Satiristas

  PAUL PROVENZA: What clarified that distinction for you?

  GEORGE CARLIN: For many years, in interviews, I used to proudly say, “I write my own material,” because I knew a lot of comedians didn’t, and I was proud of that. It made me feel different. A writer is an artist by definition, because he creates from pure observation and impressions he gets from observation. I realized I was kind of in that special category as well as being a performer.

  PAUL PROVENZA: As a comedian, I find something about the way you build a set that is rare: most comedians get a flow going, as if they’re chatting with the audience, and it’s conversational. But you will craft certain pieces and present them as crafted pieces, like a singer about to do another song. A piece like “Modern Man,” for instance.

  GEORGE CARLIN: Yeah, I think of it as the way a poet would say, “And now I’d like to read this from my early period…” Or I compare it to like being a sculptor, too: “Here’s a nice finished piece. Look at this, I worked all summer on this…” I like presenting that sort of thing now and then. I never cared much for the rambling sort of “Now we’re on the wife, now we’re on the kids, now we’re on shopping…” thing.

  And you know what? It’s a little bit of an ego thing, too. I never like to sound like anybody else if I can help it. I kinda hate to be part of the pack, even if it’s just someone’s perception of how I walk or anything, I just like to feel, “Hey, I’m a little bit apart from this.” Not better—just a little apart. I’ve kinda just constructed an act that suits me.

  PAUL PROVENZA: While the landscape has certainly changed for language in comedy, there are still people who believe that using profanity or any of those “Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television,” if you will, somehow says less of a comedian.

  GEORGE CARLIN: Yeah, that “You don’t need to; you’re a funny man, you don’t need that stuff” thing. Well, my argument is that you don’t need paprika or oregano or a few other things to make a stew, technically, either—but you make a better stew. If you’re inclined to make a stew of that type, “seasoning” helps.

  I know from Bill Cosby’s work, he clearly feels that way, and I’ve always felt that by taking that stand and developing a body of work that didn’t include it, Cosby can never now choose to use that language. I, however, can choose either.

  I can do six minutes on The Tonight Show with none of that in it—I can use other parts of my tool kit that work for me; I’m good at them, too, and can do that no problem—but I can also be more of my street-corner self elsewhere, with language of the street if I want to do that, too.

  Why should I deprive myself of a small but important part of language that my fellow humans have developed? Why not use all of what we’ve developed to communicate with?

  Sometimes I overdo it intentionally, because it has an effect of its own. I think there are a lot of sentences where the adjective “fucking”—I guess it’s a gerund, isn’t it?—sometimes just makes the joke work better. And not because they’re laughing at the word “fuck” but because including that word may make the language of a sentence more powerful, and it just gets in there better. It just gets in that channel you’ve got open with a harder punch, you know? That’s why people use it in life—because it makes something they’re trying to say stronger; it gives it a particular effect.

  I think the folks who choose to deny that part of our language have limited themselves. And that’s fine; that’s good. Good choice over there…but I’m just fine over here.

  PAUL PROVENZA: I’ll be using that argument myself, thanks. As far as content, is there any subject that’s taboo for you? If not, should there be?

  GEORGE CARLIN: I’m a great believer in context. I say you can joke about anything. Baby rape is a very difficult subject to do three or four minutes on, but if you created a context—and that includes not only the context you’ve created for the jokes but your bigger context, too; your act, the persona they know when they buy a ticket—if all that’s in place, you can…let’s call it “get by” with it. You’re still gonna turn off some people, but they’ll be right back for the next piece of material. I believe you can joke about anything.

  PAUL PROVENZA: With thirteen HBO specials, twenty-three albums, five books, and who knows how much else over your career, you’re one of the most prolific stand-ups ever to have worked a stage. Is there something systematic to how you create, or any process you can identify?

  GEORGE CARLIN: I’ve identified three wells I’ve almost always drawn from for material. One is language and purely analytical humor; how we speak to one another, the words and phrases we use. Sometimes they’re only analytical, with just a little humor to them, and sometimes they have a lot of jokes in them.

  Another is the universal world of everyday experience we all know: driving, what’s in the refrigerator, picking that thing off your leg, whatever—things we all know, with the frame of reference already in place and you can just go right into it.

  Then there are the “issues,” as I call them, for want of a better word. The things that will never change: life, death, cruelty, inhumanity, hatred, love, the abortion issue…all those things that have real social and political overtones to them.

  I’ve always drawn from these three things, especially since the changes I went through, and I’ve always kind of kept a balance of those three overall things without consciously trying to.

  PAUL PROVENZA: Do you care about educating or opening people’s eyes to make a difference?

  GEORGE CARLIN: No. Not really at all. This is really a selfish show-off’s job. It’s the job I had in fifth grade that I didn’t get paid for: making fart sounds in class, or twisting my face into some grotesque look to make Heeney laugh during a history test. That’s showing off, and I’m a show-off. When people ask me, “Do you try to make people think?” I say, “That would really be the kiss of death.” What I do is try to let people know that I’m thinking. I’m showing off.

  When you have a pretty good mind but quit school in ninth grade, there’s a lifelong feeling that “I’ve gotta prove that I’m smarter than they would think I am if they knew I quit school in ninth grade.” I know I didn’t finish school, and I know what they think of people who don’t finish school. I’ll show them that I’m not one of those people; I’ll show them I’m as smart as they are. That’s what I do this for. I do this for ego gratification, a good income, and it’s wonderful that at this point there’s practically no city or state I go to where someone isn’t gonna say, “Hey aren’t you that guy? My sister and I saw you in Milwaukee in ’seventy-one.”

  I have this kind of extended family, which makes me feel great. Every time someone says something like “My daughter’s in college now, she went to see you,” I just love it. I didn’t have much family life, but now I have this really big, extended family.

  PAUL PROVENZA: Do you think any comedian can affect anyone’s worldview?

  GEORGE CARLIN: Yes, because people tell me so. Meeting people in the street, at the airport, restaurants, hotel lobbies…people say—and I’ve been in this long enough that there’ve been a lot of them, “You really changed my point of view about things,” or, “Boy, you turned me around with what you did on the show.”

  Lots of variations of that, from people of all ages. Kids have said, “My father and I were at odds until we laughed at one of your HBO shows together. It started us talking more…”

  Parents say, “My kid saw that show, et cetera…and his grades in school got better.” If not “changed my life,” though some people have said that, a lot of people say, at least, “changed my point of view” on some thing or things. I swear I hear this kind of shit from so many people all the time—and even if you eliminate half of them to offset exaggeration and bullshit, there’s still half left. And there’s that old rule of thumb that one fan letter represents a thousand people that didn’t bother to write, so I figure for everyone who’s said something like that there were a lot of other people who feel the same.

 
; And that has given me such power—not power to use, but power to have. It’s given me such a feeling of “Yeah, man! I’m okay. I’m fuckin’ okay.”

  PAUL PROVENZA: But you wouldn’t care if no one ever said those things to you?

  GEORGE CARLIN: Nope. See, that’s the nice thing I learned with my change in attitude: if you follow your heart, if you do the right thing for you, if you listen to what’s on your mind and in your heart and in your brain…good things will happen from it. Good things will come.

  By changing who I was, and following my heart instead, I suddenly had a record contract, HBO specials, and just spiraled upward. By doing just what pleased me in my shows, I’ve had an effect on some people—the kind of effect I can’t have on the people in Darfur. If I send money or all my old sweaters to Darfur, I will not have the effect on them that I may have on one person sitting and listening to something when he’s twelve years old.

  All I do this for is for me. The fact that it involves other people is great. That it amuses them and gives me an income is great. But I do this just to have a chance to sing my song.

  Sometimes I will self-consciously use notes in a performance and I’ll come right out and tell the audience, “I’m using these notes now, but I want you to know I’m not ‘trying’ this on you. I don’t ‘try’ things; I figure them out and then do them. But I’m learning this one, okay?” Because the audience doesn’t really figure in my equation.

  The way I put it is, “You’re here for me, I’m here for me, and no one’s here for you.” And they love that! They just eat that up; it’s a big laugh. And then I go ahead and do it for me.

  I always do it for me.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the following:

  All the comedians, performers, and writers who sat for portraits and/or gave interviews.

  The people who had interviews and/or photos cut for unavoidable reasons regarding space, design, and the impossibility of a seven-hundred-page full-color book: Maria Bamford, Drew Carey, Troy Conrad, Tom Dreesen, Merle Kessler, Tim Minchin, Taylor Negron, John Oliver, the Onion editorial staff, Tim Reid, Mo Rocca, Sherrod Small, Paul F. Tompkins, Damon Wayans, Fred Willard, and Andy Zaltzman.

  The managers, agents, publicists and assistants who helped hook a lot of it up: Glenn Alai, Geoff Barnett, Dave Becky, Michael Berkowitz, Wendy Blair, J.P. Buck, Cindy Carrasquilla, George Chen, Janice Frey, Traci Gilland, David Himelfarb, Lori Kaplan, Cathy Kerr, Marc Leipis, Mark Loewinger, T.J. Markwalter, Tina O’Rourke, Helga Pollock, Eve Sadof, Estee Seward, Helene Shaw, Bruce Smith, Ed Smith, Marcy Smothers, Rebecca Erwin Spencer, David Steinberg (MBST Management), Heather Taekman, Melanie Truhett, Christie Ward, and Krista Williams.

  Industry bigs for throwing their weight behind us: Estee Adorim and Ava Harel of The Comedy Cellar, Louis Faranda and Caroline Hirsch of the NY Comedy Festival and Caroline’s on Broadway, Bruce Hills and Jodi Lieberman of Just for Laughs, Karen Koren of the Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh, Jamie Masada of The Laugh Factory, Reeta Piazza of the Hollywood Improv, Mareen Taran, and Lou Wallach.

  The staffs of these clubs for throwing their doors (and taps) open for us: Cobb’s Comedy Club, The Fillmore, Gotham Comedy Club, The Purple Onion, SF Punch Line, Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, and The Warfield.

  Other locations that generously obliged us: Amante and O’Reilly’s in North Beach, Karma Hookah Lounge in NYC, The New York Cook Shop, and The Lakeshore Theater in Chicago.

  All the transcribers who had no idea what the hell they were getting themselves into: Jonathan Brown, Keith Buzzard, Matthew Dominick, Jesse Irwin, Richard Lang, Meredith Merchant, Nicole Millikien, Marc Morgan, Carrie Shemanski, Elke Sniderman, and Meagan Stewart.

  Contributors in myriad ways: Rohan Acharya (ITV-London), Tiffany Almudarris, Len Austrevich, Tracey Baird, Rocky Benloulou-Dubin, Doug Berman (“Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!”/NPR), Jack Boulware (Litquake), Neil Campbell, Wyatt Cenac, Jeremy Cesarec, Will Davis, Jessica Delfino, Nick Doody, Jordan Ellner, Emery Emery, Varsh Farazdel, Hank Gallo, Paul Gilmartin, Hannah Gordon, Jackie Green, Matt Greenberg, Cash Hartzell, Matt Harvey (Phil McIntyre Entertainment), Penn Jillette, William Keeler, Matt Kirshen, Kambri Krews, Lance Midkiff, Troy Miller, Dan Pasternack, Mary Pelloni, Tristan Prescott, Chris Ritter, Abbey Robertson, Vanessa Schneider, Jennifer Schulkind, Nell Scovell, Sarah Silverman, Pasquale Tropea (Cineprise-Montreal), Tona Williams, and Bret Witter.

  Additional thanks from Dan: Rick Bates, Judi Brown-Marmel, Francy Caprino, Seth Cohen, Jim Cornett, David Fahey, the Forrester family, Budd Friedman, Robert Hartmann, Tony Liano, Don Lokke, Harrah Lord, David Owen, Morgan Pitman, Joel Selvin, George Shapiro, Ollie Simon, Frank Weimann, and Kurt Weitzmann. Immense gratitude to and admiration of photographers Jonathan Becker, Mike Carano, Susan Felter, Laura Hannifin, Steve Jennings, Pat Johnson, Jim Karageorge, Michael Kohl, Michael Light, Jock McDonald, Kandace Millhouse, Anthony Pidgeon, Michael Rauner, Michael Read, Bill Reitzel, Martha Jane Stanton, and the Swartz family. Special thanks to Tim Bedore and Alex Bennett from KQAK, Will and Debi Durst, JoAnn Grigioni, Martin Higgins, Jeremy Kramer, Tom Sawyer, and Molly Schminke. Two in the comedy industry giving unlimited support—Chris Mazzilli and Geof Wills. Two in photography who lifted me up—Dan Oshima and Jim Marshall. Much love for the Dion family, Parker and Roman, and mad love for my wife, Lisa.

  ¡Satiristas! was especially supported through the tireless efforts of Tanner Colby, Mauro DiPreta, Dave Rath, Barbara Romen, Alice Sinclair, and Kara Welker. Peter McGuigan and Foundry Media made sure it happened.

  About the Authors

  Paul Provenza has been a major name in stand-up comedy for decades. He is the co-creator and director of the critically acclaimed comedy/documentary The Aristocrats. He has written, produced, and starred in several comedy specials, including the comedy talk show Comics Only for Comedy Central and his own one-man show for Showtime, The Incredible Man-Boy. He is an artistic consultant to the Montreal and Chicago Just for Laughs festivals, and is currently co-producing and starring in The Green Room with Paul Provenza for Showtime.

  Dan Dion is the world’s premier portrait photographer of comedians. He has exhibited in solo shows in New York, Hollywood, Montreal, Edinburgh, Sydney, and San Francisco and is the house photographer of the legendary Fillmore Auditorium. His photos have been published in Rolling Stone, Time, Spin, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, People, Vibe, and more than one hundred other publications. He is represented by the Fahey/Klein gallery in Los Angeles.

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  Credits

  Jacket design by Milan Bozic

  Jacket and author photographs © by Dan Dion

  Copyright

  ¡SATIRISTAS!. Copyright © 2010 by Paul Provenza and Dan Dion. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

  EPub Edition © April 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-195987-5

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