| George Carlin makes the most of a foolish
world for his comedy By Tom Walter / Memphis Commercial Appeal
Which George Carlin will be on stage? The Hippy Dippy
Weatherman? The seven words you can't say on TV? A Thomas the Tank Engine story?
Carlin, who has been performing behind a microphone for nearly 40
years, started in radio while still in the Air Force in 1956. He quit radio to perform
comedy full time in 1960.
And he's just getting revved up. Which is another way of saying,
when you head to Ann Arbor to hear him Sunday, don't expect Al Sleet, the Hippy Dippy
Weatherman.
 That was then. This is now. Not
content with recycling Golden Oldies, Carlin continually writes and refines new material.
He does not perform some of his longer "suites" -- material on different but
related topics that can run 30 minutes or more. It's also material that can make an
audience squirm.
"I've developed a show I'm proud of, good and funny, very
strong," he said in a recent telephone interview. "It's not as challenging to
the audience. I do a lot of things kind of like putting a thumb in someone's eye and
saying, 'Isn't that good?'
"You chill part of the room sometimes when you step on some
touchy area like religion or deeply held beliefs. Rather than make it an uncomfortable
room and force things through, I do what's best for all of us that night.I do my show,
which has a lot of spice to it and a lot of edge, but it doesn't threaten people."
Carlin might not be a threat, but he does force audiences to look
at things from his perspective, and to think. Thinking can be threatening.
Carlin has found a new freedom from what might seem to be an
unlikely source - he doesn't care what happens in the world.
"I found it's important to disengage. For me to work as an
artist -- though it's not fine art, it is writing and interpreting -- it requires
emotional detachment from me.I found when I didn't really have a stake in the outcome on
this earth or this country, I don't really care what happens, it made me free to watch
this circus ... to enjoy the deterioration of civilization," he said.
"It's just fun for me, because I think this is a foolish
species.I think this is a species that missed its calling and lost its opportunity a long
time ago. I think there's some bad DNA in this species.Every solution seems to create a
couple more problems -- which is very encouraging to a person like me."
Carlin also has found out something in the past year that he
suspected all along: He and sitcoms can't coexist.The George Carlin Show premiered on the
Fox network in January 1994, and 27 shows were produced before it got canceled a year
later.
Carlin was one of the few stand-up comedians who had resisted
doing a TV show, but decided he didn't want to be in his 70s and wonder what it might have
been like.He was teamed with a producer whose work he admired, and played a cab driver in
New York -- the kind of outspoken guy George Carlin might have become if he hadn't been a
performer and writer.He found he and network television didn't fit.
"I didn't really expect it to happen, because it's a very
corporate and commercial place. I did enjoy the work all week on the stage and doing the
shows, but I didn't like any of the corporate stuff, the second-guessing, focus groups and
all this miserable stuff that goes with corporations, " he said.
He knew that going in, so wasn't surprised when his fears were
confirmed. Nor does he sound particularly disappointed the show didn't work out.
"I' m not made of that stuff. I'm not a striver. I don't
care that much to go through those hoops and dances, because I have my art. It's fully
developed now after 35 years.The best work I've done is the last two Home Box Office
shows," he said, referring to shows he did in 1990 and 1992. His next HBO show will
be next March.
Some of the material will be from the past five years. All of it
will be pure Carlin.
Carlin was rewarded with two Emmy nominations after replacing
Ringo Starr for the second Shining Time season on PBS in 1991.
Would Carlin, who subbed several times for Tonight Show host
Johnny Carson, want his own late-night talk show?
"No. The job there is talking to other people about their
lives and their careers. I'd rather be out having my life and my career."
-- John Kiesewetter of The Cincinnati Enquirer contributed to this story.
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