SCHMUCKS: Groucho Marx Meets Lenny Bruce

We know what you're thinking..."but, but" - it's a play, silly! Written by former stand-up comedian Roy Smiles, Schmucks makes it's U.S. Premiere at the Wilma Theater this week and runs through January 4th of next year. It's about a fictitious meeting between Lenny Bruce and Groucho Marx:

It’s 1965, and the great Northeast Blackout thrusts New York City into a state of panic and disorder. Isolated in a small diner, a young stand-up comic, Joe Klein, with an upcoming gig on The Ed Sullivan Show encounters comedy legends Groucho Marx and Lenny Bruce and implores them for comedic guidance, unleashing their unpredictably edgy and comic personas. As the two comedians clash over whose act is funnier and more relevant, the intensity quickly increases in a whirlwind of witty one-liners, zany antics, and uncensored punch lines.

This imaginative comedy exposes the secret motives that drove these two famed comedians to make people laugh as the characters spar over the purpose of comedy in society. Today, a current generation of comedians like Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, Bill Maher and Sarah Silverman have followed in the footsteps of Marx and Bruce and put their mark on the cultural landscape with their spin on topics like politics, race, and religion.

Here's Lenny Bruce on the Steve Allen Show in 1959:

And Groucho Marx on his radio/TV show "You Bet Your Life" (which is now being done live by Jimmy Pardo at the UCB Theater in Los Angeles):