Carlin at Carnegie (1983)

Genre: Comedy

Directed by: Steven Santos

Cast: George Carlin

Time: 60 minutes

This is George Carlin’s third HBO comedy special, shot live from the famous Carnegie Hall, in New York City. The show contains a lot of material from his album titled A Place for My Stuff, though the title bit is not there.

Carlin is starting to look older here, but he’s none the weaker. In fact, his pace is getting stronger and stronger. The angry edge that would define his material in later years is slowly starting to come through here, though there is still some cute stuff, like the bits about Rice Krispies, being a fussy eater and dogs vs cats. From the get-go, the comedian starts with a straightforward short joke about abortion and then discusses his recent heart attack in a dark and funny way. Carlin closes with a great updated bit about the dirty words. That final list he reads has a great comedic pace to it.

In this show from Carnegie Hall, we get to see the slow transformation of George Carlin into the comedian he would become in later years. It is a very good show.

Rating: ««««