Product Review

Once Lenny Bruce had amassed legal troubles, he turned a corner, going from standup performer doing funny, if acerbic, routines (which is more than being simply a comedian) to being a free-improvising social commentator. Here is the first CD reissue of Bruce's 1961 show at the Curran Theater in San Francisco. It's a direct rerelease of the three-LP set issued a decade after the show, a half-decade after Bruce's overdose, and it's a fantastic experience. Bruce sounds breathlessly overrun as the show starts, trying to distill his San Francisco bust into something cohesive. Of course, Bruce's technique includes turning away from the microphone, interrupting himself, fracturing his own narrative, and drawing his verbal loops ever wider. Bruce is able over these two-plus hours of narrative to cover a wealth of topics, from his Philadelphia bust and the court system's persecution of his performances to a wealth of historical figures. His style at the Curran remains difficult to absorb, full of solipsism, elliptical thought, recreated conversations with interlinear commentary, and more. Wondering whither the roots of performance narrative à la Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian, and David Sedaris? Here they are. --Andrew Bartlett