Words are hard to come to me this morning but I'll try....I wake up this morning to just find one of the biggest shocks of all... George Carlin is no longer with us.
He is easily in my top five favorite comedians of all time. I saw him live a couple years ago. I own all of his records and Cds and DVDs, all three of his books. I've seen most of the movies he's been in. I'm just a huge Carlin fan. I can quote all of his concerts practically verbatum. this was just a total shock. I really felt that he was going to outlive all of us.
thing is, Carlin wasn't just a comedian. Like Bill Hicks, he was a preacher. He told us where we were going wrong. He said he enjoyed watching us screw up everything. Well, I still feel that he will get that chance. Watching us from afar and shaking his head at our stupidity and having a gut laugh.
I remember being around 7-8 years old and my parents watchin CARLIN AT CARNEIGE and CARLIN ON CAMPUS on Betamax. I'd listen in and laugh hard. "He said a swear!" My parents didn't try to hide it from me, merely told me not to repeat it. I still maintain thats where I learned to swear ultimately. But my dad and I still recite some of those bits back and forth.
"You make this ma? Is there a picture of it in the cookbook? I'll bet it don't look like that! You like it, YOU eat it!"
As I grew up, I not only enjoyed the swearing and funny faces he would make but I began to understand the messages he would preach. He wasn't simply an entertainer. He wasn't just an old vulgar ranter. We listened to him. We loved him. We followed him.
In 2004, I got to see him live at the Soaring Eagle Casino. He was practicing new routines for his HBO comedy special coming up. He had glasses and notes on stage. It was an interesting look into how the man practiced and measured each word in his "rants" like poetry. I'm priveleged to have seen it.
Goddammit. Now I am going to be bummed as shit all week.
If any of you haven't checked out his work, please do it. He challenged what it means to be ourselves in a world that just won't allow us to be us. He woke us up. I'm so sad that he's gone cause we certainly still need him right now.
T
2 comments:
If you are truly "in shock" over the passing of George, maybe you had not paid much attention to his past history of heart trouble. It shouldn't really be that much a surprise, as he has been having problems for years. I do remember recently telling a friend about how I had not yet taken advantage of many opportunities to see George live, and I wanted to before he died. Guess that's another boat I missed. Yes, he was a great comic and pointed out much absurdity in our world. I don't know that I'd "follow" him, but he was a great one to make you both laugh and think. There won't be another like him.
Oh no. I know he had several heart attacks early in the 80's. Plus his alcohol and drug abuse from time to time didn't help. SHOCK maybe isn't the proper term. More, saddened. Cause still 71, is still too young to go.
T
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