If any comedian knew how to stay a step ahead of the competition, it was George Carlin. While other comics from his generation would stick with a tried-and-true formula after achieving success, Carlin was constantly evolving, unafraid to switch up his act. What inspired those changes over the years—in part, at least—was his awareness of what the hot new comics on the scene were up to. It was those up-and-comers who would let the stand-up veteran know when it was time to make an adjustment to his approach.
In an interview with the Paley Center for Media in 2008, Carlin said that whenever someone would tell him about the latest “must-see” comedian making waves, he’d get a little bit nervous about it, but still make an effort to check them out at some point. When doing so, he explained that he’d have one of two reactions to their performance. The first was a simple, “No threat there,” but his other—evidently less common—response was, “I gotta get back to work.” Sam Kinison, Carlin revealed, was “an ‘I gotta get back to work’ guy.”
“Sam Kinison…because he raised his voice—literally—to such an extent, it taught me something at the time, and it helped fuel a slight change, or a significant change, in what I was doing,” he went on to say. “I said, ‘Oh, you have to raise your voice,’ and I meant it figuratively,” Carlin continued. “He did it literally, but figuratively, the culture was getting noisy. There was a din. There was a lot of competition for people’s attention, and somehow that translated to me as, ‘I have to raise the stakes a little bit.’”
Later in 2008, Kinison’s close friend and former opener Carl LaBove spoke of an encounter he had with Carlin shortly after Kinison’s death. Carlin reportedly came up to LaBove and said, “I just wanted you to know that after Sam died, I had a dream that Kinison came to me and handed me a mantle and said, ‘George, I want you to carry this mantle.’ And in my dream, I said, ‘Proudly, Sam.’”
Carlin also dedicated his 1992 special, Jammin’ in New York, to Kinison’s memory.
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