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How to Talk Dirty and Influence People

Lenny Bruce

3.99 · Rating details · 2,227 ratings · 199 reviews

Castigated in his time for breaching such American conversational taboos as religion, sex, censorship, and racism, Lenny Bruce proved to be a pioneer in exposing hypocrisies, the impact of which still echoes on both sides of censorship controversies. This book and soon-to-be-released private tapes are sure to bring the extent of Bruce's influence into sharp focus. Photo in ...more

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Paperback, 188 pages

Published May 1st 1992 by Touchstone Books (first published 1965)

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May 25, 2012 Crystal rated it it was amazing

This was a rare book left behind by the overweight and greasy lead singer of a band I booked once when I used to do that. I read it immediately and furiously like a masturbating teenager adopting Bruce's jargon as my own and made many decisions based on what I thought Lenny Bruce would do. When those decisions went up in flames I thought to myself; "well, fuck, it could be worse, I coulda been Lenny Bruce". Reading this book at times made feel overwhelmingly dirty, disgusted and guilty (like por ...more

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Aug 07, 2017 Coleman rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, favorites

Millenial left-leaning cucks such as myself are often credited for creating and proliferating the “Politically Correct Society” we supposedly find ourselves in, and I hate to perpetuate my own stereotype, but I must say I take offense to that. You see there’s a large sect of people who think we have something of an epidemic on our hands: a generation of coddled pussies. They believe we would rather live in a world of “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” than think critically or allow our ideas t ...more

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May 13, 2012 Gabriel rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: EVERYONE who wants to know why comedians care about Bruce

There is an ebb and flow to the tale of classic comics. People are brought up on a basis similar to comets passing through the atmosphere. Someone dies and the comet appears a little quicker ("X lived in the shadow of Y who had paved the way for X to do their most famous bits ...").

Lenny Bruce's comet comes every 5 or ten years, it seems. He's been labeled a martyr and a genius and one of the most important comedians to ever come across a stage. Just a couple of weeks ago, another website was lo There is an ebb and flow to the tale of classic comics. People are brought up on a basis similar to comets passing through the atmosphere. Someone dies and the comet appears a little quicker ("X lived in the shadow of Y who had paved the way for X to do their most famous bits ...").

Lenny Bruce's comet comes every 5 or ten years, it seems. He's been labeled a martyr and a genius and one of the most important comedians to ever come across a stage. Just a couple of weeks ago, another website was looking at Comedians who had forced society to move forward and started their discussion with Bruce and Mort Sahl (a contemporary whose humor was a bit more political). This reminded me, "Man, it's been a while since I heard those Bruce bits. Gotta hear them again." And then, "You know, there's his autobiography. I wonder what that's like."

The answer: It's the ESSENTIAL Lenny Bruce. More essential than the book falsely labeled as The Essential Lenny Bruce if only because this one ties his jokes together. He took his time with this book and crafted something that tells [a great deal of] his story. From early life to beginnings of his comedy career to his obscenity cases to his overwhelming paranoia (stuff that comes out in Let The Buyer Beware's CD's ... but that's over 7 hours of listening to poorly recorded material), it's almost all here. And integrated throughout are some of his more classic bits. Yeah, "Christ and Moses" is not complete. Sure, "Are There Any Niggers Here Tonight" (while quoted on the back) is not here. But instead, we get him running off on jerking off. We get Lenny discussing the mysterious object in his Aunt Mema's cupboard (a douche) and we also get his criticisms of the police and "The Man". We even get him criticizing himself from time to time.

It rambles on, like his performances, but because it's written, we don't lose any word. The reader understands the power of the words that Lenny uses in his comedy and, with the book spelling out some of his performances word for word, we can actually laugh at it. This book is what needs to be discussed every time Lenny's comet rolls on through the comedy ether. They talk about seeing him and listening to his records, but frankly, they didn't translate very well. This book, though, allows us living 50 years after his death to get in touch with his work and understand what makes it funny and what makes it poignant and why it was important in the first place.

Now, how much of this autobiography is true ... that's up for debate. I don't know, I don't want to know (my guess is around 75%). This book isn't about learning about who Lenny Bruce is. This book is about why Lenny Bruce was important in the 1950's and 1960's and why we should still care about him now. Some of his bits (like one I named a couple of paragraphs up) still can't be performed today. As South Park gets censored over and over again (via death threats of all things!), as words are still thought of as dirty, as Political Correctness has swamped the nation and our thoughts with what should be allowed ... sometimes we need a Lenny Bruce to stick a finger in our assholes and tell us it smells like shit down there.

The only drawback to reading this book (or listening to a lot of Bruce) is that you begin to talk like him. Give me a week and I'll stop. ...more

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Dec 25, 2008 Matt rated it liked it

Shelves: social-crit, biography, satire, america-fuck-yeah

I love Lenny Bruce and I respect what he was able to accomplish, regarding free speech and the position of the satirist in the modern world. Every comic- every. single. one.- who has come after is in some sense trailing in his wake.

I got really into reading this in high school. I relished noticing that other people got into it, too, and saw what happened when the American legal structure decided to try and take him down. A landmark case for defenders of free speech and dissent.

Only trouble is: a ...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Douglas Florian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Page for page, line for line, semi-colon for semi-colon, the funniest book I've ever read. ...more

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Jan 13, 2019 Mark André rated it it was amazing

Shelves: humor, biography

Funny & Pointed! Social Commentary.

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Dec 20, 2018 Molly Sanchez rated it really liked it

Wow what a funny, absurdly relevant book. I could go on about this book but mostly I’m distracted by how much I want to go back in time and fuck the shit out of Lenny Bruce.
I’m sure he’d have the review end no other way.

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Jan 22, 2020 Sophia rated it it was amazing

This book is essentially a Lenny Bruce skit about his life and I love it. Very funny, VERY dirty, and an amazing read

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Sep 02, 2020 Terry rated it it was amazing

Readers, it's not a stand-up comedy routine, it's an autobiography, written by a satirist with a keen eye for hypocritical social mores. This is the historical account of an underdog who rose to set the standard for a new generation of thinkers, writers, and comedians, employing social commentary as a form of protest. An advocate for freedom of speech, Lenny Bruce told the truth as he saw it and was persecuted--and prosecuted--for obscenity. There's humor in that. Not the kind that makes you lau ...more

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Sep 25, 2016 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, non-fiction

In this politically correct version of the world Lenny Bruce is just as offensive as he was back when he was being busted by the fuzz for being obscene. You see Lenny is an icon that paved the way for greats like Carlin, Pryor, Hicks, and even Sam Kinison. Words themselves aren't dirty. It's the image that they create. Lenny was ahead of his time and he paid dearly for it. It's unfortunate that Mr. Bruce doesn't get the respect that he deserves. He changed the way that people approached comedy a In this politically correct version of the world Lenny Bruce is just as offensive as he was back when he was being busted by the fuzz for being obscene. You see Lenny is an icon that paved the way for greats like Carlin, Pryor, Hicks, and even Sam Kinison. Words themselves aren't dirty. It's the image that they create. Lenny was ahead of his time and he paid dearly for it. It's unfortunate that Mr. Bruce doesn't get the respect that he deserves. He changed the way that people approached comedy and busted down doors that were formerly closed. I know I'm coming off fan boyish, but Bruce is one of those guys that taught me more about life than most teachers. I learned about free speech from Lenny, and I also learned that you don't really have the freedom to speak at all. You just think you do.

This isn't the first time I read this book I read it back when I was eighteen and I hadn't really seen Lenny perform, and I didn't really know all that much about him. I knew how he died, and how dirty he was, but then again when you looked back at the state of who came after, he wasn't really all that dirty. He knew how to hold a audience's attention but he wasn't trying to offend anyone. He just spoke to them the way he spoke to his friends. If you look on Youtube there are some really good bits of his that still hold up well, while others are quite dated. I fell in love with the book and read it about ten, or eleven times. I thought this was an autobiography, but it's really not.

