Carlin
Carlin
Sunday night, the brother-in-law and I headed down to the Tivoli theatre in Chattanooga and caught George Carlin's show.
Sorry about the quality of the photo. Walking and the zoom function on a picture phone do not make for a great picture. It tells me that one of you needs to buy me a nice digital camera this Christmas.
Anyway, I don't get much into the hero worship thing, but if there's a standup that gets close to that realm, George is it. I've always appreciated the way his mind works. His humor has the right mix of satire and the outright bizarre...mixed with a healthy dose of anger, especially in those years when he got off the coke.
So as soon as I found out he was coming to Chattanooga, I jumped. I've had a couple opportunities to see him live, but had circumstances work against me. Had to jump at the chance...George is 69, and you never know when that ticker's going to go....
Tickets were for the tenth row of the Tivoli. It was the first time since I was in the eighth grade that I'd been in the Tivoli, when I went to see a play adaptation of some of Edgar Allan Poe's work. It hadn't changed much...great hardwood floors...red velvet seats...ushers showing you to your seat...definitely a trip outside ordinary for this kid, who struggles to find time to hit the movie theater once a month.
Anyway, Jeff and I sat in the tenth row back from the stage. It was a decent crowd on the bottom level, though not a packed house...George, when he started his act, made of the point of talking about how he was playing to an "intimate crowd..."
Got to see a folk musician open for George...his name is Vance Gilbert, I believe (or something close to that). Good guy. Works with a guitar and a powerful voice. Give him a look next time you get a chance. His act was good enough to turn me, at any rate...I was kind of expecting (and hoping for) a good opening comedian. But this guy did good work, including a great a capella piece to finish his set....
Anyway. George came out, folder of papers in hand. He let us know up front that what he was working was 55 minutes of newly written material, that he was still getting down. I get the feeling this was a warmup for another HBO special down the road. Not many comedians have that kind of weight, where they can tell you up front that they're using crib notes, and they don't give a shit if you like it or not.
He did assure us that it made for a better show....
Started with his "Modern Man" bit. Did a bit of background, let us know how he was doing. Told us he enjoyed being age 69, because he got to shout "Sixty Nine" at the top of his lungs...
And launched into his 55 minutes of new material. I won't go into much of it, but I did enjoy the section on how Dogs get to shit wherever they want, whenever they want. The only repercussion is being called "Bad Dog." If that was the only problem, being called "Bad George," was the only punishment, he'd shit in the street, too.
Some of the material wasn't completely new...I get the feeling he gauged crowd reaction to a couple of bits and used a little proven stuff, if only to get a laugh or two after a new bit had kinda fallen flat...(at one point, George tells a joke, and I can't even remember what the line was, but it got little to no reaction, good or bad...George simply says "okay" and moves on to the next bit).
He didn't change everything for the benefit of the audience. It was funny sitting in a crowd who hails from the buckle of the Bible Belt as George starts railing on the nature of "rights," and whether God gives Americans the same rights or not as somebody living under Kim Jong Il...there were parts of the crowd that seemed to clinch up a bit around that section of the show.
Good show. Wasn't the end-all be-all of comedy shows. Me being the type of guy who gets his hopes up without realizing it, my immediate reaction was one of slight disappointment...I hadn't been rolling in the aisles....
Still, good show. I left with a smile on my face, at any rate....
Sunday night, the brother-in-law and I headed down to the Tivoli theatre in Chattanooga and caught George Carlin's show.
Sorry about the quality of the photo. Walking and the zoom function on a picture phone do not make for a great picture. It tells me that one of you needs to buy me a nice digital camera this Christmas.
Anyway, I don't get much into the hero worship thing, but if there's a standup that gets close to that realm, George is it. I've always appreciated the way his mind works. His humor has the right mix of satire and the outright bizarre...mixed with a healthy dose of anger, especially in those years when he got off the coke.
So as soon as I found out he was coming to Chattanooga, I jumped. I've had a couple opportunities to see him live, but had circumstances work against me. Had to jump at the chance...George is 69, and you never know when that ticker's going to go....
Tickets were for the tenth row of the Tivoli. It was the first time since I was in the eighth grade that I'd been in the Tivoli, when I went to see a play adaptation of some of Edgar Allan Poe's work. It hadn't changed much...great hardwood floors...red velvet seats...ushers showing you to your seat...definitely a trip outside ordinary for this kid, who struggles to find time to hit the movie theater once a month.
Anyway, Jeff and I sat in the tenth row back from the stage. It was a decent crowd on the bottom level, though not a packed house...George, when he started his act, made of the point of talking about how he was playing to an "intimate crowd..."
Got to see a folk musician open for George...his name is Vance Gilbert, I believe (or something close to that). Good guy. Works with a guitar and a powerful voice. Give him a look next time you get a chance. His act was good enough to turn me, at any rate...I was kind of expecting (and hoping for) a good opening comedian. But this guy did good work, including a great a capella piece to finish his set....
Anyway. George came out, folder of papers in hand. He let us know up front that what he was working was 55 minutes of newly written material, that he was still getting down. I get the feeling this was a warmup for another HBO special down the road. Not many comedians have that kind of weight, where they can tell you up front that they're using crib notes, and they don't give a shit if you like it or not.
He did assure us that it made for a better show....
Started with his "Modern Man" bit. Did a bit of background, let us know how he was doing. Told us he enjoyed being age 69, because he got to shout "Sixty Nine" at the top of his lungs...
And launched into his 55 minutes of new material. I won't go into much of it, but I did enjoy the section on how Dogs get to shit wherever they want, whenever they want. The only repercussion is being called "Bad Dog." If that was the only problem, being called "Bad George," was the only punishment, he'd shit in the street, too.
Some of the material wasn't completely new...I get the feeling he gauged crowd reaction to a couple of bits and used a little proven stuff, if only to get a laugh or two after a new bit had kinda fallen flat...(at one point, George tells a joke, and I can't even remember what the line was, but it got little to no reaction, good or bad...George simply says "okay" and moves on to the next bit).
He didn't change everything for the benefit of the audience. It was funny sitting in a crowd who hails from the buckle of the Bible Belt as George starts railing on the nature of "rights," and whether God gives Americans the same rights or not as somebody living under Kim Jong Il...there were parts of the crowd that seemed to clinch up a bit around that section of the show.
Good show. Wasn't the end-all be-all of comedy shows. Me being the type of guy who gets his hopes up without realizing it, my immediate reaction was one of slight disappointment...I hadn't been rolling in the aisles....
Still, good show. I left with a smile on my face, at any rate....
posted by Tommy at
10:31
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