Jon Stewart Interviews George Carlin

when you were a kid growing up yeah you wanted to be Danny Kaye he and Bob Hope so look how do you think this thing is working out so far back well I knew I wanted to stand up and you know I'd be silly and have people say Nick you in the cute and clever and that's all it was is a reward a psychic reward you know when your kid and you find out that you can get the attention of adults and approval and a little bit of respect and you just hunger for you keep going back for it and I have fortunately genetic you know my little tool kit my genetic tool kit I was given included a mother and father who were very funny people could do accents and dialects and tell funny stories about what happened on the bus that morning and have a punch line so it you don't lick it off the rocks they say in Ireland so I think I thanked my grandmother's milk man act me you never know where these things go you reach out it's interesting you know as I watch now and through all the years of listen to your abs of things your fascination with language it's so apparent watching your work is almost like watching a musician you know the way you you weave words and use language for emphasis and all that was that always a fascination for you even as a kid well well to go backwards with the question don't forget what we do is oratory its rhetoric it's not just comedy it's a form of rhetoric and and with rhetoric you you look and listen for rhythms you you look for ways to sing at the same time you're talking and to go I don't better doom did oh don't don't don't and don't don't don't don't don't don't better doo doo doo doo doo and it's just natural um my grandfather whom I never knew was a policeman in New York at the turn of the century and he was an uneducated man self educated and he in the course of his adult life he wrote out the the works of Shakespeare by hand because of the joy it gave him that's an obsessive young man yeah and and and and most everything is genetic and my mother cared a lot about language my father was a champion public speaker of 1935 he won the mahogany gavel I over 800 other public speakers from the Dale Carnegie public speaking Institute and he was he was great I never knew him either we're your parents put off by the direction that you went into when you started to go counterculture was it a difficult transition for them to watch well he was out of the picture he he was brilliant and he was a top salesman in advertising but he couldn't metabolize ethanol efficiently so he was given his hat my mother was very brave she left she left him I was 2 months old my brother was 5 5 years and she left down a fire escape so he was gone she my mother was very kind of controlling wanted to control my life and was was heartbroken when I began the dirty language and the awful stuff he says about business she was a bit she was an advertising executive secretary loved the business world thought it was just the finest thing that ever happened and so when I went in that direction at first very opposed until one day we lived in the same street that I grew up I thought I went to school and I went to school on the same block I lived on something like that Corpus Christi school and the nuns were great it wasn't a typical Catholic school it was an experimental progressive school that didn't have grades didn't have any sort of corporal punishment it was just very very wonderful school and the nun she would see the nuns in the street they would say oh we saw we saw George on on The Tonight Show and she being a bit of an actress she would say oh it's the awful language sister the awful language and one of them said to her no no your honors in he's using it for other purposes he's not just doing it for that it's kind of like part of what he does don't you understand it's this and that and so forth so she said oh well oh and from that day on she was okay with it because the church had approved it that was that and so that people who deal in content that's on the edges you do oftentimes live a life that's similarly on it on an edge mm-hmm and a lot of those people go off the rails yeah and we lose them and their talent and you've been able to not do that and being able to pull it back in and another luck stroke you know you gotta have luck in this world part of its your genetic makeup that's luck and then what you do with it is also partly genetic because hard work is genetic the desire to do hard work the willingness to work hard and be determined and not be said not be turned aside that's all genetic to it can be altered it a little reinforced but some of the people who who had so much edgy promise they died young I mean Lenny Bruce uh Sam Kinison Andy Kaufman in his way share our Freddie Prinze John Belushi Bill Hicks right and it's just I don't know of course Bill had a natural disorder of his own I think so did Andy but but it's not always behavior but sometimes it's just genetic but it's just that I think there's a degree of luck and intellect involved in giving up things that hurt you that the drug and alcohol thing it seems to me comes down to this drugs and these things are wonderful they're wonderful when you time first they're not around for all these millennia for no reason first time mostly pleasure very little pain maybe a hangover and as you increase and keep using whatever it is the pleasure part decreases in the pain part the price you pay increases until the balance is completely the other way and it's almost all pain and there's hardly any pleasure at that point you would hope then the intellect says oh oh this doesn't work anymore I'm going to die something but you need people around you who can help you and you need something to live for you have to have something to look forward to to bring you out you know there's are a lot of people don't have a lot to live for and they're sort of stuck inside there ever any fear that by giving up the drugs you lose a bit of a genius by giving up the wild lifestyle sanity being well that's that's has been a canard for a long time that that most of this creativity comes from being wacky and I'm sure there's a lot of truth in that as far as just being plain old wacky where where the drugs are concerned and alcohol they do seem to open a window for you they do seem to broaden the vistas at first the thing you have to do is learn when you know it's like all these great writers who became drinkers you have to sort let like I find with like with pot I'm not a big drug user anymore but I have always a joint somewhere near me I don't kid might be hidden might be hidden what I do and I and I hardly touch it maybe once a month that would be frequent for me but when I'm writing something and I write perfectly straight perfectly sovereign I write a whole lot of stuff six seven eight nine pages I really pour it out the next day one hit it's all I need now one hit and it's punch up time haha time to get this thing going and you do find with that sort of judicious use I find there's some value in it but but most of the things we use don't let you leave them alone they no pot does thank goodness for that well that's excellent what sorry we're gonna fall in a few ways more than fair you can I yeah why do you still care why do you still care enough to keep you're at a point in your life where you could go back you could do your month in Vegas and Florence Henderson could open up and you could go and hit a couple of balls and then some pinball why do you still care so much well I'm not comparing myself to any of these people believe me but you wouldn't say to Picasso why are you gonna put those brushes down get rid of the canvas you've done it not you I'm an entertainer first and foremost but there's art involved here and an artist has an obligation to be on route to be going somewhere there's a journey involved here and you don't know where it is and that's the fun so you're always gonna be seeking and looking and going and trying to challenge yourself so without sitting around thinking of that a lot it drives you in it and it keeps you trying to be fresh trying to be new trying to call on yourself calling yourself a little more you know and willing to put up with the grueling yeah promotional schedule and everything that's the only way Picasso never had to do morning shows and Albuquerque right you know and the only way I can do this is to go where the people are I can't they will not come to my house the bus rides and everything they will not come I have to go to Stevens Point Wisconsin or wherever it is and the audiences are great and they buy the tickets ahead of time and they really wait for you to come there and see you in the theaters and concert halls it's special because the audience they do it beforehand and you're the whole evening in Las Vegas you're an afterthought you're an also well we could go gambling we could go hooker in we could get drunk we could go to the convention no let's go see this guy and if they like you they do but they're not committed fans so it's a different tone there but it still works you can still do some things there that that you could feel good about you know do you feel your place in comedy now do you feel the you know because I've been spending a lot of time with the festival and everybody that I would mention you know hey I'm gonna do this George Carlin should be in there their faces light up and to a person bring Lee Carlin and what can I meet him is he around do you feel that place is that and well that is growing on me I think you know longevity is a wonderful thing they sometimes you get applause just for not being dead when you say ha ha ha when you say I'm going to be 60 they applaud that wonderful dance 60 uh so but but I'm I'm getting a sense of it you know when you're in planes three days a week I go out every Friday I come home every Monday it's three different cities three different nights airports hotel lobbies have people have wonderful people I love individuals I hate groups of people I hate people who have a group of people with a common purpose because pretty soon they have little hats and armbands and fight songs and a list of people they're going to visit at 3:00 a.m. so I dislike and despise groups of people but I love individuals every person you look at you can see the universe in their eyes if you're really looking and they're great and so cumulatively I have gotten the feeling that I'm in this big family a family life I never had by the way this so to say extended family of people who feel like you're their cousin you know I say Georgie's 1961 I show you hey remember yeah oh and you know what you said and I said did I oh yeah so it's you're not just great and so cumulative you say well I guess I'm in the family I guess it's okay yeah here do you think it doesn't boil down after 10 HBO hours after a multitude of best-selling homes after Grammy nominations after Emmy nominations after cable ACE Awards does it all boil down to what you would said originally that it's about hey dig me and hey look at me and I cute that's involves it's just a Dobby call showing off and if you can get them to not only stop and listen but say isn't he cute he's real you're killed if you can get the approved school we didn't have grades so we didn't have a B's and C's Indies the only A's I got and this is a little corny I got their attention I got their approval their admiration their approbation and their applause and those are the only A's I wanted and I got sad I have myself I just want to say that I I can't tell you enough what a pleasure this has been for me to spend some time with you and to be a part of this show and thank you very much for all the great wonderful to know you a little and you are gonna show us a lot and I look forward to it thank you very much

