Goodbye George Carlin
George Carlin died today.
I loved George since I was a kid. I first used to hear him on a radio show called "Doctor Demento" which I listened to religiously and always featured lots of Carlin clips. As soon as I had my own money I bought a cassette tape of a Carlin album (I don't remember which one) and I wore it out.
Jesus, he was just so good. To me, the timeless titans of comedy have always been George Carlin, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor. But George was more than funny to me.
He had a huge influence on me in regards to being prolific, honest and working hard at being a comedian, something that a lot of comedians, even funny ones, just don't do.
Let's start with honest. Please watch this clip. Just watch the first joke, then come back here for the point I'm making...
George walks straight off of the street onto the stage. A crowd of 3200 people is going apeshit. A LOT of comedians would take that in, stand there looking proud and get every last clap and holler on tape before saying "Thank you. Thanks. Alright. How we doin? This is great!" But George is SO eager to get his first thought out, he's trying to make them shut up so that he can do the bravest, boldest opening joke ever. "Why is it the people who are against abortion are people you wouldn't want to fuck in the first place."
Whoa. What a brushback pitch. Amazing. Any comedian with a joke like that would bury it inside of an act full of goodwill so that they wouldn't lose the audience. George is DYING to tell it to a primo special taping audience. He OPENS with it.
This was a great man. An honest man. I loved him. His courage inspires me forever. It was from him that I learned to just say what is on my mind on stage and to stop worrying about who might not like it. As long as it's true and it comes from a real place, you have to say it and not mince words. I got that from him.
Prolific, hard working... This is the way I would say George has had the most direct influence on me personally as a comedian. The guy did about seventeen full hour standup specials. Very generously, he explained how he pulled this off in a terrific interview that is available on a cd called Carlin on Carlin. He talks about spending every year on the road, working specifically on the next special. Every show has a goal, to hone the specific set he is expecting to shoot at the end of the year. Like writing a book. When he shoots the special, it's over. That material goes away and he starts again. I listened to that interview one night, in my car, while coming from a show where I had just done my regular, stump speech hour that took me fifteen years to perfect, at a Chinese restaurant in Saugus Massachusettes. The show had gone well. And I didn't care that it went well. It was solid material. It had been working for years. I'd been doing comedy for almost twenty. So what? Then I heard George explaining his process and I was terrified and inspired. What balls, to just chuck out perfectly good material and start again.
My first hour of material took fifteen years to write and I did it for another five. My second hour took one year. I shot it as a special called "Shameless" and never performed that material again. After a hard year of touring I shot "Chewed Up" and now that material is gone and I'm working on another hour now, from scratch. This is something I never dreamed I'd be able to do, let alone learn to do this late in my life and career. It has given me a new lease on life as a comedian and as a person. It's made me better, more honest and has made every single show of the last three years mean more than any shows in the previous 20.
All of that is due to George. His example, and his words in that interview, were an absolute revolution in my life. I owe him EVERYTHING.
I only got to meet George once. It was about 1999, I think. Chris Rock and I were both in LA and he invited me to go see George at the Comedy Store on Sunset blvd. George was working on material for his next special and it was a rare opportunity to see him do a solid hour in a club. Chris and I sat in a booth with Janine Garafolo and a very famous actor who I completely forget because who cares?
George came out and just blew me away. I mean, I already loved him, had grown up with him, but never got to sit and watch him perform for an audience that I was part of. you can't really know a comedian until you are in their live audience. Espeically a guy like George because you get the very distinct feeling that he did that show for you. It is an awesome connection. I watched him and I learned. I still tell myself things that hatched in my head that night. Sometimes I'm on stage really trying hard and pushing and "Performing" the "Jokes" and I remember the authenticity of George that night and I tell myself "Just talk to the people. Just talk to them."
AFter the show at the Store, Chris took me back stage and introduced me to George. I was afraid to meet him because that sort of thing is always dissapointing. Chris was very gracious (as always) and gave me a real introduction, telling George I was a really good comic. I shook his hand and told him in as few words as possible that he made me want to be a comic and that I owed him a lot. I'll never forget his response, because it was just plainly polite and decent. He shook my hand and said "Aw, that's nice. Thanks. I'll try to check out your stuff sometime." I knew he probably wouldn't. We were on different plains, different time lines. But he was just nice about it and allowed me to feel less than stupid.
