George Carlin, A Personal Remembrance

George Carlin was a personal hero of mine. Besides being very funny, he taught me a lot about how to cope with this planet as a thinking person. I want to share something with you that I’ve always treasured which I hope will say something about Carlin, the man.

In the mid 90s, I had just graduated from Emory University and moved to New York, imagining some kind of career in magazines, with the hopes of one day founding a humor magazine like the one I edited in college. I never imagine I’d be lucky enough to continue in comedy immediately, but by some good fortune, I ended up being an editor at Cracked Magazine.

A few months later, Carlin appeared at the 92nd St. Y for a conversation about his comedy. I took a shot at talking to George after the show, managing to find an opportunity among the many others who wanted a moment with the comic. Hopefully without too much of a stammer, I told him how much his comedy meant to me. I mentioned my own ambitions at the time and asked him if I could send him some of my work, specifically the Rolling Stone parody I made in college. He graciously gave me his address.

I was about a year into my new life when I met George. I wasn’t going to be doing Cracked forever. But I had a hard time seeing how anyone navigated their career with as little compromise and as much honesty as he did. In my letter, I asked him:

The most important thing to me (besides being funny) is that my comedy has integrity. That it has something to say. Your work has always appealed to me because it seems to stick with this philosophy. I want to have a career in comedy that has that kind of integrity. Am I asking too much? Should I just be content with a good fart joke?

I sent my Rolling Stone parody and a recent copy of Cracked with the letter. I had no idea if George gave me a real address or not. I think I wondered if my package would actually reach him, not about what response I’d get.

A few weeks later, I came home late one Wednesday - I think I had attended a comedy event at the Museum of TV and Radio - to find this message on my answering machine:

Carlin took the time to call me, to say something nice about my work and offer some words of encouragement. And he didn’t do it with the intention of it ending up on an answering machine, he meant to say them personally. He didn’t have to do it. I’m sure he had a lot of things on his plate. But he did anyway.

Carlin often expressed a disappointment with humanity as a species, but he was an incredibly generous man with people as individuals. I’m honored that along with all the words that he left for us, he gave these select few to me.

Thanks, George.