A few other things to say about George Carlin, above and beyond the fact that he was funny and revolutionary and just plain important. Everyone's saying that about him already on the Internet. Someone should say that he had just about all the gifts that a great comedian could have. He had a wonderful speaking voice and, when necessary, he could do characters and impressions and even verbal sound effects. He didn't do a lot of physical comedy but every now and then, he'd do a little…just to let us all know he could if he wanted to. I seem to recall one night on Mr. Carson's show when Carlin came out and, as his stand-up spot, just did funny faces for a five minutes. The audience was not disappointed.
He was also brave. You had to be to say some of the things he did…to be quite willing to piss off people that, I'm sure, he felt should be pissed-off. But he was also brave when he went just as a comedian. The first time I met him — this would have been around '72 or thereabouts — he told a group of us that he was doing The Tonight Show the next night and his opening line would be, "Ladies and gentlemen, I've decided to try and do my spot here tonight without getting one single laugh."
Just what response that would get, he had no idea…so he had two punch lines planned. If the audience didn't laugh, he told us, he was then going to say, "Looks like I'm off to a good start." If they did laugh at the opening line, he'd just just snap his fingers, mutter "Damn" and go on from there. As it turned out, they laughed a tiny bit…not really enough to prompt either line. It was one of the few times I ever saw him bomb but it was only for a moment. He just made a left turn, went into a tried-and-true routine and had the audience howling in seconds.
That was his secret weapon. He could always be funny. He had literally hundreds of routines and could always summon one up for the occasion. Armed with that, he felt free to try new things, say new things, venture into new territory. The worst that could happen was that he'd have to make that quick left turn. It was rarely necessary.
Onstage, he often came off as cranky, angry and contemptuous of the entire human race. Offstage, he was a decent, friendly guy to everyone…and one of those comedians who never felt he had to "perform." Nor did he stand on his celebrity. One time, I was waiting in the line to get into the buffet at Bally's in Las Vegas when I noticed a small commotion amongst the staff. They'd spotted George Carlin — who later that evening would be headlining in the main showroom there — waiting, all alone, in the same line as the rest of us. He didn't even get into the V.I.P. line…just took his place with the peasants.
The manager scurried over and invited Carlin to bypass the line and be seated, a.s.a.p. George thanked her politely but explained, "I'm in no big hurry and all these people were here before me." You could put a thousand professional entertainers into that situation and I'd be surprised if three of them would decline the perk…but George Carlin did. One of the reasons he could speak for the common man was that he never got too far from being one.
He was completely non-competitive with regard to other comedians. There are no stories of him trying to "one up" another guy or squeeze someone else out. There are certainly no stories of him stealing jokes…though there are many tales of him being the burglary victim. He wanted his work to remain his work and he respected the property of others just as fiercely. I wrote on a pilot he did in the seventies and he only asked for one line to be changed. It was a good line, he said, but it sounded a teensy bit like a joke in Robert Klein's act and it made him uncomfortable to come even within spitting distance of doing someone else's material. The line was quickly changed. A year or two ago when we spoke at a memorial service, he was complaining about how so many things he didn't write were e-mailed all over the Internet with his name affixed.
All in all, he was just a great comedian who did what he did about as well as anyone could do it. I feel so bad that he's not going to be doing it any longer. He was still fresh and innovative at age 71 and I wanted to see how long he could stay that way.
