HOW TO TALK DIRTY AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE...

HOW TO TALK DIRTY AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE by Lenny Bruce (Fireside: $11). Completed shortly before the author’s death in 1966 at age 40 of a morphine overdose, “How to Talk Dirty” combines autobiographical elements with testimony from his notorious obscenity trials and excerpts from his nightclub comedy routines. In the era of Sam Kineson and Andrew Dice Clay, Bruce’s irreverent remarks about organized religion and use of four-letter words seem decidedly tame. Not surprisingly, some of the material sounds dated (and extremely sexist), but what separates Bruce’s commentaries from the shock humor of these contemporary vulgarians is his ferocious moral outrage. Bruce believed that religious hypocrisy, war and racism were more obscene than words describing sexual acts and bodily functions--and said so. After reading his furious denunciations of the excesses of the ‘50s and early ‘60s, the reader longs to hear his reactions to the Iran- and Iraq-gate scandals, televangelism, political correctness and Vice President Dan Quayle’s stance as defender of public morality. Rhino Home Video has just released a videocassette of one Bruce’s last performances for $19.95, or in a package with an audiocassette or CD for $24.95.