Columnist Joe Delaney: Tracing Carlin from casinos to colleges and back

Joe Delaney

Friday, Aug. 18, 2000 | 9:27 a.m.

Joe Delaney's column appears on Thursdays and Fridays. Reach him at 259-4066 or joe@lasvegassun.com

George Carlin, comedic iconoclast, semanticist, occasional windmill-tilter, wit, and despite his protestations to the contrary, a humorist, is conducting his seminars on the human condition nightly at 10 o'clock in Bally's Jubilee Theater ... Carlin also claims he is not angry, that this is an onstage device he calls "theatrically exaggerated discontent."

The pre-1970 George Carlin was a depictor of comedic characters, most notably, the "Hippy-Dippy Weatherman," influenced noticeably by Jonathan Winters, wearing a tuxedo, and an opening act at the Frontier ... He was fired for using a mild descriptive term onstage at the Frontier in 1969 ... The tuxedos were replaced by a beard, sweaters and jeans.

The next stop was the college circuit, and the newest influence was Lenny Bruce ... Carlin went beyond Bruce, who spent his last days trying to rewrite the laws on obscenity, winning the battle, losing his career and his life.

More Carlin

Comedians who have been influenced by the post-1969 Carlin persona include Jerry Seinfeld, Richard Belzer, Al Franken, Gallagher, Dennis Miller and Steven Wright, a distinguished list ... Carlin is the recipient of four Grammy Awards plus numerous nominations ... There have been a dozen acclaimed award-winning shows on HBO, many of which had best-selling companion record albums.

His first "Tonight Show" appearance was with Jack Paar, appearing with a partner, Jack Burns ... In 1962 his "Tonight Show" guest stint was hosted by Mort Sahl, but it was more than 200 appearances on the "Tonight Show," after Johnny Carson took over the host chores, that was the post-1969 career catalyst ... This set up his HBO successes.

The post-1969 Carlin is a cerebral social commentator, still feisty today, even funnier but, most important, at peace with himself, constantly working at his craft, ever evolving, never resting, artistically.

Carlin, concluded

His preference is to work with those problems that always remain unresolved such as life, death, religion, government, big business and consumerism ... Honesty, in its purest form, or the lack of it, is a recurrent theme ... As important to him as the audience's laughter is the fact that he has made members of the audience think as well.

A Carlin live performance usually consists of three parts ... The first is usually a reprise of his best previous work ... Next he may deal with recent material, adding an updated commentary ... A third segment deals with new material, a work in progress, with the audience as an immediate sounding board ... He uses the audience to help him find the proper rhythm and approach ... Go, laugh, be part of the comedic process and come away with food for thought with Carlin at Bally's through Aug. 31.

Postscripts

This column would remiss if we omitted mention of comedian-impressionist Dennis Blair, excellent opener and set-up man for Carlin through the years ... Blair has a tendency to pick up Carlin's cadence and sound onstage, a detraction from his own strong persona ... Together, Carlin and Blair are a powerful comedic one-two punch.

For local jazz, check out Pogo's tonight; Joe Lano's Trio, Napoleon's Bar, Paris Las Vegas every night; The World's Smallest Jazz Band, Sunday and Monday Jazz Night at the Riviera ... Recommended: Lou Rawls and Nancy Wilson at the Blue Note Las Vegas ... See you next Thursday.