The Definitive Guide to Comedy
The Library of Congress picked George Carlin’s seminal 1972 comedy album, “Class Clown,” as one of its 25 annual selections to add to the National Recording Registry. Among the others: Santana’s 1970 album “Abraxas,” two blues numbers from the 1920s (Clarence Williams’ 1923 “Wild Cat Blues” and Blind Willie McTell’s 1928 …
“The Aristocrats!” the punchline to an old myth of a joke that few people knew or had even heard of, became an instant classic film 10 years ago this month when Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette convinced dozens of their famous funny friends to tell their own distinctly dirty and …
George Carlin today has his own space on the wall of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, and it’s because you wanted to “Recognize” him there. The Smithsonian held an online vote last month among three nominees to hang a comedian’s portrait on the museum’s “Recognize” wall — Carlin, Ellen DeGeneres …
More remarkable than anyone who spoke at last week’s dedication of George Carlin Way were the throngs of comedians in the background, humbly present to pay their respects once more to the legendary comedian who grew up on West 121st Street in New York City’s Morningside Heights, where a street …
The city of New York recently approved renaming the Morningside Heights street where George Carlin grew up as “George Carlin Way” in honor of the late stand-up comedian. George Carlin Way already shows up on Google Maps. And on Oct. 22, 2014, the physical signs will match the digital ones. …
This May, in celebrating Don Rickles on his 88th birthday, Jerry Seinfeld said of his elder hero: “”On the Mount Rushmore of stand-up comedy, there are four faces, in my opinion: Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Cosby and Don Rickles.” This weekend, following the death of Joan Rivers at 81, Chris …
For the better part of the past six years, Kelly Carlin (photographed above by Dan Dion) has been processing and sharing the lessons from her life as the only child of a comedy legend, first as a stage show — “A Carlin Home Companion” — and now in a published memoir …
Joan Rivers has made several headlines already this month while promoting her new book, “Diary of a Mad Diva.” In her latest interview, a sit-down with Ron Bennington for SiriusXM’s “Unmasked” series — which airs tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern on Raw Dog Comedy Hits channel 99 — Rivers talks about …
New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio signed a bill late Wednesday to place street signs naming the 400 block of West 121st Street — between Morningside Drive and Amsterdam Avenue — as “George Carlin Way.” It’s the street where the legendary late stand-up comedian grew up. Carlin would talk and …
On Dec. 5, 1962, Lenny Bruce was both comedy icon and outlaw at the age of 37. He had played Carnegie Hall and released the recording as a triple-album, and was just beginning to amass a lengthy arrest record, too. On that night, Bruce was performing at the Gate of …
