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As a writer, I have a great deal of respect for Lenny Bruce. While the man was a reprobate, admitted drug addict and purveyor of sick humor, he also championed the cause of free speech at great personal cost. Redd Foxx was a pioneer in risque and raunchy adult comedy. And, in an age when America was extremely racially divided, his albums were bought by people of all colors. Richard Pryor entered the scene later than Bruce and Foxx, but he was as bold and innovative as they were and as a frequent guest on The Ed Sullivan Show, he entertained whites as well as blacks. Andrew Dice Clay arrived even after Pryor, but for many years, despite his raunchy act, he was one of the most popular comics in the USA, until the advent of Political Correctness. Dennis Miller is a very articulate and thought provoking comedian who tells it as it is. D.L. Hughley, one of the Kings of Comedy is an African Americcan Dennis Miller whose bits, while hilarious, are marked by realism. Adam Sandler is the youngest of the seven comics featured here. He also may be the most versatile. I hope you enjy the work f all these comedians as well as those who remain unnamed and unidentified only because I was unable to learn who they are.

Lenny Bruce was born Leonard Alfred Schneider on October 13, 1925 in Mineola, New York. Lenny's first big break occurs in October of 1948 on the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts show. The next few years were spent at numerous comedy clubs across the country refining what became known as "sick comedy" routines.

Lenny is arrested in Philadelphia on September 29, 1961 for possession of narcotics, a charge which would later be dropped. He is famously arrested at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco on October 4, 1961 for violating the California Obscenity Code for saying the word "cocksucker" in his routine. He is later aquitted. Lenny is banned in 1962 from performing in Australia.

Lenny is arrested again on October 6, 1962 for possesing narcotics, and on October 24, 1962 for using the phrase "Where is that dwarf mother-fucker?" at the Troubador Theatre in Hollywood. (His trial for obscenity in San Francisco is now considered to be a landmark in the fight to preserve the freedoms set forth in the First Amendment and a one which would cause Lenny to go broke.) After being again aquitted, Lenny's act begins to take a different turn. Relying less on bits and skits, Lenny now begins to do freeform monologues focusing on race, religion and other sacred cows. After many long legal battles Lenny becomes broke, partly due to legal fees, partly due to no comedy clubs willing to take a chance in him.

Lenny's last performance is on June 26, 1966 at the Filmore Auditorium in San Francisco. Lenny Bruce died on August 3, 1966 at his Hollywood home from a morphine overdose.

Miller, a five-time Emmy Award winner for his critically acclaimed HBO talk show, Dennis Miller Live, is also a commentator on ABC's Monday Night Football. After years as a successful standup comedian, he won the coveted "Weekend Update" slot on Saturday Night Live, a post he held for six years. Miller's latest collection of "rants," (I Rant, Therefore I Am) follows two New York Times bestsellers, The Rants and Ranting Again.

Foxx became relatively well-known in 1955 with his hilarious party album 'Laff of the Party', wall to wall raunchy stories recorded before a live audience. "Laff' (and Redd's subsequent dirty joke LPs) sold over 15 million copies, but the comic saw little of the money: "I got robbed so bad", Foxx stated once, "I just didn't want to make anymore".

It was in the rowdy, smoky nightclubs that Redd Foxx defined the 'Fred Sanford' character he would make famous on TV in the Seventies - in fact, many of the show's character actors came from Redd's club days, including Slappy White and LaWanda Page (who had a particularly filthy act!).

"Dice" is one of the crudest stand-up comedians ever to grace a stage. But from his meager Brooklyn roots through his struggling years at the Comedy Store, he remained focused on his goal of becoming the greatest comedian of all time. At his peak popularity in the late '80s, Dice became a household name; he was consistently selling out arenas and stadiums, a feat unheard of for a stand-up comedian. But in the early '90s, his career hit a wall. He became a lightning rod for dissent in the growing climate of political correctness, going from mainstream to outcast. Today, Dice does his thing beneath the media radar, still outselling most comedians nationwide. And as it turns out, he's a dedicated family man.

The essence behind D.L. Hughley's successful climb from stand-up comedy club road warrior to national network sitcom star is "keeping it real."
"Unlike so many of the recent TV comedies, I think this show feels like real life," says the 34-year old comic star of "The Hughleys," a family comedy based on his true-life transition from a black urban area of Southern California to the white-dominated 'burbs of the San Fernando Valley.

In 1970, after several successful years as a nightclub comedian and frequent 'Ed Sullivan Show' guest, Richard Pryor grew tired of doing what he called "white bread humor" and walked off the stage during a show at the Alladin Hotel in Las Vegas and away from a career that had been building for several years.

The comic moved to Berkeley, California where he discovered the writings of Malcolm X and began developing edgier material. He also developed a cocaine habit. "I'd take the dope and pretend I was Miles Davis. But I couldn't have been a junkie because when I wanted to stop I stopped on a dime." (We all know that didn't turn out to be true!)

A string of hit movies ('Silver Streak', 'Greased Lightning') and comedy albums in the mid-Seventies made Richard Pryor a big star. On May 5, 1977 Pryor hosted a brilliant special on NBC featuring guests LaWanda Page, John Belushi, The Pips (who performed a medley of their hits without any lead vocals) and a powerful dramatic performance by poet Maya Angelou. Pryor played his drunk "Willie" character, "Iddi Amin Dada", and a money grubbing television evangelist "Reverend James L. White" who gets the phones ringing off the hook when he announces he's collecting money for a 'back to Africa' campaign.

Class clown, buffoon, kid-at-the-back-of-the-bus-making-all-the-funny noises, puerile, scatological, juvenile and adolescent -- Adam Sandler is all these and more.

Raised in New Hampshire, the budding comedian took his first step towards the limelight when he took to the stage at 17 in a Boston comedy club he was hanging out in. While attending New York University, his extracurricular activities involved stand-up routines in local clubs and an ongoing role as Theo Huxtable's friend Smitty on The Cosby Show. After university he headed out to Los Angeles where he was spotted on stage by Saturday Night Live regular Dennis Miller who recommended him to SNL producer Lorne Michaels.

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