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I was in the audience for this show held fairly soon after 9/11 (Nov'01). Carlin was the perfect person to loosen everyone up and his show ranks up there with his best. It also helps if your name is on his "list" (see the show). Thanks George.
This is typical Carlin at his best. He delivers what you expect. Too bad he is gone.
Disappointed. Listening to a "few" of his skits is preferable to having to watch an entire performance.
That's a joke for 5th graders.And I felt that the rest of the show suffered the same problems, and had the same strengths. Let me start by saying that I think Carlin was one of the funniest, cleverest people around, and one of the smartest comedy writers around, with an uncanny ear for rhythm; and furthermore I have agreed with his political, religious, and social stances as portrayed in his comedy. Every comedian in the world was treading on thin ground at the time--the death of so many people in such a horrifying way made comedy very difficult--even comedy that had nothing to do with any issue related to the catastrophe. It's not worthy of Carlin. But there were a surprisingly large number of times when they just didn't.Having said that, I must also give Carlin credit for having been one of the most polished comedians around--he knew his material backwards and forwards and upside down on fire, and there was never a stammer on the rhythmic delivery of some very lengthy and complex material. And Carlin has ALWAYS done social/political stuff.What was he to do.He confronts the issue right away, saying that he has to 'get something out of the way so we can have fun', and then goes into a comedic bit about how he would deal with bin Laden and his ilk.
But he lost the audience several times--and at one point he drops a bit before he's finished, saying "I sense I've lost you."I did not care for his 'why you shouldn't stop after you've hit someone with your car' bit, although it had some good moments; and the end of the show was very weak. But this was apparently Carlin's first HBO special after 9/11. When Carlin gets fired up on his variations on a theme (the "and here's another guy who should be strangled at birth with his own umbilical cord." sort of thing), he's both outrageous and hilarious. Unfortunately he literally can't be clever about it--the audience didn't want to hear what Carlin wanted to say, and he knew it.So he made fart jokes instead. Admittedly, when he gets going on his rhythmic lists of 'not just any guys, but.', he is very funny.but.fart jokes. Now, this audience loved Carlin, they came knowing him and they were fairly positive even on some of his weakest material--you could tell they wanted to laugh.
Any comedian would do well to study this performance to see how that is done by the master--ever since his "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television" bit, this has been Carlin's great strength.
I am always pleased with all of my Amazon purchases and this is no exception. George Carlin has long been one of my favorite comedians and now that he has died (God Bless his soul), having a collection of his DVDs is important.Amazon, keep up the good work as you have always been such a help to me (especially in locating hard to find products)Theresa Burckley
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