Channel: George Carlin Official YouTube Channel

Views: 4,283,244

Rating: 4.9464216 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: nCGGWeD_EJk

Length: 12min 24sec (744 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 16 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/bizkitmaker13]

" You ever notice that? Any time you see two groups of people who really hate each other, chances are good they're wearing different kind of hats. Keep an eye on that, it might be important. " -Carlin

[u/The_Naked_Snake]

When are we going to get back leather jacket Jon Stewart?

[u/RobotVomit]

“You’re going to show us a lot”

He was so right about Stewart.

[u/wikiwombat]

Carlin is one of the few people I wish was still around just to see what he would say about everything going on. He really transcended comedy.

[u/DeadFyre]

"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and degenerates into a racket." -Eric Hoffer, True Believer.

[u/mawfks]

Carlin was a genius ahead of his time. But simultaneously he ushered in a new age, so maybe he was right where he needed to be.

[u/Shindo989]

I’m sad that Carlin never got to make the movie he wanted.

After enjoying playing Cardinal Glick in Dogma he told Kevin Smith that he wanted smith to write a movie for him to star in as a priest who strangles children

EDIT: it was after Jay and Silent Bob not dogma.

https://www.newsweek.com/director-kevin-smith-remembers-george-carlin-90849

When he wrapped his scene in that flick, I thanked him for making the time, and he said, "Just do me a favor: Write me my dream role one day." When I inquired what that'd be, he offered, "I wanna play a priest who strangles children."

[u/Always_ssj]

Agent Kay condensed this “a person is smart, people are dumb”

[u/Forgo77en]

"Every person you look at, you can see the universe in their eyes if you're really looking" this hit different