I listened to Lenny Bruce's Carnegie Hall Concert tonight for the first time and found a reference to what I call romantic reductionism. He was talking about the Bible and how the over-usage of it voids it of any real meaning. Like when people say "good night" or "thank you." "It's a contraction now," he said. "G'night. GUHNIIGH."
There really isn't anyone else like Lenny. Carlin picked up his cadence and the freedom of speech torch, Kinison picked up the obscenity torch, but no one has (or will) come close to what Lenny was. Carlin and Lenny do have lots of similarities but it's much like the Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan relationship and that's a whole other story.
He was a comedian, but he didn't really tell jokes. He was an orator, but he took digression and made it an art form. He was a poet, but his lyrics were disjointed. Lenny had his own language, that's why it's hard to get into his act and follow him. You really have to listen to him. He's the only comedian who speaks softly when he's saying something important, almost daring you to follow him down to his part of the world. Lenny was Lenny in a profession full of schtick. He was the first to really argue that stand-up comedy is an art form.
It's tough when you come across something so amazing to get your mind on anything else. It's like when I finished Everything is Illuminated earlier this week. I honestly can't read another book now. That book me affected me in such a way that I still can't put it into words.
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