The Outlook

Venice Defense Attorney Uses Work
to become Perry Mason of Comedy

By Josh Grossberg

When your parents deal heroin, when you defend a man for wearing an American flag as a diaper, when another client tries to get himself arrested by mailing marijuana to the president of the United States, and another stabs you in the chest, there's really only one sane thing to do: Laugh Out Loud.

Attorney Kenny Kahn, who has defended the likes of Ike Turner and Larry Flynt in his 30 years as a criminal lawyer, has taken his strange life and career and turned it into a comedy act.

Looking every bit the lawyer as he walks on stage in his double breasted suit and carrying a briefcase, the Venice resident is turning his life and passions into fodder for jokes.

Nothing is spared a punchline. Not his youth as the only Jewish kid in the Ramona housing project in East Los Angeles, where he routinely got beat up. "I was getting my ass kicked every day," he said. "It was OK. I learned that if I told them jokes I might not get beat."

There's nothing funny about having drug dealers for parents, but Kahn takes his life's experience and spins a comedy routine. His delivery is often more funny than the material. "My parents had moved us there for business reasons," he recently told an audience. "My dad was a young, struggling, heroin salesman." His dad; now deceased, was convicted of possessing heroin in the 1950's. He served six months.

As Kahn became older, he told the audience, he wanted to be with people like himself. Late one night, he heard a voice. " 'Kenny, this is Moses. You'll find your people in law school.' " His jokes often have an edge that betray his own sense of passion for the law and the people he defends. "The system is totally equal unless you happen to be poor," he said. "If you don't have money, you will be appointed a public defender, I think this is your cue to grab your ankles." Then he gives an impersonation of a police officer during a traffic stop in Beverly Hills. 'Excuse me sir, you hit a small child a few blocks away. Now, I'm not going to give you ticket, but you've been dragging her on your bumper.' Compare that with Rodney King. I could never figure out if they were protecting or serving him."

After graduating law school in the late 60s, Kahn defended friends from his commune. "Living in a commune was enough to get busted," he said. "No more than three unrelated people could be living together. Or someone would get busted for pot. I defended as many as 50 people at one time." Through his connection with the counterculture, he started to defend anti-war protesters and draft dodgers. About that time, he started a free legal service at the Los Angeles Free Clinic. "I've always been a champion of the underdog and the under privileged," he said. "Because of my background, I have sympathy for people who are poor and powerless."

Kahn first gained notoriety when he defended Andrew Daulton Lee in an espionage case that was made into a movie "The Falcon and the Snowman." Lee's well known partner was Christopher J. Boyce. "I had the Justice Department, The FBI and the CIA on one side and me on the other. It was a major challenge." Lee received a life sentence, but Kahn developed a reputation as a fighter who would take on the establishment. He also defended Larry Flynt when he was charged with desecrating an American flag by wearing it as a diaper. "He likes attention," Kahn said of Flynt. "He's a brilliant guy, a master showman." A few years later, a mentally ill client plunged a knife into Kahn's chest as they sat in a courtroom. Kahn excused his client's behavior, saying he didn't believe he was the intended victim. His client, John Laurence Proudfoot, 39, "wanted officers to kill him ... to stop the voices in his head."

Then there was the time Kahn tried to get someone into jail. Ron Kiczinski mailed a quarter pound of marijuana to President Clinton in an attempt to start a debate on the legalization of drugs. To make sure they knew who he was, he sent the package registered, and videotaped himself mailing it. "He called the White House demanding to be arrested," Kahn said. "They sent a thank you card. We could not get him arrested."

Liliana Leopardi, his secretary who describes herself as Kahn's babysitter, called him an unusual boss. "This business is very tense," she said. "He attacks it with a sense of humor, and it makes it easier to work for him."

Behind the laughs, the law is serious business for Kenny Kahn. He is outraged at what he sees as the erosion of constitutional rights in the United States and blames the Supreme Court. "The Bill of Rights as we know it no longer exists," he said. "They should give new justices a Constitution and a bottle of white-out. People have no idea how our Constitution is being raped. I have a lot of anger, but that translates well into comedy."

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