the fifty's and sixty's he was open hip had a free style and critical life force toward the world of comedy which integrated satire in politics religion sex and what some considered the garrity he was very very funny hundred sixty four conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by the first in history of new york state posthumous pardon by then governor pataki in two thousand and three in two thousand and seventeen rolling stone rank and third behind richard pryor and george carlin as the best stand up comic of all time both pryor and carlin considered him a major influence prior hearing bruce for the first time said it changes life call and was arrested along with bruce after refusing to provide identification when police raided a bruce performance by one hundred sixty six he had been blacklisted in nearly every nightclub in the united states owners feared prosecution for obscenity he was banned outright from several u s cities and appeared on network television only six times in his life in one thousand sixty six he was found dead of a drug overdose on the floor of his bathroom in his california home ye renowned for paving the way for future outspoken counterculture era comedians he became the dark angel the secret source of straights for a whole new breed it was said that his own work was a dead end but out of that compost grew the buds of a flourishing school and perhaps most importantly for us today is uncompromising radical imagination moral integrity and humor stood up to the authoritarian small minded hypocritical bigots of is type he was famously eulogize in playboy magazine with the memorable last line one last four letter word for lenny dead was based on the broadway stage play of the same name that starred cliff gorman in his one nine hundred seventy two tony award winning role our guest today on the radical magination has picked up the baton from both hoffman and gorman is delivering a tour de force performance of a lifetime in i'm not a comedian i'm lenny bruce it's a production directed by joe montana and was written by and stars our guest today on the show many many blessings to our guest who was stood in the breach in the gap bringing to life this incredible play and embellishing it with one hell of a terrific performance he's a great actor writer director producer and instructor before we meet bonnie marmo here's a short clip about the play during its run in l a he's considered the most controversial comedian of all time  is directing a play about him i am not a comedian i'm lenny bruce at the uterus sixty eight in l a actor ronnie marmo as lenny the little rest in san francisco for saying no say i'm not going to repeat that ten letter hyphenated word decent to tell this story and not try to muck it up with any hollywood baloney and just kind of do what he did indeed and try to you comedian many people considered one of the best standup comics of all time but a definite wild card who walked a dangerous line what's the wors speech all these kinds of things so so many different issues but lenny bruce as well as as the clip said i mean he was a trailblazer in running is the middle of i think a remarkable job of putting this piece together writing his piece and and channeling lenny bruce well thank you i you know lenny bruce to me like we think about carlin and pryor and all these guys but i'll lenny they don't exist and actually if you don't know carlin pryor you know louis c k chris rock all these guys right and he just you know it's amazing how this man was arrested and sent on the whole grew up with the berkeley concerts being very influenced by this this man how did you come to do this you're a young guy here and so you know like joe said you channeled and how did you come up with this well  but i don't know twelve to fifteen years ago a wonderful comic and actor charlie brill of you know charlie brill charlie really miss him a call there comedy team charlie bill came to me and he said i have this one man show i'd like you to consider do you know lenny bruce is and i said yeah but i only knew what everyone else knew you know the foul mouth comic no but i didn't know the man right so he said i want to do this play they wrote but once you do it i'll direct and i said well i don't know so i read it and i got nervous because i thought well lenny's friends were going to come  know i felt like a big responsibility so a few years went by and charlie would check in on me and finally we made a little bet truly i lost the bet and so i said ok i'll do it so i did this play it was another version and it went great and i ran for six months and it was someone else's play oh this was an l a l a this was like twelve or so maybe and i get ten twelve years ago and i fell in love with lenny bruce through my research and then doing the show what do you fall in love with what got you go and his flaws you know i fall in love with the the stuff that people need and yet the demons the demons the demons you know i identify with him so much i mean this man he never found recovery you know he was an addict and i also am recovering addict for many many years and i don't mind talking about it i was a kid when i when i gave it up the brooklyn kid i am a great warner bros lynn and half raised in new jersey so i claim both you know and also my love for my mom my love for my daughter you know love for my wife all those things i just identify on such a crazy level with lenny in his personal life personal life yet was there anything so that was the thing that was so after i did the play for a while i really enjoyed it you know and then but we didn't do the bits of the play he didn't have the rights to the bit so finally i just said you know i feel like i want to tell more of his story so that play would or had already been written and so i said well i said t playwright i'm going to write my own i love your blessing sort of numerous and so i went off and i wrote this what you saw and i wanted to tell the whole story and i didn't want to cut any corners with and i wanted to do is bits two so then i y in ten years with kitty bruce trying to get the bits and she gave me the her blessing and she saw the social many times and and so that's how it happened i fell in love with lenny through another play and then i put the pen on paper when i when i wanted to tell his whole story and the dea and show the demons and the connection to your own personal struggles and passions which really come to i mean this is a play that really has to be emotionally and physically incredibly difficult and you've got to work yourself or do you how do you get into character where you know time is a powerful power thank you for saying that i i take you to eat and for eighty