Fans are still swooning over Lenny Bruce’s parting comments to Midge in the Marvelous Mrs Maisel season four finale, and we can’t blame them! Following a wildly successful performance at Carnegie Hall, Lenny berates Miriam for not playing the game to get her big break.
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While most characters in the show are fictional, Lenny was plucked right out of history. A hugely successful yet troubled comic, Lenny struggled with legal difficulties and drug problems throughout his life. In the show, he first meets Midge in prison and the pair swiftly become friends and eventually lovers. So how much of Lenny’s life, as depicted in the show, is actually true?
Lenny Bruce is played by Luke Kirby
While, of course, Lenny couldn’t have met the fictional Miriam Maisel, he was indeed a hugely successful comic who was known for being controversial about his subject matter; discussing everything from religion to drugs. He was also, as the show depicts, arrested several times thanks to his act, as he was charged with obscenity. He was also arrested on drug charges and for impersonating a priest at different points of his life, as well as being banned from the UK after performing there once.
Lenny passed away aged 40
In 1964, Lenny was arrested for an appearance at Café Au Go Go in NYC, had a six-month trial and was eventually sentenced to four months in a workhouse, which was then appealed. His obscenity conviction was eventually overturned posthumously.
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Lenny then suggests that they get together again sometime before he dies, to which Midge replies: “It’s a date.” Tragically, Lenny passed away aged 40 in 1966 following an accidental overdose, but is still known today as one of the world’s greatest comics, reaching third place on the Rolling Stones 50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Time.
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