Great Jon Stewart interview with George Carlin

[toomanyhatz]

I know I've mentioned this a few times, but Carlin is one of my favorite comedians ever, not just because I often find him laugh-out-loud funny, but also how well he articulates his love of language. I was unaware this existed, hopefully others will enjoy it as much as I did:

[Charlie O.]

Yeah, I've watched that a number of times. I think I enjoy this interview as much as, if not more than, a lot of his comedy!

[Charlie O.]

Another good'un:

[Deleted]

I've gone off stewart a bit, he seems to say one thing but doesn't really stand behind it in other conversations. Kinda like he's trying to please whoever he's talking to. 

[toomanyhatz]

Thinking about George these days and realizing his intellectual-but-still-earthy approach is unique in comedy - usually if you expose the 'man behind the curtain' too much it ruins the joke, but he managed to thread the needle pretty well.

Lenny Bruce I guess was a bit similar - there was a deliberate 'statement' being made in where he found humor - but he was less direct about it and (to my mind) also less funny.

Here's another great interview with a sympathetic interviewer, Bob Costas. Similar to the others in that you get a good sense of what makes him tick:



and part two:

[sloopjohnc]

Carlin's interview reminds me when people ask Seinfeld why he still does stand up, and the same thing could be said of McCartney and Carlin cites Picasso. Their art is who they are.

Re: language, there's an interview where Seinfeld was asked what he told non comedians what to do when they were on the show. Talk fast and loud - that was the best advice he told them on how to be funny.

I love when comedians talk comedy because it's such a mysterious art form - like Carlin says, it's oratory, and it's one of the last of the art forms to be that way. Stories and history are largely written, where they started as oratory. Comedy still retains that.

[sloopjohnc]

In junior high, we used to go to my friend Jeff's house and listen to the comedy albums he had - Richard Pryor, Cheech and Chong, Bob Newhart, George Carlin.

I had very funny friends. Jeff was probably the funniest, but my other friends, Frank and Kevin, always got their photos in the yearbook as Funniest in Class. They had different styles of comedy - Frank was a ham and went on to be an actor and Kevin was very reactive, great at comebacks. Jeff kinda combined the two.

In the high school talent show, Kevin did "Who's on First?" with another guy and were good. But it was a school loaded with funny people for some reason. Dana Carvey went to my high school before transferring and Greg Proops was a couple years ahead of me.

[Charlie O.]

Nov 26, 2020 19:45:50 GMT sloopjohnc said:

I love when comedians talk comedy because it's such a mysterious art form

I'm interested in this, too. Carlin started a record label/website called laugh.com (it's still around) - and in addition to "funny stuff," they had a series of CDs where comedians discuss their craft. Some are better at talking about it than others - for example, the Jonathan Winters one was disappointing, whereas I found the Jerry Seinfeld one fascinating (and I'm not an especially big fan of his) - but in general it's cool listening to these guys not trying to be funny for a change but talking about what they think goes into being funny, and how they work at it. Back in the early '90s there was a TV interview series hosted by Alan King called Inside The Comedy Mind that was also good - I'd love to see those again.

[sloopjohnc]

Nov 26, 2020 21:04:40 GMT Charlie O. said:

Nov 26, 2020 19:45:50 GMT sloopjohnc said:

I love when comedians talk comedy because it's such a mysterious art form

I'm interested in this, too. Carlin started a record label/website called laugh.com (it's still around) - and in addition to "funny stuff," they had a series of CDs where comedians discuss their craft. Some are better at talking about it than others - for example, the Jonathan Winters one was disappointing, whereas I found the Jerry Seinfeld one fascinating (and I'm not an especially big fan of his) - but in general it's cool listening to these guys not trying to be funny for a change but talking about what they think goes into being funny, and how they work at it. Back in the early '70s there was a TV interview series hosted by Alan King called Inside The Comedy Mind that was also good - I'd love to see those again.

The Alan King one was good - he had a roundtable in England with Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner if I remember right, where they discuss funny words.

That's why I like Comedians in Cars - Seinfeld and other comedians breaking down comedy.