By Antony Teofilo
George Carlin's got some down time between scenes on the set of JERSEY GIRL, so working in his trailer when I pop in for a chat. His notebook computer is open, and he's having a modest lunch.
Then it hits me: George Carlin is working on a computer.
Given his admittedly bleak (and always hilarious) take on technology and its detrimental affect on the decline of human civilization, I half-expected the man's trailer to be papered wall-to-wall Unibomber-style with treatises and exclamations scribbled in blood on hand-hammered parchment. It came as a great surprise that though he is a great critic of human behavior and its downward spiral, Carlin is also a man of the modern age.
Before we start talking, he gives me a peek at the screen of his PC. This must have been what it was like to look at one of Leonardo's sketchbooks. Page after page is lined with the observations and nuggets of thought that Carlin turns into best-selling books like BRAIN DROPPINGS. Known for his serrated wit and bludgeon-like common sense, he's got a reputation that has included rebel, scholar, pioneer, and grump.
In JERSEY GIRL, Carlin plays Bart Trinke, father to Ben Affleck. Bart's the salt-of-the-earth working joe who punches his clock with pride every day he works for his city's sanitation unit. One imagines it might not be too difficult for Carlin to imagine himself in such a job. Thankfully for his audiences, George Carlin found his voice, and began to write down the same sort of street wisdom and wit that kept him from getting beat up as a kid.
He may travel the world, but his mind is planted firmly in reality, with his unique sense of humor leading his way. Read his books. Watch his stand-up, or catch him in JERSEY GIRL, and you'll see that George Carlin is...
The Most Graceful Curmudgeon
An Interview With George Carlin
Antony Teofilo: You don't do a lot of film work these days, but you have come back several times to work with Kevin Smith. What brings you back to Kevin's projects so consistently?
George Carlin: In this case, it's the length and size of the part. When Kevin put me in DOGMA, he wrote that part with me in mind. He wrote this with me in mind, so it was a natural step.
AT: Is Bart Trinke a challenging character? Does that help in the decision making process?
GC: There's just more to do for me here than I have had to do in other movie parts, there's more to do emotionally. The character isn't particularly challenging, but it's engaging to me. This role requires some attention.
AT: You mentioned that the size of the part can play a role in if you decide to do a film. Do you get offers for lots of cameo roles?
GC: I haven't been interested in doing movies at all for a long time because my own work has become very pleasurable to me. The writing has expanded. I've grown as a writer.
The books took off and did well, and the tours continue to do well. I've done twelve HBO shows, and there's a CD for each one of them, and I own all of my own stuff, so I just had it
in mind that unless there were interesting things to do besides cameos or bit parts I wasn't interested. People in Hollywood don't look at me and try to figure out how to use me.
That's not their job. When something occurs that helps me to be seen differently than the way that they usually imagine me, which is as an ex-hippie, or as someone who used to be
a liberal and is now a conservative, or a college professor...it's all very superficial. [JERSEY GIRL] is different. If there were other things that were different, I would look at them.
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AT: One parallel stylistically between you and Mr. Smith seems to be that you both have found a very personal voice in your writing. Was there ever a key moment you can think of that made you think, ÒI am now a writerÓ?
GC: There's not a moment, but there was a period. It was in the early nineties, when all that came together. I found a specific gravity, a certain weight of collected thought. It's really hard to describe that sort of thing. It was a show called JAMMIN' IN NEW YORK, an HBO show in 1992. When I looked back, after a short time, I realized I had made a move, or kind of crossed a line and graduated a little.
AT: You're very prolific. When you write, do you have a regimen or discipline you follow that helps you be so productive?
GC: No, no. In [my] computer, there are 1900 files. That's my regimen. I just add to those files. Every time I'm in one of them, I move it around a little bit. I make changes. Something grows from a note, to a sentence, to a paragraph, to a series of paragraphs. The writing gets done. I write on the demand for what I need. I have to put my notes in a couple of times every week, and then I'm always adding small things to my standup show, to my stage show. That keeps me writing, and gives me a feel for the files, and an overview...a way to realize what's in there, and how they work together.
AT: You're not a fan of people in big groups, but you've said that you do love them on an individual basis. In your writing, your outlook on humanity's future is very bleak. As you've gotten older, you've survived three heart attacks. Has facing down death given you a glimmer of hope for the human race that we might not find in your writing or performances?
GC: I don't know where it would be. The human race passed the hope of being salvageable, or even worth salvaging, a couple of thousand years ago. I think when humanity first went to agriculture and private ownership is when the downhill path began. There was no way to avoid it. We're a cursed species. There's no hope for it. That's what I enjoy: sitting back and not feeling a part of it, watching it crash, and slowly circle the drain. As the circles get smaller they get faster, it's fun. It's entertaining. People don't understand that we're here to enjoy the cavalcade, and not to worry so much about how you can fix it. At least, that's the way I've approached it. It doesn't work for everybody, I know.
AT: Is there anything about your chosen profession that you don't like?
GC: For me, anything where there's ambiguity is not easy for me. I plan well, and I deal with order very well. There's an uncertainty from day to day on a movie about what you will be doing from hour to hour, and when you'll be doing it. There are things that are out of your hands. I'm quite used to running all of the things I need to deal with myself. I don't mind that it's not in my control, it just means that it's something I'm not comfortable with. It puts me off my pace, my game.
AT: Some of your material can be frightening in its cynicism to someone who's not familiar with your style. Underneath it all, do you still enjoy being an entertainer?
GC: Well, sure. I wouldn't do it at all if it wasn't enjoyable. It's a show-off's job. All performing is a show-off's job. It's 'Look at me! Look what I can do!' It's as if the writing and the comedy were like running, and this is like working in the gym on weights. You do both with the same thing in mind: ultimately, to feel better and be healthier, just with different approaches.
AT: What has your relationship with Kevin Smith been like on JERSEY GIRL?
GC: He speaks a language of his own that I understand, as far as his approach to the way he makes his films. It's not very difficult for us to address things verbally. He's got a million other things to be thinking about, as opposed to just one of his actors. It works well. We communicate on a need basis, and it's very easy.
