Posted by Placenta Jones at 198.109.1.30 on December 15, 1999 at 13:26:23:
Hey guys,
Found this on the AP wire. Enjoy.
PJ
George Carlin Serious About Funny
By MARY CAMPBELL AP Newsfeatures Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - How funny IS George Carlin?
Director Kevin Smith wrote a part for him in ``Dogma,'' now playing in theaters nationwide, calling him one of his ``longtime heroes.''
``Dogma'' opens with Carlin, as Cardinal Glick, announcing a public relations campaign called ``Catholicism WOW!'' that features a smiling, winking ``Buddy Christ.''
Critics have praised Carlin for delivering one of the funniest bits in the film, which also stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Chris Rock.
``He really dug on the idea of playing a cardinal,'' Smith has said. ``He knew that it wasn't just a joke, and he wanted to show what's at the heart of Glick - who is a salesman but is also totally sincere.''
The role is the latest bend in the road for the 62-year-old Carlin, who can look back and chart his career path by decades.
Carlin began performing comic routines in nightclubs in the 1960s.
``Then I changed from being a superficial comic and began to entertain people who would be considered counterculture: college kids and hippies. I had a rebellious side of me that needed expression,'' he said. ``As part of breaking the superficial thing, I began to talk about myself.''
This hippie era is chronicled in a new seven-CD box set, ``George Carlin: The Little David Years 1971-1977'' (Eardrum Records). The title refers to the years he recorded for the Little David Record Co. The first four records, ``FM & AM,'' ``Class Clown,'' ``Occupation: Foole'' and ``Toledo Window Box,'' were gold records, meaning each sold more than 500,000 copies.
``I was a phenomenon at the time,'' Carlin said. ``I represented something completely new and different: `hippie comedian.' That's when the real fame and recognition were established.''
During the 1980s, Carlin drifted, without artistic direction. ``After a while, you're not the hot new guy anymore. You have to find out who you are. I didn't see this yet as an art form. I kept doing 200 concerts a year. I was caught up in the entertainer/performer part of it.'' Then he found his ``writer's voice.''
``Although I'm proud of what I did in the 1970s, 1990 is when my best work started. It has lasted a decade, what I think of as careful writing and carefully compiled observations. It's a matter of growing up and letting my feelings mature.''
While his main obligation is to be funny, ``I take the art part very seriously. It sounds pretentious. But people have to understand it's writing, interpreting the world your way. It's not quite fine art. But it qualifies as an art form.''
His 1997 book ``Brain Droppings'' (Hyperion) was a best seller, and he is about to start another book, which he'll work on up to 12 hours a day.
Three topics concern him: looking at words and phrases people use; the small world - moments everyone experiences; and the larger world - life, death, war, disease, love.
``The last one gets most of the attention. I like to attack things that are held in high esteem. I like listeners to be a little edgy. It's not therapeutic comedy where I'm rooting for a good outcome. I take the position of rooting for the end of everything. I have no emotional attachment to the culture; it frees me to hold everything up to ridicule. I don't believe in religion, country, big business. I don't have to reserve one corner as a safe haven for myself.'' This attitude doesn't depress him.
``I think our species has wasted its mind on pursuing sneakers with lights on them. But I have a great deal of personal optimism and a positive approach to life. People ask if I have solutions. No. Just to ask the questions and pick at the scab a little bit is my function, I think. That's what I like.''
What he writes is comedy, he said, with poetry and philosophy in it. ``The jester tells us jokes. If there is an underpinning of ideas, we say he is part philosopher. If the jokes with the ideas are couched in marvelous language, then we say he has a touch of the poet. ``The real great joy is getting the words right.''
He was nominated for an Emmy this year for ``George Carlin: You Are All Diseased,'' which aired on HBO. In 1997, ``George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy'' won a CableACE Award for Stand-up Comedy Special or Series. That same year, Carlin won an American Comedy Award as funniest male performer in a TV special, ``George Carlin: Back in Town.'' Carlin performs in about 40 cities a year.
When he's on the stage, it doesn't bother him to go a long time without hearing laughter - if his listeners are attentive. ``If I'm holding them, it is just as good as getting a laugh. That was a big discovery. I have more liberty than flogging a laugh out of them every 12 seconds.''
He doesn't improvise. ``To me, the skill is in the economy of language and finding the simplest words to convey it. Once you've found that, there's no way to change it without spoiling the rhythm of it.''
Carlin thinks his background isn't typical. ``I had a wonderfully happy childhood. My mother was out working most of the time. I liked that. I like my solitude. I created my own world in my imagination. That's what I continue to do. I've always seen myself as outside the group. I think being a comedian has probably fed that impulse in me.''
These days, he said, ``I can report on my happiness as present and accounted for. It's a very deep and substantial feeling of joy, being alive and working. I love my work.''