Biography
Paul Krassner may not enjoy the instant recognition granted to peers such as Lenny Bruce, Timothy Leary, and Abbie Hoffman, yet his witty and irreverent brand of satire established him as an underappreciated figure of the counterculture from the 1960s forward. A pivotal presence in the rise of America’s alternative press, he earned an FBI label of “raving, unconfined nut” for issuing the Realist, a publication that mixed straight reporting, extravagant parody, sharp sociopolitical observations, and daring topics. After working as a standup comedian and contributing to Mad magazine, he launched the Realist in 1958; by its closure in 1974 the journal had reached a peak circulation exceeding 250,000 and stood as one of the most distinctive outlets in underground journalism. Its signature approach involved erasing clear boundaries between actual absurdities and invented exaggerations, leaving readers to decide what was fabricated—an effect illustrated by its most infamous hoax, a piece claiming Lyndon Johnson had violated John F. Kennedy’s corpse aboard Air Force One.
Krassner’s reporting often merged with direct activism; after printing an interview with an abortion provider in the pre-Roe v. Wade era, he quietly steered women toward physicians able to perform the procedure. Beyond the Realist, he joined Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin to create the Yippies and is credited with inventing the group’s name. He mingled with Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, maintained a lasting friendship with LSD advocate Timothy Leary, and prepared Lenny Bruce’s memoir How to Talk Dirty and Influence People for publication. His freelance pieces appeared across many outlets and garnered honors from both Playboy and the Feminist Party Media Workshop; for a brief period in the late 1970s he also served as an editor at Larry Flynt’s Hustler.
In 1985 Krassner revived the Realist, this time as a compact newsletter styled after the self-published zines that flourished in the following decade. His autobiography appeared in 1993 as Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counter-Culture. During the late 1990s he turned to documenting his comedy performances, releasing the debut album We Have Ways of Making You Laugh in 1996. The next year brought Brain Damage Control along with the essay collection The Winner of the Slow Bicycle Race. Additional recordings followed: Sex, Drugs, and the Antichrist: Paul Krassner at MIT in 1999 and Campaign in the Ass in 2000.
Krassner’s reporting often merged with direct activism; after printing an interview with an abortion provider in the pre-Roe v. Wade era, he quietly steered women toward physicians able to perform the procedure. Beyond the Realist, he joined Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin to create the Yippies and is credited with inventing the group’s name. He mingled with Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, maintained a lasting friendship with LSD advocate Timothy Leary, and prepared Lenny Bruce’s memoir How to Talk Dirty and Influence People for publication. His freelance pieces appeared across many outlets and garnered honors from both Playboy and the Feminist Party Media Workshop; for a brief period in the late 1970s he also served as an editor at Larry Flynt’s Hustler.
In 1985 Krassner revived the Realist, this time as a compact newsletter styled after the self-published zines that flourished in the following decade. His autobiography appeared in 1993 as Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counter-Culture. During the late 1990s he turned to documenting his comedy performances, releasing the debut album We Have Ways of Making You Laugh in 1996. The next year brought Brain Damage Control along with the essay collection The Winner of the Slow Bicycle Race. Additional recordings followed: Sex, Drugs, and the Antichrist: Paul Krassner at MIT in 1999 and Campaign in the Ass in 2000.
Albums
