I just began re-reading Brain Droppings by the late George Carlin, and I was reminded of the time when I answered the phone at Australian American Public Relations in Downtown Los Angeles, where I was working for Claudia Keech, who now runs the very successful MotherInc.com online publication in her native land of Oz.
The voice on the phone said: My name is George Carlin, and I am a comedian. I was flabbergasted, and quickly corrected him, saying, “No, you are THE comedian.” He was very flattered. It turned out that he was planning to book some appearances Down Under and had found us through Yellow Pages. He was looking for informaton on Aussie comedians so he could research their brand of humour etc. I was able to tell him about one or two that I had personally experienced, like Norman Gunstone and Kevin Bloody Wilson. He was very grateful, and gave me his private number so that I could feed him more information and funnies as they came to mind. I used to call his machine and leave him jokes and observations, and felt very honoured to do so. For me, he was one of the beacons of observational humour, and he will never be replaced. Brain Droppings was published in 1997 and here we are, 12 years later, and it is still as funny as ever.