five minutes you know it's like i often say like well sort of the audience of the says it in a good way i mean on that ride will we go on the ride yeah well you know the thing is is like i don't like watching acting right who likes to watch acting when you spot acting it's a problem so my heart doesn't know that i'm acting so i can't pretend i have to explore the deepest corners of my heart to do this show every moment moment to moment or else it's going to be false i'm up there by myself right literally literally naked yeah so there's nowhere to hide literally beginning  d and so i just i just try to make it the most honest moment a moment experience i can have and as a result of that it just destroys me you know and i'm happy to to give myself over to it and so in terms of getting about to say is there's a couple lines that lenny said a few were in the play and if you aren't that i say just before i don't want about five minutes before places and they kind of drop me in to get she has yeah i get to be drops me into juices go i have to be careful i don't come out l like shot out of a cannon because i can't sustain that for eighty five minutes right so i try to just here's the thing to the best way i can explain it is it's the hardest and easiest job i've ever done and what i mean is it's the hardest for obvious reasons but it's the easiest because all i actually have to do is give myself over to the performance and leave myself alone and get out of the way and then it's easy it's the nights that it's hard it's like when i'm watching my performance from you know biographer here sounds like this is what you're going through this is talking about the berkeley concert in the liner notes the performance contained in this album is that of a child as a jazz age lenny worship the gods of spot nady candor and free association he fancied himself as an oral jazz man his idea was to walk out there like charlie parker take that mike in his hand like a horn and blow blow blow everything that came into his head just as it came to visit with nothing censored nothing translated nothing mediated until he was pure mind pure headset the sending out brain waves like radio waves into the heads of every man and woman seated in the vast hall sending sending sending he would reach finally be to a point of clairvoyance where he was no longer a performer but rather medium transmitting messages that just came to him it's like something bigger is going on in this room i'll tell you really quickly dory there is this woman named sat simeon who was very close to let me before he died she came to the l a production she waited like six months to come she came one night we talked after i met her she you know she spent lenny's last few days with lenny she told me that that night i get home i get home to a long e mail and she said you know i just want to tell you just before lenny died he looked me in the eye and he said some day someone will redeem me and she said he was talking about you he knew and so i don't know what you subscribe to what you don't i don't know how to fix what but many have felt that something bigger is going on here and good double bill spellman anyone who is above you so they just stand in the back of st patrick's and cardle spellman would be relating loving giving and forgiveness to people in christ would be confuse because their root took on through spanish harlem and you would wonder what forty puerto rican jew doing living in one room in the sky had a ring on it was worth eight grand and he would wonder yeah they're in a bad way in the back of course they're white yeah this is new york puerto rican stand in the back i know which ones are the sheen the ones that are glowing the well first let me say that the thing that got him in the most trouble early was the you know catholic cops were offended when he did religions incorporated in chicago it was very funny and and they may arrest them was him curse words and they were offended you know and did what you know they were offended about what was well because all the you know they were using christ and most i mean he was making jokes out of these as he is here yeah i was  like and we're still dealing with the same things today are we in this country very much free speech is i mean do we really have you know it's like you know we deal i deal with it in the show i mean there have been and we did and then is one of the few places that you can show something like about what it means to be religious if you will or to care for ones they may not not all this and the pocker see of course by the establishment sorty religious orders and maybe that's what the cops the catholic cops were from the authority that's exactly i mean the first one they were afraid of letting because they he was such a forward thinker and they didn't know what to do with him they'd rather him just stay in a box like everybody else it was their problem though yes of course it was their problem and lenny never meant to really offend anyone he was searching for his own answers and he just had a hard time believing that you know his really how can catholic catholicism be more important than buddhism like all those things like he did he was tough on his own faith doesn't offend everybody absolutely but he did if it wasn't just shock for shock value that's where most people missed it like he literally tell us holding a mirror up to the inside he going look at this what do you think of this like you know and and he was also searching for answers quite honestly kitty bruce who we talked about why i adore kitty kitty talks and tells me that lenny bruce until the day he died thought the american justice system was the best in the world and he believed in it he believed in it  he says you know he wanted to the effect like you know the establishment want to keep him in a box and so they just live with the ideals they knew and they were scared to look beyond that and we're still dealing with that today i mean nothing's changed in some ways some ways we've regressed i think you know absolutely absolutely and the and the fundamentalists of all faiths seem to be very offended by people that are trying to open up the world so my my job and my challenge was the bring the human being through so when you get to know lenny bruce is a man maybe open your heart you see at least what he was trying to say did i agree with every word of it is of course not i mean human right of course not he was struggling he was struggling to make us all more honestly were searching for answers and i had a group level oh yeah he started read this and most of us are scared to do that right we do that if we even do that many of us go through a whole life and don't search at all and  