He surfed atop a stand-up comedy tsunami for almost 50 years, mastering all its forms — television, stage, publishing, everything except his ultimate youthful ambition of film.
Like a fine wine or a blues artist or one of those Dutch impressionists, George Carlin just got better and more scathing with age. It may have been his accumulated experience or the fact that near the end, he didn’t simply throw caution to the wind, he vaporized it. He slowly morphed into a truly dangerous man: someone who didn’t care whom he ticked off.
In the posthumous semiautobiography Last Words, Carlin candidly guides the reader through the cycle of rise and fall and rise again that characterized his career. In keeping with his trademark style, no subject is off limits and nothing is sugarcoated; comedy’s cuddliest caustic critic exposes all, even the major petards he hoisted upon himself: drugs and the IRS.
A combination of frantic schedule and escalating health problems prevented Carlin from completing a series of interviews begun with friend and noted satirist Tony Hendra. But after the comedian’s death in June of last year at age 71, Hendra fashioned from the notes recorded over a 10-year period this scattershot, vaguely unfinished yet readily consumable and ultimately satisfying biography.
One of Carlin’s 23 comedy albums (11 were nominated for Grammy awards) was titled Occupation: Foole, and he zealously embraced the job description. For comedy fans, this book is vital. It’s easily worth its weight in gold for the biting observations on showbiz and its personalities. Major highlight: The hilarious description of the peculiar horror an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show triggered for anyone foolish enough to attempt humor near the Stiff One.
You might catch the faint whiff of resemblance to Steve Martin’s 2007 opus, Born Standing Up. But though both books cover the same era, Carlin focuses more on the profane poetry of the struggle (replete with samples from routines), whereas Martin concentrated on careful career constructionism. The lyricist versus the engineer. Interestingly, both legends speak of taking exhaustive notes of each performance. Newbie comics — hope you’re listening.
Born in the gap between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers, George Denis Patrick Carlin indeed mirrored the times, reinventing himself regularly. Even the archetypal bio fodder is a study in disparity: Early days as a fatherless son prowling Manhattan. His start in free-form radio, coinciding with the end of military service. Stumbling onto the comedy scene, first as part of a double act, Burns and Carlin, then as a rising solo.
Last Words covers all the historic landings where Carlin planted his comedy flag. The bust after leaving Milwaukee’s Summerfest stage for performing The Seven Dirty Words. The landmark constitutional free-speech case decided by the US Supreme Court that arose from the routine. Hosting the very first Saturday Night Live, higher than an eagle’s aerie. He also takes us through the preparation necessary for an appearance on The Tonight Show, of which he made 130.
From his roots as the Hippy Dippy Weatherman to his late-career string of 14 HBO specials, one of which had a pre-9/11 title of I Kind of Like It When a Lot of People Die, Carlin consistently raised the bar for generations of comedians. In Last Words the premise — a justified one — is that he didn’t simply reflect the changes in society and comedy, he was responsible for a few of them. And while Lenny Bruce might have died for our sins, George Carlin lived for them.
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