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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
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What: George Carlin
When: December 11th @ 7:30PM
Where: the Times-Union Center
America’s favorite malcontent, George Carlin, will be here entertaining Jacksonville at the Times-Union Center on December 11th, courtesy of the FCCJ artist series. This live show is not for the easily offended, as Carlin is fond of crossing the invisible lines society has set up around dirty words, politics, and religion. Carlin’s made a career out of complaining about the state of the world, gaining him the #2 ranking on Comedy Central’s 2004 listing of the greatest stand up comedians of all time (Carlin ranks behind Richard Pryor).
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Carlin started doing stand-up at the tender age of 18, eventually garnering appearances on shows like Laugh-In and The Tonight Show during the 60’s. The ‘70s brought a change to Carlin; he started wearing a beard, earrings and strange clothes. He also developed his famed “Seven Dirty Words” routine, in which he expounds on the seven words you cannot say on the air. His notoriety made him a very popular counter-culture icon in the late ‘70s, which is around the time he seemed to shy away from the public eye because of health problems. From the ‘80s on he worked fairly frequently, appearing on HBO TV specials and doing some TV and movie work.
Carlin has appeared sporadically in cameos and main roles of movies since the ‘70s. He’s worked more steadily in movies this decade than he has in any other, sometimes voicing characters for cartoons or CGI movies like Tarzan II and Cars. His role as Cardinal Ignatius Glick in Kevin Smith’s Dogma, was one of his best, perhaps because of the irony of a known atheist playing a Cardinal in the Catholic Church.
Although Carlin published one other book in the ‘80s before his 1997 Brain Droppings, it was this book that made his print career, with an astounding eighteen weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. It was basically a print version of much of Carlin’s stand-up monologues. Carlin received a Grammy award for the audio version of the book in 2001. His next book, Napalm and Silly Putty, spent two more weeks than its predecessor on the best seller list and the audio book also won a Grammy. The well titled, but comparatively unsuccessful When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? was published in 2004.
In the last couple of years, George Carlin has been a favorite author to attribute e-mail forwards to. The popular forward “Hurricane Rules” that appeared soon after the Katrina disaster are attributed to him, as was the smaltzy post/e-mail “The Paradox of Our Time” and “I’m a Bad American.” The full contents of these are available on www.snopes.com. Carlin took the time to post a disclaimer on his web site, stating that most of the stuff on the internet attributed to him isn’t actually his. “The Paradox of Our Time” appeared to be the post that annoyed him most. Here’s what he has to say on his site: “One of the more embarrassing items making the internet/e-mail rounds is a sappy load of sh*t called “The Paradox of Our Time.” The main problem I have with it is that as true as some of the expressed sentiments may be, who really gives a sh*t? Certainly not me. I figured out years ago that the human species is totally f*cked and has been for a long time…Another problem I have with “Paradox” is that the ideas are all expressed in a sort of pseudo-spiritual, New-Age-y, “Gee-whiz-can’t-we-do-better-than-this” tone of voice. It’s not only bad prose and poetry, it’s weak philosophy. I hope I never sound like that.”
For Tickets call (904) 632-3373 or go to http://www.artistseries.fccj.org/. Tickets range in price from about $29 to $75 (without tax). Discounts are available for groups of twenty or more.
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