1997 Radio Documentary on Lenny – Steve Shepherd & Charles Shaar Murray

A Lenny Bruce radio documentary made back in 1997. Produced by Steve Shepherd & presented by Charles Shaar Murray. I spent two weeks in San Francisco and New York interviewing Lenny’s friends, lawyers and collaborators, then edited 25 hours of tape (and it was tape) down to around an hour of material and refined it with Charles (who delivered a great script as always). It was well received at the time but had a limited audience with just two airings on Radio 3. Enjoy. Steve Shepherd.

Courtesy Steven Shepherd’s youtube channel

Lenny who?

In 2004, Comedy Central placed LennyBruce at number three on its list of the 100 greatest stand-ups of all time, above Woody Allen(4th) and below Richard Pryor (1st) and George Carlon(2nd). Both comedians who ranked higher than Bruce considered him a major influence. Pryor said that hearing Bruce for the first time “changed my life”. Carlin said that Bruce was a “brilliant comedian” who influenced him as much as a man in his moral thinking and attitudes as he did as a comedian. Carlin was arrested with Bruce after refusing to provide identification when police raided a Lenny Bruce performance.