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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. I screwed up Kelly Carlin's bio so

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Speaker 1: badly the first time. I'm just gonna read it. I

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Speaker 1: tried to do it from memory last time, and I

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Speaker 1: didn't do it very well. So I'll just so I

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Speaker 1: get it right, Kelly Marie Carlin. Right, that's what it

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Speaker 1: says on your on your on your Twitter feed. I

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Speaker 1: think has always been curious about the big questions of life.

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Speaker 1: Watching her father George Carlin, being a kind of classic

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Speaker 1: comedy legend, certainly didn't hurt too. Like him, she loves

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Speaker 1: to use humor to question the status quo, and she

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Speaker 1: loves to seek out the unique angle into any subject

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Speaker 1: she tackles. But unlike him, Kelly Carlin brings a more

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Speaker 1: personal and emotional tone to her work. With her personal story, pathos,

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Speaker 1: emotion and psychological insulate insight. She reveals the joy and

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Speaker 1: challenges that come from trying to live an authentic life.

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Speaker 1: She's a public speaker, hosts both The Kelly Carlin Show

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Speaker 1: on Sirius XM and Waking from the American Dream on smodcast.

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Speaker 1: But I thought you didn't do that anymore. But I

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Speaker 1: still do my podcast yet I got it. Uh And

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Speaker 1: a Carlin Home Companion is now an author of the

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Speaker 1: memoir Our carl and Home Companion, was published by St.

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Speaker 1: Martin's Press to Rave Reviews. Congratulations on all of that.

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Speaker 1: And I really did enjoy talking with you last time.

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Speaker 1: And I just hated the fact that we were just

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Speaker 1: or at least I was just getting interested in we

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Speaker 1: read out of time. Uh so, but this is so

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Speaker 1: what again, we're here. It's the forty anniversary of this

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Speaker 1: amazing time when the FCC, who had originally been chartered

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Speaker 1: to only essentially be the traffic cop for broadcasting. They

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Speaker 1: were there to keep track of frequencies. They would hand

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Speaker 1: out fines of people juiced up their transmitters to try

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Speaker 1: to reach farther. I mean, they had a very important function,

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Speaker 1: but from the very beginning it was it was clearly

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Speaker 1: expressed to them that they were never supposed to get

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Speaker 1: into the content. And there are all sorts of mechanisms

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Speaker 1: for problems with content. For example, if there are a

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Speaker 1: lot of complaints with the radio station, they go into

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Speaker 1: the public file of that radio station and then the

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Speaker 1: f c C can decide whether or not it would

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Speaker 1: renew that radio station's license or left up to the

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Speaker 1: free market as we had. You know, we we don't

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Speaker 1: have a government run media. We we have a free

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Speaker 1: market that runs it. And so you know, if advertisers

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Speaker 1: said we don't like this, and nobody sponsored these programs,

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Speaker 1: they go off the air. And that was the way

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Speaker 1: it was established until until your dad mixed everything up. Um.

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Speaker 1: So you know, George Carlin did the did really started

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Speaker 1: with the first time he did. The bit was not

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Speaker 1: the bit that got that changed everything for the FEC.

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Speaker 1: The first one was just those the words, you know,

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Speaker 1: the seven the seven dirty words you can't say on television.

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Speaker 1: That was the first one. It was the second time

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Speaker 1: when he revisited that on the later album. That's one

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Speaker 1: that got played on the radio in Long Island. Um.

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Speaker 1: And that's when things you know, went too So we'll

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Speaker 1: get back to that. But so what was it like?

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Speaker 1: What what was your dad's feeling about that first bit.

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Speaker 1: I mean, he was just he was kind of making

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Speaker 1: the transition from a traditional stand up comic and a

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Speaker 1: former disc jockey himself to being a counter culture comic.

