Dangerous & Necessary

He was a violin prodigy as a child and then a successful stand up comic Paul Krassner calls himself an investigative satirist. People magazine called him the Father of the underground press. He founded the Realist magazine in 1958 and published it through 2001. For years his style of personal journalism blurred the line between observer and participant, even while he helped define the modern modality for free speech. He covered the antiwar movement, then co-founded the Yippies with Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. He published material on the psychedelic revolution then took LSD with Timothy Leary Ram Dass and Ken Kesey As a stand up comic he was mentored by Lenny Bruce, then edited Lenny Bruce’s autobiography. His articles have appeared in Rolling Stone, Spin, Playboy, Penthouse, Mother Jones, the Nation, New York, N.Y. Press, National Lampoon, Utne Reader, the Village Voice, the San Francisco Examiner, the Los Angeles Times and the L.A. Weekly. He writes a monthly column for High Times, “Brain Damage Control,” and he contributes to The Huffington Post. His autobiography, Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counter-Culture, was published by Simon & Schuster. His newest book is Who's to Say What's Obscene?: Politics, Culture, and Comedy in America Today In the end, George Carlin was right when he said of Paul Krassner, “This man is dangerous--and funny; and necessary.”  My conversation with Paul Krassner.