
DATE: Thursday, November 20, 1997           TAG: 9711190074

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ROY A. BAHLS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   77 lines

FOR CARLIN SATIRE, ALL'S FAIR GAME

GEORGE CARLIN WANTS to make his audience a little uncomfortable while he's making them laugh.

``I think that an artist's job is to bother some people,'' Carlin recently said. ``To push, push, push. Find out where the line is, deliberately cross that line and then make the audience glad you did. In other words, transform them a little bit, just a little bit. It's not the purpose of the art, but it happens - and therefore it's one nice result that you can drag people sort of kicking and screaming across whatever line they've drawn already in their minds.''

His beard has grayed since he came on the scene with his hippy-dippy weatherman and ``seven words you can never say on television,'' but he's still as sharp-tongued as ever at age 60. He'll bring his off-beat sensibility to Portsmouth's Willett Hall tonight, one of his 100-plus stand-up shows he does each year.

``It's what I do. You don't need to find energy for the thing you love. This is my art. This is my joy. The only way I can bring it to people and develop it is to be out where they are.''

Carlin's career spans four decades, with recordings, TV specials (including his own show in 1994), movie roles (``Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure'' and the sequel, and ``The Prince of Tides'') and a book, ``Brain Droppings.'' And he has an autobiography coming out next year.

Through it all, Carlin has not been reluctant to offend. Religion, politics, language - it's all fair game for his often irreverent satire.

``Oh, I think I would love to offend people. I think there are people who deserve to be offended. I have very strong anti-religious stuff in the show that I'm doing now. I don't use offending a given group as my organizing principle, but I know it's going to happen if I'm honest to myself. If I say the things I feel, I know I'm going to bother some people.''

Carlin, who hosted NBC's first ``Saturday Night Live'' show in 1975, has always had to be mindful of censorship. He sees this country as ``a hopelessly Christian backward nation.''

``I've had a very lucky relationship with the invention of cable television. I was finished being the hot new guy. Cable came along and kind of gave me a place to put my work. A place that didn't interrupt me commercially, that didn't interfere with me in content or language. In fact, in no sense did they ever ask me to change anything for any reason in these 20 years. They don't give a (blank) because they're not selling trucks and beer.''

Next year will mark the airing of his 11th Home Box Office concert special.

Carlin draws his humor from three areas.

The first he calls the ``little world'' where he focuses on the little events in life that everyone experiences - picking your toes, how your dog acts and what people wear. Then there's the ``larger world,'' including social issues like religion, life, death and sex. ``Language'' is the third area where he makes fun of words, phrases and how we speak.

``A Place for My Stuff'' is one of his favorite routines.

``When you have stuff, you have to buy stuff to go with your stuff. Then you have to buy stuff to put your stuff in. Then you have to buy stuff to clean your stuff. Then you have to buy stuff to clean the stuff that your stuff is in ... ''

Has his career been fun?

``Yes indeed. I don't picture myself doing something for 40 years if it isn't a great deal of fun. This is obviously a very satisfying personal art. Storytelling is really what it amounts to, with all sorts of editorial twists.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Humorist George Carlin: ``If I say the things I feel, I know I'm

going to bother some people.''

Graphic

WANT TO GO?

Who: Humorist George Carlin

When: 8 tonight

Where: Willett Hall, Portsmouth

Tickets: $25: call 671-8100

Call: 393-5144 KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY COMEDY