Lenny Bruce, Cancelled In1957
For as long as there have been stand-up comedians, they have been getting cancelled for over-the-top jokes. It’s a lot harder to get them to stay cancelled, however.
According to Rich Shydner in A History Of Standup Comedy, in 1957 Lenny Bruce was doing standup in a series of strip clubs in LA when he very briefly got a gig at the more respectable Slate Brothers nightclub out in West Hollywood. On his very first night he told a joke too foul to be tolerated:
A kid looks up at his father and he says “Dad, what’s a pervert?”
His father says “Shut up and keep sucking!”
As the story goes, Lenny Bruce immediately got fired and the Slate Brothers club went out and hired Don Rickles to replace him. Despite a 1960s obscenity conviction that ended his career and a drug overdose that took his life before his legal complications were resolved, Lenny Bruce is ranked #3 on Rolling Stone’s 2017 list of the 50 best comedians of all time.
The photo is of Lenny Bruce appearing with stripper Windee Gayle at the Orchid Room in Waikiki, Hawaii, sometime in the 1950s.
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