The Carlins at the Beginning (Image: Bob Knorpp)
Many of us can claim to have grown up to the wit and wisdom of the indomitable George Carlin. But few of us can say we literally grew up in his household. That honor (and trial) belongs to his only daughter, Kelly.
On my second day exploring Festimania, I had the pleasure of getting into Kelly Carlin’s one-woman show about her father. And even though it was funny, as would be expected as part of the Just For Laughs festival, it was still an incredibly personal recollection of a daughter’s love for her dad.
There’s simply no reasonable way to capture all the anecdotes of this amazing show in a single blog post. And frankly, that would be an injustice to Ms. Carlin. But there are a few points I should touch upon.
Kelly and her dad. (Image: Bob Knorpp)
First of all, the Carlin story is an unlikely one. As much as the audience expected the tale to end in divorce (as did the storyteller, it would seem) the Carlin’s stayed together until Brenda died of Liver cancer. This despite drug and alcohol problems that plagued the couple throughout their marriage and made for an very unstable childhood for Kelly.
Yet despite the instability, the child of the famous comedian has a bit of her father’s uncanny ability to stay focused on the positive in life.
Some of my favorite moments of the show came toward the end of the show. Ms. Carlin emphasized that her father really hit his stride in his career toward the end of his life, truly finding his voice. But what was obvious to the audience was that he also found his voice in life as well. Because despite the crazy acid trips and drug-inspired rants, toward the end of his life he found incredible wisdom in dealing with his family.
One story in particular that resonated with me was how after Kelly’s mother passed away from liver cancer, she related how she was sobbing in a shower and felt her mother’s arms around her, while her mom’s voice assured her she would get past this pain. When she told her father, though, his response was pure Carlin: “Fuck, man! Cool stuff like that never happens to me.”
It summed up a life that despite real pain and incredibly deep love for his family, was still focused on the desire to bring a smile to the face of everyone he met.
Kelly Carlin (Image: Bob Knorpp)
The best moment in the show, though, was at the very end when Ms. Carlin had just finished relating her final words to her father before he died. Choking back tears, she included us all in the memory of a father who affected so many of us, then shared with us how he ended every phone call.
“Kelly, I love you, be cool, and go fuck yourself.”
A perfect summation of a life spent pushing boundaries not for shock value, but out of true concern for how we communicated and lived our lives.
If you know the comedy of George Carlin, this is a show you have to see. The clips of his performances alone will leave you breathless with laughter. But more than this, the personal recollections of life in his home are incredibly moving. From the day he taught Kelly to walk like a New Yorker so, “No one would fuck with her,” to the day his acid trip caused him to call up his astronomer friends to determine if the sun had indeed exploded, this show offers access and insight to a celebrity life that few of us would have to privilege to see otherwise.
Robert Knorpp is host of The BeanCast Marketing Podcast at thebeancast.com and is President of The Cool Beans Group, a marketing strategy consultancy based in New York City. He likes laughing even more than breathing. You can follow the madness on Twitter at twitter.com/BobKnorpp.