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Speaker 1: What was that like for him? And what was that

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Speaker 1: like in your house. Yeah, it was. I mean it

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Speaker 1: was quite a radical change on the outside, certainly for

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Speaker 1: him and for the work he did, you know, his

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Speaker 1: insides in the sixties, even though he looked like the

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Speaker 1: clean cut comic with the tie and he was, you know,

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Speaker 1: entertaining the parents of the kids who were in colleges,

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Speaker 1: smoking a weed and everything, but inside he was you know,

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Speaker 1: he was George Carlin, the guy with the you know,

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Speaker 1: with the more radical thinking. He'd been a pot smoker

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Speaker 1: since he was fourteen. He hung out with musicians on

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Speaker 1: the road. Those were his friends, you know, I mean

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Speaker 1: he was he was that person on the inside. And

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Speaker 1: so you know what had happened to him through the

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Speaker 1: sixties as he got more and more success and he

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Speaker 1: started he started wanting to change more as an artist

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Speaker 1: and too, you know, evolve as everyone else was evolving

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Speaker 1: at the time artistically. Um, he was getting real pushed

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Speaker 1: back in resistance and um, you know, he got arrested

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Speaker 1: in Vegas. I mean, not arrested, I'm sorry, he got

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Speaker 1: fired in Vegas for saying one of those seven words.

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Speaker 1: And um, and that was a big blow. He'd been

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Speaker 1: He was, you know, opening for the Supremes. You know,

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Speaker 1: making twelve thou dollars a week. I mean, that was

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Speaker 1: good money in nineteen sixty nine. It's good money still,

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Speaker 1: it sure is. And um, so he was on the

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Speaker 1: top of his game and so he got fired and

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Speaker 1: he dropped some acid, and he just knew that he

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Speaker 1: could not live with himself or the rest of his life,

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Speaker 1: you know, being you know, being just the hippie dippie

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Speaker 1: Weatherman or just the Indian sergeant or whatever that you know,

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Speaker 1: the variety shows wanted him to be. And so he

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Speaker 1: turned to my mother and said, I have I have

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Speaker 1: to do something different. I have to spread my own wings.

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Speaker 1: And this is going to mean a change for us.

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Speaker 1: And it did. You know, we moved from our little

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Speaker 1: rented house in Beverly Hills to a apartment down in

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Speaker 1: Venice Beach before Venice Beach was full of luxury condos

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Speaker 1: and um, and we started over. Now, you know, him

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Speaker 1: starting over was doing first FM AM, which I thought

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Speaker 1: was such a brilliant way of letting your audience know, Hey,

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Speaker 1: I'm making this change. And so here's what it looks like.

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Speaker 1: On the AM side is the old George Carlin and

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Speaker 1: on the FM side is the new George Garland. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's it's one of the most clever things, it really is.

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Speaker 1: And then of course Class Clown came out and then

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Speaker 1: Occupation Fool and so that was the ark there of

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Speaker 1: those three years in a row, those albums came out,

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Speaker 1: and that's when everything changed for him, you know, I

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Speaker 1: mean he was suddenly now a counterculture superstar. And UM.

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Speaker 1: I have a specific personal memory around this is in

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Speaker 1: the summer of seventy two, before Class Clown came out,

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Speaker 1: we were summertime, so mom and I were on the

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Speaker 1: road with him and we went to a couple of places.

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Speaker 1: One place we went to was Kent State. My dad

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Speaker 1: took me to the memorial where the kids have been shot,

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Speaker 1: you know, told me a little nine year old all

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Speaker 1: about this, which freaked me out completely because it was

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Speaker 1: kind of scary back then, I mean, weren't living through it.

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Speaker 1: It was the freaks versus the Straits, and my dad

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Speaker 1: was officially a freak and um, and then our next

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Speaker 1: stop was um summer Fest in in Milwaukee, and so

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Speaker 1: here it is my dad's opening for Harlow Gut three

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Speaker 1: at summer Fest, which is outdoor festival, as my friend says,

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Speaker 1: which is like, you know, an island of sausage surrounded

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Speaker 1: by beer. Basically, there's a lot of drunk people. There's

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Speaker 1: thousands of drunk people in the audience, and my dad's

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Speaker 1: trying to do class clown bits, you know, bits from

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Speaker 1: the new album that that isn't even out yet. The

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Speaker 1: album is not even out yet, so the promoter doesn't

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Speaker 1: even know what my dad's gonna do. And of course

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Speaker 1: my dad's using some language and he's dropping the language

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Speaker 1: in here and there, and there's some policemen there who

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Speaker 1: decide that they're not happy with this language. And uh so,

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Speaker 1: the so we're backstage. The promoter comes up to my

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Speaker 1: mom and says, to my mom, the cops are here

