LENNY BRUCE: 13 DAZE UN-DUG IN SYDNEY by Benito Di Fonzo

I was lighting designer for LENNY BRUCE: 13 DAZE UN-DUG IN SYDNEY, written by Benito Di Fonzo and staged by Tamarama Rock Surfers in 2009.

The thirteen days

In September 1962 the controversial US comedian Lenny Bruce followed a successful season at Peter Cook’s Establishment Club with what was intended to be a two-week season at Sydney’s Aaron’s Hotel, lured by the legendary promoter Lee Gordon on the promise of a US$2,000 a week pay cheque. Sydney was not Soho. At Bruce’s first 11pm show there was uproar, abuse and condemnation, followed by a sensational trial-by-media that began with a doctored photograph on the front of the next morning’s Daily Mirror.

Matters deteriorated rapidly. Aaron’s and every other hotel in Sydney were threatened with the loss of their liquor licences if they gave Bruce a stage. Shows hastily organised at the universities of Sydney and NSW by The Sydney Push and Richard Neville were cancelled at the last moment by their Deans. Even the ABC bowed to increasing political pressure and cancelled his scheduled television appearance, despite staff protesting. Vice Squad officers crashed his Potts Point hotel and barred Kings Cross chemists from filling his prescriptions.

Bruce was left wandering Kings Cross in search of jazz, which he found, until Gordon finally secured the Wintergarden Theatre in Rose Bay and he was able to give a full performance. After thirteen days he narrowly avoided arrest by flying back to the United States.