George Carlin, the straight shooting, famed, award winning, funny man and one of America's hippest comedians and comedy writers, appeared at the Orleans showroom in Las Vegas Sept 20 to 23 (Returning Nov. 22-25) to a sold out crowd who cheered him on from start to finish! It’s hard to fathom that he has reached his 50th year in comedy and his 70th birthday. Carlin looks the same, dresses the same and will make you laugh till you cry the same as he has done for 50 years. I say, “BRAVO GEORGE!” Bravo for making us think, analyze, question and see reality through laughter for 50 years. Thank you!

Comedy Central has named George Carlin, the second greatest comic of all time, (behind Richard Pryor) and I for one agree. Looking around the audience I realized that one might not agree with everything he says or puts out there, but he does make you stop and think about it, at least through his eyes. No matter what your own opinions are, Carlin ‘WILL’, however, make you laugh…



When speaking to the press Carlin states, “In interviews years ago, I would describe myself as a comedian who writes his own material because I was proud of that. A lot of comedians don’t, even people whom you wouldn’t expect that out of, they don’t really write their own stuff. They have people feeding them ideas, and bits and pieces, and jokes and stuff and I don’t like it. That’s not what this is about for me. This is about doing my stuff. So I used to think of myself as a comedian who wrote his own material, and then I started to notice that what I had become was a writer who performs his own material”.

He also states, “There are 3 things that can go into a really complete comedian. One is humor, the second thing is ideas and the third is a facility for language”. When asked how long he will perform he answered, “I’ll do it until it’s not fun”! Watching him work, it was quite evident that fun is what he was indeed having and so was the audience.

Granted, he does use a tad (ok, more than a tad) of bad language, but he places it appropriately to enhance his humor. His sense of timing is astounding! In his act, Carlin jokes about getting older, relatives, comas, peoples kids, sports, play-dates, low tolerance for stupid people, raising kids, C E O’S, movie stars and athletes. He goes on to talk about what happens when we die, faith, the lord, the bible, heaven and hell. He jokes, “My grandma could be in hell right now baking pies without an oven!”† His new material is hilarious and not so far from the truth. Politically correct he is not, and that is quite refreshing, I might add! “I don’t understand kids today! What is wrong with a 14 year old boy who manages to have sex with his teacher and then runs to tell the police about it?” Funny stuff folks!

Carlin routinely performs nearly 90 shows a year nationwide. He is busy working on his next HBO special to air in March 2008. He is currently touring which enables him to write and test out over an hours worth of new material for the special. This process of collecting material for HBO takes about 3 years to develop. By the way Carlin fans, all 12 of his HBO specials which span 4 decades of his stand-up are now packaged in a 14-DVD retrospective box set.

Do catch the stellar, comedy brilliance of George Carlin when he comes to your town.
You go George! You are smart, clever and totally cool!



PHOTO IDS:

1. George Carlin at his best
Photos by Robin Roth