Back in March I shot my last special (Chewed up) in Boston. The weekend before, I spent in California, working the set out for the last time at the Hermosa Beach Comedy and Magic Club. It happens to be really the perfect place to run an hour before you shoot it on tape. I was there for two nights and I saw on the schedule that the very next night, and for the following entire week, George would be there doing the same thing for his special. He shot his special (It's Bad for ya) on the very same night that I was shooting mine. March 1st, 2008. We were on stage, shooting our specials that we had worked on all year in the same way, all the way down to working on it in the same last stage, at the very same moment.
I don't think that makes me special. But I knew it was going on and I thought about it the very second before I walked out on that stage to do that special. In my mind I thanked George for showing me the way and giving me the courage to say what I wanted on stage and to keep getting better and doing more. And I remember thinking that I was honored to shoot mine on his night. And that even though I never got to know him and I'll never know if he ever maybe caught me on TV and if I ever made him smirk or laugh. But even from a distance it was, and is, an honor to know that I run in the same circle and do the same thing as that great man did.
I am intensely sad that he is gone. I owe him a huge debt for the rest of my life.
Thanks George. And goodbye.
Posted by Louie in Misc on June 23, 2008 | Comments [ 15 ]
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Oh man, just woke up to this news. So sad.
Louis, it doesn't surprise me to know how great an influence George Carlin was on you, especially when it comes to honesty on stage. This comes across very clearly when you're performing.
The cool thing to learn is the whole aspect of being more productive and prolific and how that has affected the way and speed with which you work. Needless to say, I and all of your fans surely appreciate that you're producing more and faster.
As most creative professions, in stand-up, one just does not retire from working. And I'm always so impressed to see the veterans continue to kick ass just as much as when they were a lot younger.
Good bye, George. A badass all the way.
That's a great remembrance. I taped one of his HBO specials as a kid and watched it over and over again. The amount of great material Carlin produced was incredible, and his delivery remains among the best I've ever seen.
I interviewed George, er, Mr. Carlin, for Washington City Paper and opened up with a soft-ball, asking what movies or novels he might like. His quick response surprised me, but shouldn't: "I don't have time for other people's dreams," he said.
He wasn't being dismissive, exactly, just matter-of-fact. Because his reading was limited to facts -- science, history, why people are the way we are. Which he used to inspire, inform, and highly amuse us all. He will be missed.
I'm running out of heroes.
And our country is running out of Voices.
Good entry, Louis CK. We don't know each other... but I'm a fan of your work... and I was a fan of George Carlin's as well.
So we've got that in common.
Check out my blog if you like.
I'm sorry for the whole damn world today.
a.
Great write up, very sad to see Carlin is gone, one of the best comedians and performers. As Jose said above, your work does have the same feel and flow as a Carlin set, in terms of just talking and saying what you want to say, and it works well. When friend's ask me who my favorite comedians are, your name and Carlin are always in there. Keep up the good work, and RIP George Carlin.
Like you I grew up listening to George Carlin.
And like you I only met George once.
Here's how our experiences were different; I met George the night I ran sound for his act.
It's just wonderful to know we saw different facets of the same jewel.
Thank you for sharing this story and especially for providing a more intimate view of George Carlin, the performer.
Wow, Louis. That's a terrific sendoff for a great man. I'm sorry for your personal loss, but thanks for opening my eyes to how influential and cool a guy Carlin was!
Thanks for sharing your experience, Louis. You're stand-up is smart and honest and, yes, sometimes dark too. Whether or not George ever caught any of it, and I have to think he did, I'm sure he would've laughed. And I'm sure he would've appreciated your eloquent words above as well. I'm not a stand-up, though for some reason I know many folks in that world. But I'm a writer of different things, among them satire, fiction and media criticism, and I know George influenced me in many ways: to tell the truth, to expose obfuscating language (which is often used to obscure uncomfortable realities and strangle free speech), to never stop seeing the absurdities in life - both grand and quotidian, and to never shy away from finding humor in the darkest of truths.
