Belushi..... Kinnison....... John Candy.............. & now George Carlin?? GC is the only 1 I saw live (Vegas), what a riot. If 1 gets the urge to see a performance, they should act on it, because comic might not be around tommorow. Go to you tube, watching various Carlin clips (almost) guaranteed to keep 1 away from clubbing for an hr. or so. (Ditto for doing anything productive).
I first saw him on Johnny Carson in the early 70's, and laughed like crazy. He was indeed a rare talent. A couple of years ago, when he was 69, he ripped off a five minute speech in which he pieced together a long set of catch phrases and buzzwords. He would do this in concert, from memory, without cue cards.
He always had fresh material. It would be 2-3 years between concert tours, and you would see him on both occasions, and there was no repeat material, none.
It wasn't just the material, but quality material. The man was very intelligent and challenged audiences to think, to examine their everyday lives. We were indeed lucky to have him for as long as we had him.
I wish I had a ticket to his funeral. He would want people to laugh and the short list of those delivering the eulogy would probably include Robin Williams and Paul Rodriguez. No doubt Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall will be there-"Here's your sign".
One way in college for me to absolutely waste time beyond belief was to watch some of my roommates videos of him. He was hysterical and a genius. He was more than just Rufus from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
He scripted it all quite rigorously. It wasn't an off-the-cuff riff, but a carefully written word-by-word gesture-by-gesture memorized choreographed performance.
He was a great one and I will miss him. He was not like Eddie Murphy "Mother Fucker this and Mother Fucker that". Do any of you remember Art Linkletter? From the TV show "The funny things that kids will say"? He did a show at my base in Japan back in 1964. A men only event. I couldn't believe it was the same man. Totally raunchy. A riot.
How often does a comedian live to be 70+ and still be as funny and fresh as he was?
One of the biggest mistakes of my life: Last time I was in Vegas, a couple of years ago, I was deciding what show to see that night. I had a choice of George Carlin, Bo Diddley, or some unknown impressionist. Stupidly, I chose the no name guy....now the other two are gone.
Had the pleasure of seeing him in person in Augusta, GA right after the 7 dirty words bit hit the fan. I went with a friend & we had to stand up in the auditorium because all the seats were taken. We laughed so hard my sides ached for a day or so after that. I almost fainted from laughing! He was one funny dude & will be missed.
It is sad to lose another great commedian. I miss Belushi but Chris Farley, George Carlin, and especially Sam Kinison were my favorites. What I liked most about them was their irreverant style. They looked at the human equation and told it like it is without pulling any punches. Bill Maher and Louis Black are probably the only ones left to keep the religious zealots in check.
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He always had fresh material. It would be 2-3 years between concert tours, and you would see him on both occasions, and there was no repeat material, none.
It wasn't just the material, but quality material. The man was very intelligent and challenged audiences to think, to examine their everyday lives. We were indeed lucky to have him for as long as we had him.
I wish I had a ticket to his funeral. He would want people to laugh and the short list of those delivering the eulogy would probably include Robin Williams and Paul Rodriguez. No doubt Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall will be there-"Here's your sign".
One of the biggest mistakes of my life: Last time I was in Vegas, a couple of years ago, I was deciding what show to see that night. I had a choice of George Carlin, Bo Diddley, or some unknown impressionist. Stupidly, I chose the no name guy....now the other two are gone.