Episode 56 - Lord Buckley

Lord Buckley (aka Richard Myrle Buckley, l906-1960) was a "way out" nightclub comic and monologist, who created "hipsemantic" routines based on famous people -- very famous! -- and famous works of literature. Lord Buckley's most famous monologue was called "The Nazz" and is a "hipster" re-telling of three miracles of Our Savior, which was Lord Buckley's frequently invoked term for Christ. "The Nazz" is a homage to Jesus that exists in a class by itself. If anything you've ever heard or read breaks the barrier between the Sacred and the Profane, "The Nazz" does it. In this podcast, PZ gives a public reading of Lord Buckley's "The Nazz". The reading can't fail to be sort of an atrocity -- I almost entitled this cast "The Nazz and My White Azz" -- as the original was performed entirely in African-American iidiom. Nevertheless, this readng could do the alternate thing of getting down to what Buckley actually wrote and actually said, for his substance is sublime. PZ owes his appreciation of Lord Buckley to Bill Bowman.