Comedian Lenny Bruce possessed plentiful degrees of both, as this two-disc set reveals. His 28 routines cover the familiar territory of sexual morality and political dishonesty -- familiar only because all the major comedians since Bruce have appropriated this turf. Our contemporary gagsters never quite understand what the astute listener to this disc will quickly discern: comedy for Bruce was an excuse for poetry and philosophy. The comedian's mask -- the vulgar guy rapping about tits and ass -- is occasionally removed during this heartbreakingly forthright performance. A description Bruce offers of being partially awake during surgery is terrifyingly humorous, an inducement to laugh even in death's face. It's a risk only a great artist like Bruce would take.

-- Norman Weinstein