you know it was in a sense fortunate to be at a time in history where there was more of the well the sixty's basically to where that was happening to and we're going to play a clip in just a couple minutes also on this is take on race relations which is also very well it's very you know like having first of all his i just want to mention really struck his his addiction you know the thing was you know they embarrass him and i want to give away the end of the play but they embarrassed him at the end of his life doing because it's so important kitty bruce has created the lenny bruce moral foundation and one hundred percent of the proceeds go to put people through rehab who can't afford rehab when they have no insurance which is why i wear the t shirt today yes because feel on the back these all these great quote this one is in the halls of justice the only just as the halls lot of great quotes but i you know you could get these t shirts on lenny bruce dot org and it's important because we're actually with the show with the t shirts with other memorabilia we're actually putting people through rehab who didn't find it you know they don't have any money so they throw him out they throw him out of these riyadh's and so we're doing that kind of work and i think it's important i wanted to mention it because getting is given her life to it and i think it's important you know by the police body lay on the street for over four hours it's horrible and dogs were allowed by the police to pee now if that's not obscene so there's no that is obscene go of course yeah that's i mean of course and but the desecration that it that that these that these people are feeling and hate that is directed even after death someone is that the self hate that that these people are dealing with and projecting on to others that we're seeing all over this country is well you know it's amazing how it's so important that this people see this  play and see a person who stood up to this well thank is that in new york times wrote an article and they put the first sentence was ronnie marmo didn't set out to write a political play however many are saying that his performance is you know is a commentary on the well it's kind of mind blowing how and it's so sad and so scary that this guy taking office in the last couple years has opened his kind of woken up a big part of this country that i'm not going to say i was naive to and thought well it's over because i know better than that but boy am i really sad and shocking that this country there was just many people waiting to have a have a really negative nasty voice again and it just it is and they are and they're voicing their do using their voice you know they somehow they asked permission to do this and you didn't write as you say this was a political play it was i mean i didn't set out to do that but now i well let's let's let's get a clip here on his take a very funny interaction here about race for four years got last at the party no and being colored he would be a musician there are very few integrated parties which does not make people who do not have colored people or the party's bigoted because on there you know to try and this is a this is bit was very funny it almost made it into the show i don't do this bit in the show but i do the word bit in the show for those who don't know it's a very famous lenny bit and lenny his whole point and and so we do the bit in the show i do the bit in the show and i have to be honest it scares me every night because you know it's we're in a very sensitive time in this country and  run around saying the n word and all these other directors that way but i do the bit ok and i get a very mixed reaction for those who stay listen open their heart open their mind whether they're white africa where whatever they are  they they see quickly that it's the most anti racist but they can be right it's like when he was trying to say let's take the power out of the words let's stop making important now you know i'm white and so who the hell might even discuss that word but don't wait for the bit to be over they don't they're not listening there or they hear the word and get upset i had some people cheer and stand up had one african american lady was amazing a couple of weeks back i said the first line of the bet and she goes go they try to see if there's anybody of color in the audience and then they wait to see how they feel and then they go so it's a really like it's so scary and awkward to do the bit every night but i still think like look if i'm going to do lenny bruce have to tell the whole story and i know lenny's intentions were pure and we're love and we're trying to come up with a solution to not make it so important whether i agree with lenny or not whether there were others do that's ok that's the point of theater is to have a discussion right of the i mean that's the point you know out and begin to think what happened here it's not just to be titillated in you know dumb down there's i think the problem in this country right now is that there's two sides and on both  sides there's so much like talking at each other that like if we could actually sit down and have a conversation maybe there's progress now everyone has to be capable of and i'm not sure some of the people running this country are separate issue but what i am saying is at least in this word well they're thinking oh my god i got to do his bit again and i do the bit he's looking at me i'm like now i have to spend eighty minutes trying to win him over so it doesn't kill me ever as you know he was the first one to leap to his feet kissing me and hug me after the show saying as beautiful as that gregory so point is some people are open enough to talk about and some aren't but i'm proud to be in a position that at least again i have to be clear ronnie marma what i think doesn't matter i'm doing lenny bruce a story and so i need to make sure you're doing a riff here and in fact some of that political stuff is good because it's not just personal i appreciate and i appreciate that lenny bruce was trying to make change right he was trying to move to push the ball in a certain direction yeah that we could just talk and kind of get it out i appreciate that in my opinion we don't have enough people like that now people are talking at each other and i think and i think lenny i don't know i don't i feel like i don't know how people would take him today you know well pretty close how they're taken you i guess and and listen this is gonna happen and this is got to be on broadway so more and more and more people will will experience him and you because this the poor people's campaign extensively another figure that can is attempting to bring people together