Modified On October 21, 2004
In anticipation of Dave Attell‘s upcoming Bettendorf gig, an article entitled “Not losing any sleep,” by David Burke, appeared in the Quad City Times:
“It’s pretty politically correct out there,” he said. “The audience has grown a lot, especially if you say something that’s a little blue or dirty, but people should embrace (comedy). That’s probably the last place you’ll be able to hear that stuff before the FCC cracks down on that. People should support it, for the freedom of speech. Everybody wants to hear dirty stuff, but let’s grow up already. It’s not going to kill anybody. I don’t see why there’s this big moral crackdown on all this stuff.”
We’d bet cash money that Attell said, “The audiences groan a lot…” (Understandable, since it was probably a “phoner.”) As for the authorities cracking down on the speech in comedy clubs, Attell need not worry (if that is indeed what he’s expressing here). Especially from the FCC, which has jurisdiction over broadcasts over licensed airways, not live performances in smoky bars. And the days of the local sheriff busting a comic are long gone. In fact, we’re coming up on the first anniversary of the posthumous pardon of Lenny Bruce.
(Lead attorney for the Bruce forces) Robert Corn-Revere praised Pataki, a conservative Republican, for the pardon of Bruce, who spent four months in jail and botched his handling of his appeal by failing to abide by court rules.
From “Comedian Lenny Bruce pardoned” (firstamendmentcenter.org, 12/23/03)