It's just a series of stories that seem true, and who knows, maybe to Lenny they were. They are entertaining and what makes it so readable is that they're funny, and you're inside Lenny's head a bit. There are other biographies of Bruce, but this one is special because it's the man's own words before his world started falling apart. We do get a glimpse of his beginning legal troubles, but we don't get the tragic end. Lenny had no idea just how bad things were going to get. Neither did family or fans. Some of the stuff is dated but anytime you read an older book you're going to have this issue. If you're one of those people that are bothered by that then maybe you should avoid the book and read something else.

It is one of my favorite books though, and one that you should read if you're at all interested in what the world was like for someone like Lenny who actually arrested for saying cock sucker on stage. He talks about his status as a sick comic and we also get a glimpse inside his marriage to Honey Bruce. This was at the time, the definitive book on Bruce and still is. These are somewhat autobiographical tales that will make you laugh and is a great introduction the legend that is Lenny Bruce. ...more

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Oct 18, 2014 Cameron rated it liked it

This book starts off well but toward the end slips into a mess of legal rhetoric that became dull so I'm giving it a 3 star rating. But there are valuable lessons to be derived here; such as what it is to be a jew vs. a gentile, the power of words both written and spoken under those people in power who are in charge of censorship, how sticking your neck out in society does not always go over well, and why it is important to remain stoic and objective in a climate of religion vs. politics. ...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Ned Rifle rated it liked it

An entertaining book for anyone already kindly disposed towards Lenny though the only moment that it really teeters into (his usual) greatness is when he, disguised as a priest in order to collect money for a fake charity (fun guy), passes a Rabbi, who nods at him and he is forced to wonder whether they are always doing this, like bus drivers.

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Jul 09, 2018 Carl Waluconis rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

I read this book so long ago that I decided to revisit and read it again. The best parts are the bits, probably from some of his routines, which still cause laughing out loud. However, some of the material is dated, but valuable historically to show how times change. The justice system then was so bothered by him that they hounded him as badly as the Internet can now hound people. He provides court records that show him caught in a kind of theatre of the absurd over what one could or couldn't le ...more

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Jul 29, 2019 Amy rated it really liked it

Bruce was really the original shock comic. The things he discussed on stage just hadn’t been done before him. He talked about sex (a lot), drugs (a lot), and rallied against war and our government. He was arrested multiple times, debuted reentry to the UK due to his previous stand up routines there, and was the original “obscene” comic. While his some of his comedy may be rather tame by today’s standards, it can still shock. His memoir is no different. For those of us 50 and 60 years removed fro ...more

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Dec 31, 2019 Heidi rated it liked it

Lenny Bruce is a major character on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel so I was curious. They use his material verbatim in the show.

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Jul 17, 2020 Dmitriy Rozhkov added it

Dropped the halfway through.

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Mar 09, 2019 Kayla rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, biography

I don't follow comics and only heard about Lenny Bruce from the show, The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel. I'm really glad I did because I loved this book. As he did on stage, Lenny snaps you back into a harsh reality with his funny but truthful words- it's like a slap in the face. I love it and I wish he were still around to see the improvement in societal norms. But I mean, not that much better. ...more

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Apr 04, 2020 Kristy Leconte rated it it was amazing

Shelves: comedy, favorites

Smart Man! I would say before his time, but without Lenny we wouldn't have the great comics we have now. ...more

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Dec 27, 2019 Davida rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: funny, memoir, jewish, classic

Proud to say that I bought this book at City Lights in San Francisco.
There is a lot in this book that has shaped popular culture in ways that most of us under 70 or 80 don't really recognize or understand. Further research is needed.
I only gave this book three stars because the court transcripts were boring. Not sure why so much was included.

p. 30
"My first laugh. It was like the flash that I have heard morphine addicts describe, a warm sensual blanket that comes after a cold, sick rejection. I w ...more

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Mar 07, 2009 Ginevra rated it liked it

Recommends it for: yes

Recommended to Ginevra by: Dan

Lenny Bruce is a cultural icon, and like most cultural icons, I knew nothing about him before picking up this book. As it turns out, he was arrested multiple times for his comedy act, in which he pokes fun at Catholics, WWII, and himself. The books meanders through stories about his life and larger cultural issues, which makes it an interesting read. It also demonstrates what the limits of free speech in the 50's-60's which, as the bookcover points out, is still relevant today.

