23 Surprising Facts about George Carlin
From the interview ebook, “Conversations with Carlin: An In-Depth Discussion with George Carlin about Life, Sex, Death, Drugs, Comedy, Words, and so much more.”
1. George was almost aborted. As his mother sat in the abortionist’s waiting room, she saw a painting on the wall that reminded her of her own recently-deceased mother. She took it as a sign, and changed her mind. Despite this, George was always vehemently pro-choice.
2. When he was two months old, George, his five-year-old brother, and his mother escaped his abusive father by climbing down the fire escape of his grandfather’s Manhattan apartment (George’s mother carried him, obvs.). George’s uncle drove them out of the city, and George never saw his father again.
3. George credits the absence of a father — any father, even a good one — with his being able to develop a creative life. “A father would have changed this whole thing,” he said. “I’m sure of it.”
4. At summer camp, George, then 9, would do stand-up routines for the other kids, and was one of two boys there known for being funny. The other was a kid called Wacky Wilson — real name, Dave — who would write and perform comedy sketches. Dave Wilson went on to become the longtime director of Saturday Night Live.
5. When George would hear interesting swear words and phrases around his neighborhood as a child, he’d write them down and put them in his wallet — phrases like “kraut c**t,” and, “burley loudmouth c***sucker,” and “longhair f***ing music prick.” When his mother found them, she worried that he might need a psychiatrist.
6. George had his career path — that he would start out as a radio DJ, then parlay that into becoming a stand-up comedian and actor — planned out when he was 11 years old.
7. That said, George did not see himself being primarily a comedian. Instead, he saw himself becoming a movie actor like his idol, Danny Kaye.
8. In his first year of high school, George took to stealing money from the visitors’ locker room at school basketball games, and got himself expelled by placing the material left by his art erasers in a small bag, and telling his classmates that it was heroin.
9. Immediately after recording his breakthrough album, 1972’s FM & AM, in Washington D.C., George was so convinced he’d botched the gig that he spent the night wandering the streets in tears. The album became a hit, setting him on the road to stardom, and earning him a Grammy.
10. When George was about to be arrested in Milwaukee that same year for an offensive routine, he was especially worried because he had cocaine in his pocket. Luckily, his wife was able to warn him in advance while bringing water to him on stage, and after his show was done, he quietly handed the drugs to a band that was also playing the event before the police took him away.
11. While George hosted the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live, he remembered little about it afterward, saying, “I was full of cocaine that week.”
12. Initially, Saturday Night Live was trying to arrange for three permanent hosts to work on a rotating basis — Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, and George. They couldn’t work it out, and went with guest hosts instead.
13. Despite being the show’s first host, George was never called to participate in any of SNL’s anniversary shows, and he never understood why. “To be honest with you, I think Lorne [Michaels] turned into kind of a Hamptons kind of guy, and that’s not my world,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to be confused with that.”
14. While George often had harsh words for the self-help movement, he helped train his own mind to recognize creative fodder with a book called Psycho-Cybernetics, which talked about developing the mind as “a goal-seeking and problem-solving machine.”
15. George kept extensive files of material, “about 1,300 separate files…[encompassing] 44 years worth of collecting thoughts, notions, ideas, pieces of data, and material.” He was always shocked when he’d learn that other comedians didn’t keep such files.
16. George gave part of the credit for his ultimate success as a comedian to the 18-20 years he spent in massive debt to the IRS. This debt, up in the seven figure range at times, forced him to go out on the road and constantly perform, so that he could earn the money to pay it off. Without that pressure, George later felt he would have more heavily pursued a career in film — which, he believed, wouldn’t have gone anywhere — and he would not have become the masterful comedian that he became.
17. George had great respect for younger performers. He considered Eminem “a brilliant poetic artist,” and his 1990s comeback was partially influenced by his admiration for Sam Kinison.
18. George considered his fan base an extended family that gave him “this feeling of belonging to this large community without having to buy greeting cards for them.”
19. While not a big sports fan, George loved the New York Mets, and was even watching them in “the enemy’s bedroom” — Dodger Stadium — when he had the first of his three heart attacks.
20. When George had his angioplasty, he went right to the source for the operation — Andreas Gruentzig, the doctor who invented angioplasty.
21. Despite his cynicism regarding many aspects of pop culture, George was not above watching a little reality TV, particularly Survivor.
22. George didn’t vote, having come to regard it as a meaningless exercise. “I stopped voting because I could see it didn’t make any difference,” he said. “This charade every four years of moving things around a little bit…it’s all one party, it’s one agenda, and you’re given this illusion of choice.”
23. George was a romantic. He was married to the same woman for 37 years, believed that “being smart is one of the sexiest things,” and also felt that, “When you have the kind of idealized, romantic love where two personalities are strongly attracted to each other, it makes the sex better.”
