According to Wikipedia: “In 1947, soon after changing his last name to Bruce, [Lenny Bruce] earned $12 and a free spaghetti dinner for his first stand-up performance in Brooklyn, New York.” The rest as you well know, is history, which includes rare footage of his television pilot The World of Lenny Bruce which aired only once on television here in New York City, where people learned of his love for jazz.

Voted the 3rd greatest comic of all time by Comedy Central, his struggles with addiction, jail time for crimes committed on stage and off, and a generally chaotic lifestyle took it’s toll, and Lenny Bruce died at 40. Eulogizing Bruce in Playboy, Dick Schaap: “One last four-letter word for Lenny: Dead. At forty. That’s obscene.”

As part of the Jewish Comedians Series, Columbia Professor Jeremy Dauber is here this Oct 20 for Jewish Comedians: On Lenny Bruce.

“To me, if you live in New York or any other big city, you are Jewish,” Lenny once said. “ It doesn’t matter even if you’re Catholic; if you live in New York you’re Jewish.”

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