COMEDY

            

Born October 13, 1925

Died August 3, 1966 (aged 40)

He was renowned for his open, free-style and critical form of comedy which integrated politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His private life was marked by substance abuse and promiscuity as well as efforts to prevent his wife from working as a stripper. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in New York State history, by then-Governor George Pataki in 2003. He paved the way for future outspoken counterculture-era comedians, and his trial for obscenity, in which – after being forced into bankruptcy – he was eventually pardoned, is seen as a landmark trial for freedom of speech in the US.
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After spending time working on a farm, Bruce joined the United States Navy at the age of 16 in 1942, and saw active duty during World War II aboard the USS Brooklyn (CL-40) fighting in Northern Africa, Palermo, Italy in 1943 and Anzio, Italy in 1944. In May 1945, after a comedic performance for his ship-mates in which he was dressed in drag, his commanding officers became upset. He defiantly convinced his ship's medical officer that he was experiencing homosexual urges. This led to his Dishonorable Discharge in July 1945. However, he had not admitted to or been found guilty of any breach of naval regulations and successfully applied to have his discharge changed to "Under Honorable Conditions ... by reason of unsuitability for the naval service".
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This desire to end his wife's stripper days led Bruce to pursue schemes that were designed to make as much money as possible. The most notable was the Brother Mathias Foundation scam, which resulted in Bruce's arrest in Miami, Florida later that year for impersonating a priest. He had been soliciting donations for a leper colony in British Guiana (now Guyana) under the auspices of the "Brother Mathias Foundation", which he had legally chartered – the name was his own invention, but possibly referred to the actual Brother Matthias who had befriended Babe Ruth at the Baltimore orphanage to which Ruth had been confined as a child.[24] Bruce had stolen several priests' clergy shirts and a clerical collar while posing as a laundry man. He was found not guilty because of the legality of the New York state-chartered foundation, the actual existence of the Guiana leper colony, and the inability of the local clergy to expose him as an impostor. Later, in his semifictional autobiography How to Talk Dirty and Influence People, Bruce revealed that he had made about $8,000 in three weeks, sending $2,500 to the leper colony and keeping the rest.

"Comedian, magician, psychopath."

Total Abuse 1987 by bongolicious

"After around 15 years of the Hamburger character, with several full-length albums on Drag City, dozens of releases, and countless TV appearances, you'd think Neil would have been hard-pressed to find anyone who wouldn't be in on the joke, right? Well on a Hot February Night he managed to find about 20,000 of them. You get the feeling that this is what Neil Hamburger had been working for his whole career - an opportunity to make an arena full of drunken frat kids violently angry, to the point where physical violence could break out.

You hear a shout of "we love you Neal" as the set begins, and the audience approvingly cheers along when Neil asks to "get this party started!" And then, 35 seconds in, the lovefest ends. It's a little perplexing why the audience reacts the way they do, but Neil takes advantage of every outbreak and baits them into a frenzy. Whether you find this kind of thing funny or not, you at least have respect this on a performance level, understanding that his goal is a little different from any other comedian who ever performed at Madison Square Garden. 30 minutes of raw, unadulterated hatred."


that was some dude's review of "hot february night", a stand-up album by neil hamburger while he was opening for tenacious d. here's the video of some point of the tour: