Comedian George Carlin dead at age 71

I met Carlin when I was a waiter in Pasadena. He was having dinner before going up the street to the Icehouse to see Richard Jeni perform. We talked about Shreveport, my home town and the location of Carlin’s first job in the entertainment business, at KJOE radio. He remembered details about the station down to a description of the building. Very nice guy. We talked about comedy. We talked about Lenny Bruce. We talked about Class Clown, a particularly influencial album of his that I listened to alot as a teenager. Just before he left, he asked me to write down my address. I had no clue what he wanted it for, but I gave it to him. Two days later, a package appeared on my door containing three autographed Carlin videos- a career retrospective, a best of, and a recent HBO special. Wow. Yes, I still have them. No, I’ll never give them up. Thanks for all the laughs, Hippy Dippy Weather Man.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRCKoT1HY3U

-part 1 of 7, Carlin’s last HBO special

~ by abernhoft on June 23, 2008.