Archives: Carlin's interview with Neil White

Editor's note: Talk about Town columnist Neil White interviewed George Carlin last October before his appearance at The Township during what would be his last tour; he had no plans to retire, then. YOU MIGHT THINK a 70-year-old stand-up comedian would have run out of things to say after a half-century in the business. Not George Carlin.

The iconic comic, who will appear Friday night at The Township, is going even stronger than he did during his pioneering days on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "The Tonight Show" in the 1960s. Along the way, he has discovered something about himself and his material.

"I began as an entertainer who used to write his own material. I always used to say that in interviews. I was a comedian who wrote his own material," Carlin said. "But, over the years, I turned into a writer, and what I found out at one point when I looked back was that I had become a writer who performed his own material." He also has learned that his essential assignment is writing, the most rewarding part of his job.

"The thing that gives me the most pleasure is conceiving and writing the material. Getting onstage is another pleasure. It's a separate deal," he said.

"Stand-up is the entertainment part, but writing is the art, and artists grow and change and develop and mature. They're never finished."

That maturation leads him to believe that his act remains as potent as ever.

"The observations are richer than they were when you're 20 or 25," he said.

But is the Carlin who's working toward his 13th HBO concert ("It's Bad For Ya") on March 1 as funny as the guy who used to break up Johnny Carson?

"I would hope that a person who did something like this would improve over time. And I think I have. I know that it's changed. Whether or not it's better is somebody else's call," Carlin said. Besides, it's simply not a part of his genetic package to consider retirement.

"I'm eager to say something, and I want people to hear it. It's a showoffy kind of thing," he said.

One place you won't catch him is on the golf course. There's a good reason for that.

"Because you have to hang around with golfers," he noted.

His current tour coincides with the recent release of his DVD collection titled "George Carlin: All My Stuff," a 14-disc retrospective set that contains performances of all his memorable routines. He's probably got more of them than any comedian in history. While he is most proud of some of his recent essaylike offerings about religion and culture, he knows that his best stand-up bits have earned a permanent place in popular culture.

"Of the signature pieces, my observation is '(A Place For My) Stuff' had the greatest universal reach. Most people could and can identify with that and did," Carlin said.

"'The Seven Dirty Words' gave me an identity, a convenient way for people to think of me and describe me. And it also propelled me to grow my way out of that little narrow label, to go beyond that. 'Baseball and Football' I'm proud of because it's the epitome of those word things that I like to do."

He believes the "The Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" remains applicable today on network television, depending on the context of the word. That goes for family newspapers, too, although he rails at the absurdity of using symbols like @#$% to ease a curse word into print, especially since readers know exactly what dirty word is being signified.

"It's like a contortionist's act," he said.

Credit for Carlin's longevity can be attributed to his approach. His material isn't a rehash of the headlines. Everyday life is funny enough for him.

"I've never done topical material, so I've never had to worry about the events of today. My interest lies in the culture at large -- large topics that will never really change a great deal. Government, religion, business, consumerism, politics, race, and certain subcategories," he said.

He's currently working on routines about three topics with which anybody can identify: Telephones, driving and being a pedestrian, and riding in an elevator. Topics tend to jump out at him from the files of his computer.

"They kind of call out to me. Sometimes, they have a very insistent tone: 'Put me in, coach. Put me in,'" he said.

There's also little doubt that his classic characters still would work. Can't you just picture Al Sleet, the hippie-dippie weatherman, on the 24-hour-a-day Weather Channel? Carlin chuckles at the thought.

"He'd be great with a hurricane coming," he said, before briefly lapsing into Al's stoner voice. "'It's a Category 10. We don't know what category.' Yeah, that would be a lot of fun."

Carlin's status as one of the greats was ratified three years ago when Comedy Central presented its list of "100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time," voted upon by people in the comedy business. Carlin ranked No. 2, behind Richard Pryor and ahead of Lenny Bruce. While both happy and surprised by the designation, he isn't certain comedy can be quantified that easily, citing the differences in people's taste in humor as well as the many stylistic differences among comedians.

"The appreciation of humor is very subjective. Two people can make a list of 10 each, five of them will match up perfectly, and the other five they'll argue over," he said.

Yet it isn't a stretch to say that very few have done it so well for so long. He hears the accolades all the time from his many fans, who tell him regularly which routines from through the years particularly resonated with them.

"It's a little immodest to say it, but I'm afraid I do hear it a lot. But that was a very large population group, the boomer years," he said. "I don't reflect on it often, but when I do, it gives me a feeling of quite a trip, quite a journey."

He doesn't allow himself to focus too much on any one part of the journey, whether it was appearing on Sullivan's show or hosting the first "Saturday Night Live" or continuing to craft uniquely funny HBO specials.

"They're all just steps down the path, and the path is more important than the steps."

Carlin simply is trying to follow the path of famed cellist Pablo Casals, who continued to practice three hours a day into his 90s.

"Someone asked him why, and he said, 'I'm beginning to notice some improvement.' That's a nice benchmark."

Reach White at (803) 771-8643.