in this sort of dialogue fusion politics but he is severely severely characterized as satan literally by fundamental evan jellicoe basically whites but some blacks absolutely so you've got the same thing going on in different forms that course but i think some of the some of the african american people probably more so understood lenny than than even the white people because they got behind what they got behind they knew that he he you know look he was he loved everybody he was just trying to make change and  jewish well you know they had to get a basic welcome back to themselves yeah i mean i when i went through the jewish dictionary as it yeah there was some of those in the play and everybody laughs but lenny it was very funny you know lenny got arrested for saying schmuck for shmuck now  more yeah you know when lenny had said to the judge one time if the word motherfucker turns you on you got the problem you know and look i just think he was too smart and people and not everybody grieving but at least i appreciate him trying to do something rather or rather than all of us going back to our little holes and not trying to do anything absolutely you know and i've got you know again tied in to a larger political sense black lives matter young people confronted hillary and bill clinton over some of the things that they mentioned back in the ninety's super predators referring to basically young black kids as animals and so on and develop policies that that that destroyed thousands and thousands of black is the violence is coming from people like them the policies they are developing it's always been a problem yes black violence is not the problem it's white violence directed at blacks so that's we're defended where you know where we're repressed and denying so all kinds of stuff in the you know so many people are so specific in their thoughts and their beliefs and they don't even know how they got that way but then i think about it i think about my daughter who will be eleven next this point it's at this point it's that she's she's a you know she thinks she's beautiful right she loves she loves her she has no idea that there's a problem for some people in this country like there's really this racism in this country rosalie has no concept of that and so what is this california yes in california so what's that tell me it all starts in the home right like some of these people sixty seventy eighty years old i'm not sure i don't know how many of them are going to change their beliefs today i hope some people wake up and have awakenings but it starts in the home you have to teach our children that some of the most this is ridiculous right it is but i think you think it starts in the home because if if you if you don't have these conversations with your children if you don't talk to them they're going to learn this stuff on the streets and you can't control who they're talking to put you on the spot a little bit here what what about lenny's home life and some of the struggles he had he lost his father  describe it there's a parallels yeah lenny bruce his father left he was eleven my dad left our home when i was eleven so i really identify with that my daughter will be eleven next week well you know i look at her and go how is that like something's going on there you know but also how can anyone you can't that's my to my child you know the other thing is is his mother and lenny they had a wonderful relationship and my mother and i had a wonderful they should just in awe of her and love her so much and and they had the same thing she was funny and crazy and over the top just like sally was i have full custody of my daughter brittany b when she was nine years old the same age that katie lenny got custody kidney really well so  and then like i said i found recovery lenny didn't sadly there's so many parallels to the end of i will get right back to that he have drug issues from early on in his life or did that happen sort of late or just look at a love the guy because he he started a lot of conversations he didn't just affect comedy affected poetry and politics and law and music you know  find his influence all over everything right absolutely and i think you know he was looking for that redemption and i think you've very much redeemed him in this through this play and so this is like a therapeutic drained before i go out thinking do i have it and i can i open my are enough can i open my mind enough because i also have to have an experience you know if i'm close minded or in a bad mood or not feeling it that's what the show's going to feel like right so i have to i can't me times in one thousand this is like an actor thing but go ahead how many times a night i say to myself on stage just listen to the words and listen to yourself like when i find myself being too heavy or i'm like i went through a whole page and i'm just not connected i'm just thinking too much i just say just slow down listen to the words listen to yourself and then the rest is easy it becomes our whole you're on stage all i have so weird if you can see inside my head for those eighty five minutes it would be like it's like a train wreck well you know it it well it you know you bring it safely to the station well as an actor these don't come by that often to get to do you know when you when you were not heavey you go mr you forgot your pickle you know you lethal weapon a few weeks back yeah but this is something else yeah yeah this is like as an actor you go can i really do that like and my capable of that and so i learned a lot about myself and my and my abilities in this  certainly are capable of things that you tell us where a kid people see this for pete's sake we haven't even mentioned that so you go to lenny bruce on stage dot com and we're playing at the cutting room which is amazing it's a wonderful venue it's  on thirty second street park east thirty second lenny would have played this place that's why we chose it i'm telling you lenny would have played this club the venue school right yeah oh absolutely it really area in summit and yeah and just very good for the play you got tickets at lenny bruce on the stage to go to the website you'll see like all the reviews you'll see we've had people like billy crystal patti lu pone these people come and then give me reviews of the show which have all been beautiful it's  listen i i feel really blessed that i get to do it and i feel it's a responsibility at this point to represent lenny represent kitty bruce i take this all very seriously so young and and you've got a terrific she's a load i really put her down i know i really miss her i don't want some sharp chick that can quote carroll and walk with lloyd i just want to hear my lady say