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Dig A Hole: Bernie Mac

August 9th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Of all the members of Ocean’s 11, who’d have thought that Carl Reiner would outlive Bernie Mac?

In February 2005, the comedian revealed that he had suffered from sarcoidosis since 1983. He said the inflammatory lung disease, that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body’s organs, had no effect on his daily life and that it had gone into remission. Earlier this month, he was hospitalized for pneumonia and rumors that Mac was in serious condition began swirling. His publicist, Danica Smith, said that he was expected to make a full recovery. Sadly, she was wrong.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist (and heiress to the Kupcinet throne) Stella Foster received calls early Saturday morning from a close friend of the Mac family. Bernie Mac died from complications of pneumonia at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial hospital. He was only 50.

Bernard Jeffrey McCollough was born on the south side of Chicago on October 5, 1957. He was raised by his mother Mary who died of cancer when Mac was just 16. In an interview with freelance writer Khari Shabazz. Mac claimed that as a child he had been whipped with a belt by both his mother and grandmother.

While attended Chicago Chicago’s Vocational Career Academy, Mac began putting on shows for neighbor kids. In 1977, at the age of 20, he decided to turn pro. His first job as a stand-up comic was at Chicago’s Cotton Pickin’ Club. His career began building steam when he won the Miller Lite Comedy Search at the age of 32. A performance on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam brought him national attention and before long he was opening for Dionne Warwick, Natalie Cole and the inimitable Redd Foxx.

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Dig A Hole: Mr. George Carlin

June 23rd, 2008 by Scott Marks

$h[+! The last thing that I wanted to do tonight was bid farewell to the paladin of stand-up.

George Carlin, one of the most influential stand-up comic of this or any other generation, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday. He was 71.

George Denis Patrick Carlin was born in New York City on May 12, 1937. He was educated mostly in Catholic schools and he attended (but was expelled from) Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, the same alma mater as Regis Philbin and (Timpani!) Martin Scorsese!

A stint as a radar technician in the Air Force brought him to Bossier City, Louisiana. Labeled an “unproductive airman” by his superiors, Carlin was discharged on July 29, 1957. He began working as a disc jockey on KJOE, a radio station based in the nearby city of Shreveport.

Late in 1959, Carlin partnered with Jack Burns as a short-lived comedy team. When the act broke up in 1962, Burns signed on with Chicago’s Second City while Carlin pursued a solo career in (and ultimately redefining) stand-up comedy.

His first television appearance was on The Mike Douglas Show in 1965. Soon Carlin began guesting on television variety shows, and I saw them all. He broke into television as a writer and performer on The Kraft Summer Music Hall (1966). The summer replacement series reunited George with Jack Burns who was making a name for himself as half of the comedy team Burns and (Avery) Schreiber.

This was around the time when I began channeling the art of “actor spotting.” I have forgotten the faces of countless former students that I spent weeks in a classroom with, but if you appeared in a 3 Stooges short and later pop up in the background of a Blondie comedy, I’ll spot you! It gives off an odd, triumphant feeling of personal satisfaction and after watching the Music Hall, I was delighted to see Carling pop up in a cameo on That Girl. Ditto for his brief appearance as a carhop in With Six You Get Eggroll.

After his many appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, I broke down and bought a couple of his albums. I wore out the grooves, and learned so much about comedic timing, after countless playings of Al Sleet, the “hippie-dippie weatherman” on Wonderful WINO.

In the late 1960s, Carlin did a complete career overhaul. Gone was the slick-backed hair and clean shaven face. Carlin changed from a Newhart-esque monologist to America’s supreme hippie satirist. His often imitated observational approach to humor remains unrivaled. And unlike Sienfeld, his humor was about something:

“If someone loves you and they leave and don’t come back, it was never meant to be. If someone loves you and they leave and come back, set them on fire.”

“When evolution is outlawed, only outlaws will evolve.”

“The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, ‘You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.’”

Creased pants and Arrow collars rapidly gave way to faded jeans and tie-dyed t-shirts. (His then unconventional attire cost him several TV bookings.) On July 21, 1972, Carlin made history after uttering the “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” at Milwaukee’s Summerfest. He was arrested for violating obscenity laws. The case, which Carlin referred to as “The Milwaukee Seven,” was dismissed after the judge cited some arcane clause written on a dated piece of paper concerning our constitutional rights to free speech.

Long before Howard Stern, Carlin was the first to wage war against the FCC. In 1973, some schmuck dropped a dime on Carlin after his son heard the same “filthy words” routine played on a New York radio station. it resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the government’s authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language.

The controversy certainly didn’t hurt his career. On the contrary - It transformed him into a legend! He was the first-ever host of Saturday Night Live”(1975) on October 11, 1975, and coincidentally, the first-ever host of “Fridays” (1980), an ABC rip-off of SNL. In 1976, while at the top of his game, Carlin took a five year vacation from stand-up. He began his popular and very funny HBO specials in 1977, but for all intent and purpose disappeared from live performance venues. It was later revealed that the mysterious absence was due to a series of heart attacks he suffered during his layoff.

I have to admit that it’s right about here that I lost track of George Carlin. His HBO specials were a bonus for this late night Cablevision dispatcher, but with the exception of a few movie roles, I am embarrassed to say that I know little of his post 1985 output.

At the movies, it was pretty much uphill after Eggroll. After a twenty year absence from the big screen (give or take a Car Wash), Carlin returned to claim a modest late period crop of cinematic oddities.

He was wasted (in every way) in Outrageous Fortune and very funny in both Bill and Ted pictures. Streisand gave him work on Prince of Tides while towards the end Kevin Smith cast him in three movies. His last major appearance was as the voice of Filmore in Pixar’s Cars.

In December 2004, Carlin announced that he would be voluntarily entering a drug rehabilitation facility to receive treatment for his dependency on alcohol and painkillers. On Christmas Day 2005, after celebrating one year of sobriety, he experienced significant shortage of breath and other heart-related symptoms. During an eight-day stay at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills, he was treated for a lung infection and narrowed arteries.

Four days ago, it was announced that the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC would honor Carlin with its 2008 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Considering how brutally honest Carlin was, in his own way, he helped to humanize the hippies for middle America. How fitting that George Carlin be the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. If Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the great American novel, surely George Carlin was the great American stand-up.

THE SEVEN WORDS YOU CAN NEVER SAY ON TELEVISION

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