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Speaker 1: and they're going to arrest George the minute he gets

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Speaker 1: off stage. And now my mom knew that my dad

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Speaker 1: had some coke and marijuana in his pockets, and so

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Speaker 1: she went on stage with a glass of water. And

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Speaker 1: we have the recording of it. You can hear him

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Speaker 1: like saying, hey, what are you doing out here? And

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Speaker 1: then they whisper to each other and she basically says,

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Speaker 1: get off stage left. We're we're gonna you know, this

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Speaker 1: is what's going down. We he'd keep Finally. Um, So,

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Speaker 1: the minute she tells him that that the cops are

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Speaker 1: going to arrest him, he doesn't just say to the crowd, oh,

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Speaker 1: I gotta go now, um, you know, and and be

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Speaker 1: you know, a good boy. No, this is when he

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Speaker 1: starts in with the seven dirty words routine. He just

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Speaker 1: goes for it. And of course, all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: about I don't know, a few minutes into it, the

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Speaker 1: microphone goes mute. He walks off the stage. We go backstage.

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Speaker 1: They're stashing the drugs and the drummers, you know, based

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Speaker 1: drum um and so and and all of a sudden

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Speaker 1: there's this big bang noise and I start crying. I

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Speaker 1: think the cops are shooting at us. It was a balloon.

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Speaker 1: Someone had popped a balloon. We were safe. But when

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Speaker 1: the door opened there were the cops, and um, they

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Speaker 1: took my dad away, and it was absolutely terrifying for me.

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Speaker 1: My mom knew what to do because she had been

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Speaker 1: there when Lenny and my dad had been arrested in

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Speaker 1: nine and you know, she knew to go get a

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Speaker 1: civil rights attorney. And so I spent the weekend with

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Speaker 1: the promoters family and my mom spent the weekend getting

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Speaker 1: my dad out of jail, which the course, I think

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Speaker 1: the court threw it out. I think, you know, it

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Speaker 1: was like they gave him a small fine for like,

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Speaker 1: you know, disturbing the piece or something like that. This

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Speaker 1: is the This is the interesting thing too, is that

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Speaker 1: that you mentioned You just kind of toss that off.

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Speaker 1: But I want to go back to that, the that

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Speaker 1: famous incident where your dad got arrested with Lenny Bruce

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Speaker 1: and Lenny Bruce. He wasn't particularly he thought, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think I'll clean up his language. I think he

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Speaker 1: called your dad like an idiot for being willing to

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Speaker 1: get arrested, to get thrown into the pattiwagon when he

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Speaker 1: didn't have to be. He did, Okay, that's all that

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Speaker 1: it was, Yeah, exactly. I thought there was an F

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Speaker 1: word in there with schmuck somewhere, but okay, fine. So

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Speaker 1: if it was my mom, my mom, you know, bailed

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Speaker 1: them out that week weekend. You know, she write down

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Speaker 1: the Pattiwagon in Chicago, and she was there. But he

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Speaker 1: wasn't doing that. He wasn't doing the FM thing yet,

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Speaker 1: which is interesting. He was just idolizing Lenny Bruce, who

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Speaker 1: was doing it. This is sixth one. This is actually

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Speaker 1: on my dad's career. He's not even really anybody yet

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Speaker 1: at this point. He's completely idolizing Lenny. Lenny had gotten

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Speaker 1: him a manager at that point and had seen him,

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Speaker 1: you know, do some work down at the Bitter End

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Speaker 1: or something like that in New York. And yeah, and

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Speaker 1: basically how that went down was the cops were checking

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Speaker 1: I d s in the club because they wanted to

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Speaker 1: bust the club owner. That's how they were going to

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Speaker 1: get shut down the club. And they had already arrested

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Speaker 1: Lenny and they're checking I d s. And my dad

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Speaker 1: said to the cople I don't believe in identification, and

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Speaker 1: you know, which is just you know, in trouble. He's

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Speaker 1: tweaking him. You throw him in the back, like you said,

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Speaker 1: at the back of the pattiwagon with Lenny, and Lenny's

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Speaker 1: just looking at him like you know Jesus. Listen to

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Speaker 1: more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at one a m.

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Speaker 1: Eastern and go to the Coast to Coast am dot

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Speaker 1: com for more