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Addiction to pharmaceuticals has ruined many a career in music. An addiction to music ruined this man's career in pharmaceuticals. Whether it was a desire to dive into the volatile water of retail music ownership or an acid trip gone awry, Strictly Discs was launched in 1987 in Madison. Two moves and two decades later, it has become as much of a fixture on Monroe Street as red-shirted drunks during football season. He's normally found behind the counter running things smoothly as a timekeeper in Zürich (unless he went out for soup). He was collecting Bob Dylan bootlegs while his friends were reading comic books. He loves high-end tequila, Ron Santo, and workin' over a stove.
It won't be long before I'll be spending some weekday afternoons like this. Go Cubbies!
It won't be long before I'll be spending some weekday afternoons like this. Go Cubbies!

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2008

  

R.I.P. Carlin

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Dying Is Hard. Comedy Is Harder. By JERRY SEINFELD

Published: June 24, 2008

THE honest truth is, for a comedian, even death is just a premise to make jokes about. I know this because I was on the phone with George Carlin nine days ago and we were making some death jokes. We were talking about Tim Russert and Bo Diddley and George said: “I feel safe for a while. There will probably be a break before they come after the next one. I always like to fly on an airline right after they’ve had a crash. It improves your odds.”

I called him to compliment him on his most recent special on HBO. Seventy years old and he cranks out another hour of great new stuff. He was in a hotel room in Las Vegas getting ready for his show. He was a monster.

You could certainly say that George downright invented modern American stand-up comedy in many ways. Every comedian does a little George. I couldn’t even count the number of times I’ve been standing around with some comedians and someone talks about some idea for a joke and another comedian would say, “Carlin does it.” I’ve heard it my whole career: “Carlin does it,” “Carlin already did it,” “Carlin did it eight years ago.”

And he didn’t just “do” it. He worked over an idea like a diamond cutter with facets and angles and refractions of light. He made you sorry you ever thought you wanted to be a comedian. He was like a train hobo with a chicken bone. When he was done there was nothing left for anybody.


I became obsessed with him in the ’60s. As a kid it seemed like the whole world was funny because of George Carlin. His performing voice, even laced with profanity, always sounded as if he were trying to amuse a child. It was like the naughtiest, most fun grown-up you ever met was reading you a bedtime story.

I know George didn’t believe in heaven or hell. Like death, they were just more comedy premises. And it just makes me even sadder to think that when I reach my own end, whatever tumbling cataclysmic vortex of existence I’m spinning through, in that moment I will still have to think, “Carlin already did it.”

Jerry Seinfeld is a writer and a comedian.



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