As part of the promotion of the album release, Bukowski agreed to give a new live reading, even though he hated doing them.

[2][3] By later that year Bukowski's book royalties and movie advances provided him enough of a living that he no longer had to do readings.

The video recording of that night stayed in an archive until 2008 when mondayMEDIA entered into an agreement with Bukowski's widow Linda to release it on DVD.

Each poem is set between a tense dialog - with Bukowski giving and taking insults and threats with members of the audience.

The Last Straw was edited to avoid duplicating of poems on the 2nd to the last reading, There's Gonna Be a God Damn Riot in Here DVD.