Thank You, and Good Night

One of my favorite, and most respected comedians of all time, George Carlin, died Sunday evening at the age of 71. This album above was the first album of his I listened to, and there was rarely a moment without stomach crunching laughter. His death was one of those sudden random over night deaths that takes the world by surprise. He apparently went to the hospital with chest pains, and then died of heart failure. George wasn't exactly one to take extra special care of his body, and has struggled with addiction for the past 40ish years. If you've seen any of his most recent shows, he looked a lot older than 71, and his life of addiction shows on his face. I saw him in Boston and was surprised by the morbid theme of his material, but I'm grateful to have seen him live.

Just a few days before he died, I caught one of his old HBO specials, and he was doing a bit about death. He talked about how it's the act of dying that we're afraid of, and that actual death is great because we get to find out what happens after life. He then talked about how a comedian never wants "to die" in front of an audience. Comedians want to "kill em," a good set is referred to as "I killed em tonight." George clearly has never been afraid of death, considering the things that he's done in his life.

As a comedian, he will always be one of my idols, despite the extremely uncomfortable places he started to go towards the end. Although when you think about it, he was just keeping up with the uncomfortable societal topics of the 21st century. Like auto-erotic asphyxiation and not caring about hurricanes and or hurricane victims. His 7 dirty words routine was highly controversial, he was brought up on charges, or something, went to the Supreme Court, and then broke through and became the highest paid stand up of the time because of that industry changing bit. This bit was however, in my opinion, one of his simplest acts. George's observation on human nature went so much deeper than simply saying the 7 words that were not supposed to be said on television. His ability to dissect simple concepts like vaginal farts, to controversial and complex concepts, like religion was uncanny. It was genius. To see someone with the capability to make fun of anything with intelligence and precision is so intimidating, and George had that gift. George also writes out his shows pretty much word for word, which as far as I know, is not something that most stand-ups do. It's certainly not something that I do as a an improviser.

Last night, I dedicated our show to him, and actually had my best performance in this series of orientation shows.

So thank you George for everything you have done.

Thank you, and good night...