Paul Krassner has been making countercultural history for more than forty years. He was a cofounder of the Youth International Party, the Yippies. A former Merry Prankster, he has counted among his friends Ken Kesey, Lenny Bruce, Groucho Marx (who took LSD with the author), Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, John Lennon, and Larry Flynt. Founder/editor of the journal The Realist, funded by Lyle Stuart in the late 1950s, Krassner is considered by some to be the most outrageous cultural critic of his era.
Writings collected in this volume include recent articles from the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Playboy, George, High Times, In These Times, and Penthouse. From John Lennon to JonBenet Ramsey, from Charles Manson to Monica Lewinsky, from Timothy McVeigh to America's New War on terrorism, Krassner once again proves that he is one of the smartest, funniest, and most incisive political and cultural critics writing today.
Paul Krassner's latest collection, "Who's to Say What's Obscene: Politics, Culture & Comedy in America Today" (foreword by Arianna Huffington), and other books by him, plus the Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster, are available at his website, paulkrassner.com.
He calls himself an investigative satirist. Don Imus labeled him "one of the comic geniuses of the 20th century." (Imus has since apologized for that quote.) And, according to the Los Angeles Reader, "Krassner delivers 90 minutes of the funniest, most intelligent social and political commentary in town."
On the other hand, a couple of FBI agents went to one of his performances and stated in their report, "He purported to be humorous about government policies." His FBI files indicate that after Life magazine published a favorable profile of him, the FBI sent a poison-pen letter to the editor, complaining: "To classify Krassner as a social rebel is far too cute. He's a nut, a raving, unconfined nut."
"The FBI was right," says George Carlin. "This man is dangerous--and funny; and necessary."
ABC newscaster Harry Reasoner wrote in his memoirs, "Krassner not only attacks establishment values; he attacks decency in general." So Krassner named his one-person show Attacking Decency in General, receiving awards from the L.A. Weekly and DramaLogue. He is the only person in the world ever to win awards from both Playboy (for satire) and the Feminist Party Media Workshop (for journalism). When People magazine called Krassner "Father of the underground press," he immediately demanded a paternity test. Actually, he had published The Realist magazine from 1958 to 1974. He reincarnated it as a newsletter in 1985. "The taboos may have changed," he wrote, "but irreverence is still our only sacred cow." The final issue was published in Spring 2001.
His style of personal journalism constantly blurred the line between observer and participant. He interviewed a doctor who performed abortions when it was illegal; Krassner then ran an underground abortion referral service. He covered the antiwar movement; then co-founded the Yippies with Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin (writing a few animated re-enactment scenes for the documentary "Chicago 10" four decades later). He published material on the psychedelic revolution; then took LSD with Tim Leary, Ram Dass and Ken Kesey, later accompanying Groucho Marx on his first acid trip.
He edited Lenny Bruce's autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People, and with Lenny's encouragement, became a stand-up comic himself, opening at the Village Gate in New York in 1961. Ten years later--five years after Lenny's death--Groucho said, "I predict that in time Paul Krassner will wind up as the only live Lenny Bruce." He was nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award in the Album Notes category for his 5,000-word essay accompanying a 6-CD package, Lenny Bruce: Let the Buyer Beware. Krassner rarely works the comedy-club circuit, preferring to perform on campuses, at theaters and in art galleries.
He has been a guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher; on Air America Radio with Janeane Garofalo and with Marc Maron. He hosted his own radio call-in show in San Francisco.
Paul writes columns for High Times, AVN, CarnalNation.com, and is an occasional contributor to the Huffington Post. His articles have appeared in Rolling Stone, Spin, Playboy, Penthouse, Mother Jones, the Nation, New York, National Lampoon, Utne Reader, the Village Voice, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the L.A. Weekly, New York Press, and Funny Times.
His venues have ranged from the New Age Expo to the Skeptics Conference, from a Neo-Pagan Festival to the L.A. County Bar Association, from a Swingers Convention to the Brentwood Bakery, where members of the audience were each given a free pastry of their choice. Over the years, he has built up a cult following that has steadily been edging into mainstream awareness.
His reviews have been highly complimentary. The New York Times: "He is an expert at ferreting out hypocrisy and absurdism from the more solemn crannies of American culture." The Los Angeles Times: "He has the uncanny ability to alter your perceptions permanently." The San Francisco Examiner: "Krassner is absolutely compelling. He has lived on the edge so long he gets his mail delivered there."