I gave it 4 stars, ...more

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Jan 04, 2014 Riley Vermilya rated it liked it

Shelves: book-club

Ok. So this guy is a cultural icon. I consider myself well read and in touch with comedy and the entertainment world past and present, yet I had no clue who LB was. When I asked my mother if she knew who he was she said matter of fact, "He was a comedian/entertainer in the 50's and 60's and was a druggy." Ok...sounds like a fun read...NOT.

I did not race through this and love every minute of it. But, I did appreciate how Lenny broke the June and Ward pristine barriers of the 50's and spoke his t ...more

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Feb 17, 2009 yellowbird rated it did not like it

Shelves: just-awful

Reading this book is just like watching a history of Lenny Bruce's standup act. It's funny and interesting in the beginning and then becomes bogged down in boring legal issues towards the end. Was he victimised by people in power? Sure, I can see that. But I don't need to read a verbatim account of the many trials. That stuff just doesn't interest me. My opinion - read the first half of the book and then give it to a Lenny Bruce fan. ...more

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Nov 12, 2016 Carolyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This new edition of Lenny Bruce's autobiography still bites, shocks, and provokes some nervous laughter and some belly laughs. I hadn't read it before, although I was a fan and saw one of his live performances many years ago. Much of the hypocrisy he pokes fun at is still around, and many of his lines are still hilarious. He changed comedy forever, and paid a high price for doing so.
...more

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Jan 06, 2009 P rated it it was amazing

This book strongly influenced me. Lenny Bruce is an American icon who died for free speech. Read his own (hysterically funny) words and know his story in this age of political correctness.

"When you take away the right to say "fuck," you take away the right to say "fuck the government." ...more

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Sep 10, 2010 Kristina rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, autobiography-biography-memoir, library-book, humor-satire-parody

2018 review:

I abandoned this because I read it already when I was going through my Lenny Bruce phase. I'm sure I enjoyed it then, so why repeat my reading? My reading list this year is way too long for repeats I'm not sure I want to repeat. ...more

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Nov 27, 2013 Jeffrey rated it it was ok

Not as funny as I would have liked. Dry read, despite the fact that Lenny Bruce lead a fascinating life.

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Jan 14, 2014 Victoria rated it liked it

Kinda meh. Celebrities writing books is kind of hit or miss, I think.

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Mar 15, 2017 Steven rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Innauguration Day 2017 with REM's lyric "Lenny Bruce is not afraid" stuck in my head brought me here. ...more

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Oct 15, 2020 Jason rated it really liked it

It’s a cliché to say that mid-century America was an entirely different country from what it is today. Take, for example, the case of comedian Lenny Bruce. He was a popular stand-up comic who sometimes used obscene words in his routine. That was a time when using the word “cocksucker” on a stage could land you in court on obscenity charges because if audience members heard it spoken in public, regardless of the context, men might feel inclined to engage in acts of homosexual oral sex. Remember, It’s a cliché to say that mid-century America was an entirely different country from what it is today. Take, for example, the case of comedian Lenny Bruce. He was a popular stand-up comic who sometimes used obscene words in his routine. That was a time when using the word “cocksucker” on a stage could land you in court on obscenity charges because if audience members heard it spoken in public, regardless of the context, men might feel inclined to engage in acts of homosexual oral sex. Remember, this was the era of behaviorist psychology and an uptight code of social ethics that left little room for common sense. So Lenny Bruce spent many hours of his life in court defending himself against ridiculous charges. In How to Talk Dirty and Influence People he tells his life story and he tells it well.

Lenny Bruce was a pioneer in the art of stand-up comedy and many parts of his autobiography set the standard for comics who would come later. For example, he begins by writing about his childhood, as anybody telling their life story would. But the stories he tells are humorous; later comedians like George Carlin and Richard Pryor would similarly draw on life experience for their routines. Some say this personal style was invented by Lenny Bruce. That may or may not be true but it is effective in his case. His stories of growing up in a troubled Jewish family in Brooklyn have probably been repeated with variations thousands of times. A lot of his humor revolves around his growing awareness of sexuality, his acts of childhood mischief, and the confusing hypocrisies of the adults in his life. These stories are several decades old but they still ring true.

Lenny Bruce was also a bit of a con-man. One of the first times he got arrested, he was posing as a Catholic priest to collect money for a leper colony in Guyana. Charges were dropped because he actually did send a little money to the leper colony, although there were other complications in the case too. Most of his other cons were petty like tricking a friend into helping him movie a washing machine but these stories are consistently hilarious. Bruce was more of a trickster than a malevolent criminal but something important is revealed here; while looking at the world through the eyes of a shyster he gained a lot of insight into human nature which he was able to utilize for his stand-up routines.

Lenny Bruce began by working the burlesque circuit and by the end of the 1950s he was a nationally renowned act. His humor poked fun at racism, religion, politics, and the contradictions between what people say and do in regards to their sexuality. A lot of his jokes were about language. Not only was Lenny Bruce a talented performer, he was also a warm and caring man. His humor wasn't mean-spirited. He never attacked people themselves; instead he attacked ideas. Unfortunately, the police and the church didn’t see it that way.

The second half of the books is mostly about his court cases. Most of these were about the use of obscene language during his act but he also got arrested for possession of drugs. Bruce had problems with amphetamines, morphine, and heroin, Ironically, he purchased a lot of these drugs under the supervision of medical doctors who claimed they were necessary to treat narcolepsy. The passages about his trials are mostly word-for-word transcripts rather than descriptions. These transcripts speak for themselves and the absurdity and hypocrisy can sometimes be shocking. A definite portrait emerges, one in which Bruce was being harassed and persecuted for speaking the truth about American society as he saw it. The conservatives didn’t like that and they wanted to shut him up for good.

Overall this book is quite well-written. The anecdotes about Bruce’s younger years are clear and poignant and his humor entertains as well as informs. The fact that this stuff is still funny is a testament to how he tapped into something simple but universal. For a point of comparison, try listening to the jokes told by Bob Hope or Red Skelton during that same era and see if you think they are funny or even comprehensible by today’s standards. The narratives about his trials are a little less exciting since they seem rushed and erratic as if he were hurrying to finish the book. He probably was and he probably was shooting up speed in order to finish too. The second half of the book does not make smooth transitions from episode to episode very well and it feels incomplete as if there is a lot being left out. The first half of the book is so good though, that you can see how Lenny Bruce might have been almost as good at writing as he was at stand-up comedy. This makes you realize how much we lost when he died of a heroin overdose at an age much too young, an event obviously not covered in this autobiography.

The 1950s were a time when entertainers could be sent to prison for using so-called obscene words on stage, even though people frequently used them in public during ordinary conversations. In fact, Bruce heard the police swearing in the police station while they were booking him, a fact they readily admitted to during his trials. The laws could be used to prosecute people for speaking out against the establishment. The free speech movement and the sexual revolution of the 1960s hadn’t started but Lenny Bruce provided at least a few sparks to get those fires burning. He lived a life half-way between the Beat Generation and the hippies. Hopefully the conservatives, the moral crusaders, and the religious right will not gain the upper hand again and undo all the progress that was made since Lenny Bruce’s time. But in any case, if you are interested in the histories of legal issues, social movements, and entertainment that had a major impact on the times we live in now, then How to Talk Dirty and Influence People is as good a place as any to start. ...more

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Jan 07, 2021 Lu rated it did not like it

The book starts out okay then it goes off into a 'hey look what I got arrested for, here's the transcript of everything that compliments me' direction. Very disappointing read overall although there are parts of the book I liked.

Warning - he uses a lot of offensive words.
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Quotes I liked in the book:
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P. Vi
Constant, abrasive irritation produces the pearl:it is a disease of the oyster. Similarly - according to Gustave Flaubert - the artist is a disease of society.
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P. Vii
Others josh, snipe ...more

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About Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce

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Lenny Bruce, born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was a controversial American stand-up comedian, writer, social critic and satirist of the 1950s and 1960s. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was also controversial, eventually leading to the first posthumous pardon in New York history.