STAGE TIME
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The Vault
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DVDs
Live from the Laugh
Factory, Vol. 1 - Bob
Marley, Freddie Soto,
Ruben Paul and Butch
Bradley
The Aristocrats
Greg Behrendt - Greg
Behrendt is Uncool
Laughing Out Loud 2 -
More of America's
Funniest Comedians
Tom Green - Inside &
Outside
Gilbert Gottfried - Dirty
Jokes
Platinum Comedy
Edition - Sheryl
Underwood: Too Much
Information
P. Diddy Presents The
Bad Boys of Comedy -
Season One
CDs
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Tisdale & More - Invite
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Retardo
Tina Kim - Single Asian
Female
Rick Younger - Come
On N'ah
Steven Lynch - The
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Git-R-Done
Judy Brown - The
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Billy Crystal - 700
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Tom Green and Allen
Rucker - Hollywood
Causes Cancer: The
Tom Green Story
Margaret Cho - I Have
Chosen to Stay and
Fight
Penn Jillette and
Mickey D. Lynn - How
to Cheat Your Friends
at Poker: The Widom
of Dickie Richard
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Movies
Dec. 16
Big Momma's House 2 -
Martin Lawrence returns
as an FBI agent who
goes undercover as Big
Momma.
Dec. 23
Fun with Dick and Jane -
Jim Carrey with Tea
Leoni in the remake of
the 1977 comedy.
Dec. 25
Casanova - Omid Djalili
(HBO's One Night
Stand) co-stars with
Heath Ledger and
Jeremy Irons.
Hoodwinked - Andy Dick
lends his voice in the
animated feature
about the classic story
of Little Red Riding
Hood.
Jan. 6
Grandma's Boy - Kevin
Nealon, David Spade
and Nick Swardson add
laughs in the comedy
about a 35 year-old
man who moves in with
his grandmother and
her elderly roommates.
The movie was
produced by Adam
Sandler. Swardson
co-wrote the script.
Jan. 20
Match Point - Woody
Allen writes and directs
this Golden Globe
nominated drama
starring Scarlett
Johansson and
Jonathan Rhys-Meyer.
Feb. 3
Something New - Mike
Epps co-stars with
Sanaa Lathan in a
romantic comedy
directed by Sanaa
Hamri.
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George Carlin
Richard Pryor
Chris Rock
Dave Chappelle
Larry the Cable Guy
Dane Cook
Bernie Mac
Jay Mohr
David Cross
Sarah Silverman
Wanda Sykes
Barry Crimmins
Neil Lieberman
Lamont Ferguson
Brendan McKown
New York Comedy
Festival
&
More
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George Carlin
"Life is Worth Losing"
By Carolyn Castiglia
Life is Worth Losing is George
Carlin's 13th HBO comedy
special, which is something the
seasoned performer has a
right to be proud of. Thirteen
might be his unlucky number,
though, since aside from the
man himself, there is little
special about this one-man
manifesto.
Carlin's signature brashness is
still alive and well, even if the
69 year-old relies on the
outmoded beatnik-style
recitation of lists as punchlines
and allows his audience to withstand long passages of socio-political left-wing rhetoric
that they applaud rather than laugh at.
When Carlin steps out onto the stage of the Beacon Theatre, he appears a bit frail and
taken aback by how excited the audience is to see him. He repeats the first line of his
piece "A Modern Man" (the opening passage of his most recent book, "When Will Jesus
Bring the Pork Chops?") a few times, but by the end seems confident and ready to rock;
the Mick Jagger of comedy there to give his fans a night of bliss.
But much like Margaret Cho, Carlin has been criticized of late for focusing more on his
message than on producing tight material. Unlike Cho, however, whose mostly gay
following eats her act and her politics right up, Carlin leaves his audience in the dark
multiple times, especially during his long rants about suicide, assassination, genocide,
torture, human sacrifice, cannibalism, necrophilia and beheadings.
Funny stuff, huh? Well, not as funny as "Stuff," or any other of his classic routines.
Most of his jokes go over as if he were telling them at a funeral, and in a way, he is,
since the stage is littered with headstones. Accordingly, the audience is dead silent for
much of the show.
It's not that these morbid topics are unfunny per se; all good comics know it's not what
you talk about, but how you feel about it that drives a joke home. Carlin states multiple
times throughout the night that he finds these morbid topics, "interesting," an emotion
far too bland to garner any real belly laughs from the crowd.
The few times he does shine are when he hits on topics that truly bother him, like the
under-educated, over-eating masses of middle-Americans he calls, "huge piles of
redundant protoplasm," or his final imaginative monologue about natural disasters,
where he brilliantly asks, "Isn't there a secret part of you that hopes everything gets
worse?"
Unfortunately, most of the topics that actually score him laughs are fairly hack, like
autoerotic asphyxia, or "scarfing," an act in which an individual cuts off his air supply in
order to increase orgasm, or recycling dead pussy and turning a yeast infection into a
pineapple upside-down cake. Carlin gets away with this material because he was one of
the first comics to bring taboos to light, but "pussyfart," "dingleberry" and "posthumous
multiple cornhole entry wound" are no "Seven Dirty Words" and their impact seems trite
compared to his 1972 list.
Despite his several pitfalls, Carlin remains a legendary performer with an electric
personality and a fierce presence, even after almost 50 years in the business. At its
best, his work has a profound simplicity to it, revealed in statements like, "It's called
the American Dream 'cause you have to be asleep to believe it," or act-outs like a man
fumbling with the razor blade box as he's trying to kill himself who says, "Eh, it's always
something."
He just doesn't seem to care anymore if his material makes people laugh or cry. He's a
man who says what he thinks, and thinks if you don't think it's funny, you can "go fuck
yourself."
What did you think of
Carlin's HBO special and
the review? To add your
comments,click here.
Carolyn Castiglia is a
stand-up comedian who
has performed at Gotham,
Caroline's and The Laugh
Factory in NYC. She
co-produces and hosts the
weekly show Chicks and
Giggles at Mo Pitkins.
I was at the beacon theater on the first night of Life is
Worth Losing and managed to get front row to a great
comic that I always wanted to see. It wasn't what I
expected but it was definitely entertaining.
Mostly everyone in the audience just stared onstage
and listened carefully as he recited and acted out what
can be described as a long poem. Although it was not
the Seven Dirty Words, it was still entertaining and well
worth seeing.
-James