He was head writer for an HBO special satirizing the 1980 presidential election campaign, did on-air commentary for the Fox network's Wilton-North Report, and a decade later was a writer on Ron Reagan's late-night TV talk show.
Mercury Records released his first two comedy albums, We Have Ways of Making You Laugh and Brain Damage Control. Artemis Records released his next four: Sex, Drugs and the Antichrist: Paul Krassner at MIT, Campaign in the [Buttocks; change from A-s required by Amazon] , Irony Lives! and The Zen Bastard Rides Again.
His autobiography, Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counter-Culture, published by Simon & Schuster, sold 30,000 copies. New World Digital is publishing an online, expanded edition.
His other books include: The Winner of the Slow Bicycle Race: The Satirical Writings of Paul Krassner, with an introduction by Kurt Vonnegut; a trilogy of anthologies--Pot Stories For the Soul, with an introduction by Harlan Ellison, Psychedelic Trips For the Mind and Magic Mushrooms and Other Highs: From Toad Slime to Ecstasy--Sex, Drugs and the Twinkie Murders: 40 Years of Countercultural Journalism; Impolite Interviews; Murder At the Conspiracy Convention and Other American Absurdities, with an introduction by George Carlin; and One Hand Jerking: Reports From an Investigative Satirist, with a foreword by Harry Shearer and an introduction by Lewis Black.
At the 14th annual Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, Paul Krassner was inducted into the Counterculture Hall of Fame--"my ambition," he claims, "since I was three years old." In May 2004, he received an ACLU Uppie (Upton Sinclair) Award for dedication to freedom of expression.
This review is from: Murder at the Conspiracy Convention (Paperback)
The cultural revolution we know as the Sixties happened because a unique breed of creative activist/anthropologists gotinvolved in making American culture live up to its ideals. Some of us were "trained" while others developed and applied their own exceptional intuitive anthropological self-cultural awareness.
Paul Krassner, besides being a child prodigy musician, a funny stand up comic, an outrageous satirist and founder and editor of the Realist, sometimes described as "the first underground newpaper", and a great friend to many great people, is also one of the key Sixties activist anthropologists who was present and involved with just about every important juncture of the cultural revolution. To this fellow participant observer, he was/is a model culturally aware activist and unlike most anthropologists, he was and is funny. Best of all Paul is still going strong into the new--rapidly aging-- millenium
Reading Paul's stories in "Murder" about his fascinating Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, and Nineties, friends--Lennie Bruce, Steve Allen, Abbie Hoffman, John Lilly, Ken Kesey, Jerry Garcia, Ram Das, and best of all, other fabulous people you haven't heard of- is like sharing a great bottle of Burgundy wine or some fine grass. Read this book...
PS. (The Seinfield viagra scenario is hilarious--Classic Krassner.)
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This review is from: Murder at the Conspiracy Convention (Paperback)
This is my first encounter with Paul Krassner's work. He is a '60s legend, and he still manages to write fresh, entertaining pieces, that really offer a different perspective. I enjoyed the pieces about Ken Kesey, Lenny Bruce, Hunter Thompson, Abbie Hoffman. I wasn't bored with any of the topics he covered, even the Monica Lewinsky affair, which is old news by now. It would have been boring if it wasn't dealt with Krassner's wit, humor, and knack for coming up with original story ideas, and ways to tackle an assignment. As a journalism student, I've learned a lot from Krassner, and I want to say, Thanks for the great book man.
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This review is from: Murder at the Conspiracy Convention (Paperback)
This is a great collection of Paul Krassner writings, some of which have been turned into standup material on his recent CDs. While a number of the pieces in this book have been published elsewhere, this collecton is quite distinct from most of Krassner's other books, with the exception of a few stories that appear in different form in his autobiography (one of my favorite books of all time). I recently read Ronald Kessler's book on the "secret history of the FBI," and was disappointed that he missed some of the FBI dirty tricks recounted in the first section of Krassner's book, "The Federal Bureau of Intimidation." Other highlights of this book include the sections on Krassner's friends who have died (Jean Shepherd, Robert Spencer, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsburg, Anita Hoffman, Terence McKenna, and John Lilly), a section of articles on the "war on some drugs" and the section on "countercultural icons" (Lenny Bruce, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Garcia, Ram Dass, and Ken Kesey). Highly recommended. On a side note, this book recounts a prank by Jean Shepherd that may have been the first instance of a "flash mob" (pp. 78-79).
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