I never had the honor to meet him, but I was in the audience for his big comeback concert at the Paramount in '92, "Jammin' in New York," one of the great shows of his career and arguably one of the best performances in the history of comedy. And like you said, he did make everyone feel like he was performing for them. So in some way I do feel like I met him that night. Cutting school when I was a kid to stay home all day and listen to his albums also made me feel like I knew him. As if he'd been a friend from the moment I placed the needle down on my "AM/FM" record. I grew up in a stifling small town. Stumbling upon his records opened up a whole new world to me, both confirming what I'd only internalized up to that point - the world was indeed incredibly fucked up - and helping me better navigate it through not only seeing humor in all the madness and hypocrisy and bullshit but also letting me know it's healthy, honorable, sometimes helpful, and often funny to express it.
Joespeed, George. And thanks for sharing this, Louis. Cheers and continued success and fulfillment with your stand-up.
although i never saw him perform live, i too met Mr. Carlin once.
i had the good fortune to meet GC in 2004 at a signing
for his book "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops". the bookstore people announced that he would only sign that book. He signed everything that everyone brought, from stacks of vinyl to old Playboys with him as the interview subject. He took a minute for each person, not merely signing the book and saying next.
i told him how my moms turned me onto him when i was about 6 or 7; how she always taught me there was no such thing as "bad words', just times and places we don't use certain ones.
he said "good ole mom".
i've cried a lot this week. your eulogy brought more tears.
thank you Mr. C.K.
PS: Lucky Louie was brilliant & hilarious. fuck HBO!
I don't have the stamina or cojones to get on a stage to perform, but I always admired the way Carlin didn't just memorize a bunch of jokes: he wrote an essay and presented it, live. Everything tied together; and he walked up and down the stage telling people, basically, how he felt about everything he was discussing.
I, like you, bought and wore out a cassette of his (Class Clown, in my case), which not only showed me how to be a better writer, but encouraged me to be brave enough to put my opinions out there a little, whether in print or online. I wish I'd had an opportunity to tell him that.
Another blogger put me up on this entry.
That was great. In the background is his last special on the same network that canceled your show by the way- I thought was a great HBO comedy series, my wife liked it a lot too. Sure as hell funnier than Flight Of The Conchords. Carlin was an institution, an educator and a philosopher. I'm broken up that I will never in my lifetime get to see him live.
Louis - You fucking killed last night at the State Theatre. Everyone was talking about your set outside after the show. I'm sorry to hear about your divorce, my girlfriend and I were really shocked to hear you say that. Seems like you've been having a tough time lately, but even with all that your performace was nothing short of legendary.
Hey Louis CK, If this is really you, then it's an honour.
I too love Carlin, i have, literally, everything he ever did, and listened to them all about 20 times.
His death is a trajedy and im really sad he's not going to make any more brilliant comedies.
Louis, I am actually listening to your CD right now, the 'Live In Houston' one.
Although, If you saw me on the street, you would probably think I am a 'shitty kid', I am however, a big fan.
I hope you get round to reading this.
It would blow mine and my father's mind if you ever got back to me.
I get the chances are minimal you would waste your time writing me an email, but if you did, that would be amazing.
Thank you for your time, RIP Carlin.
Marcus.
Absolutely on point Louie. I am a big fan of George's work. He was my favorite type of comic. He made you think just as much as he made you laugh. To me that was the bravest thing about him. He had shows where he did not have a punchline for extended periods of time, but what he was talking about was so interesting you didn't even notice. To me that is what set him apart. Your clip was an excellent example of that talent.
Also as an aspiring comic I have a lot of respect for not reusing material. Having been around comedians more and more lately I see how difficult and how rare it is for someone to constantly try new material. You almost never see it. Most comedians do the same material week after week, month after month. It is truly brave to abandon great material. I was inspired by Carlin on Carlin in much the same way you were. You can't help but respect the man.
Rest in Peace George.