Carlin tries to stretch into acting

George Carlin, actor?

It makes sense that this most theatrical of stand-up comics, who has developed such characters as The Indian Sergeant and The Hippy Dippy Weatherman during his 30-year career, would stretch into acting roles.

Still, it’s something that the 58-year-old comic has approached with some trepidation. His first role came in 1968’s “With Six You Get Eggroll.” He then stayed away from acting until 1976’s “Car Wash.”

“I was unable to do it the first time around, when I thought it was my turn to (act), back in the ’60s,” Carlin recalled from his home in Los Angeles. “I just wasn’t prepared for it at all.”

Since then, Carlin has acted in “Americathon,” “Outrageous Fortune,” “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey” and “Prince of Tides.” In November, he will play an old Western scout in the miniseries adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s “Streets of Laredo.”

Carlin, who will appear at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Sept. 30 at the Maine Center for the Arts and at 7 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Presque Isle Forum, said he has improved as an actor.

“I’m much better now than when I began,” he said. “This stuff I did for `Streets of Laredo’ is definitely the best I’ve ever done, and I got an awful lot of good comments on it from the people involved, from professionals who are around actors all the time, and I was very pleased with that. And I’ve seen some of the work, too, so that and `Prince of Tides’ are my two best things.”

But don’t expect to see Carlin turn to acting in any major way, as stand-up is still what he does 90 percent of the time. He looks for about one project a year in which to act.

“Movies are good, occasionally something like this miniseries, because they’re one-time things,” he said. “You can concentrate, do a really great job, then walk away.”

Carlin also won’t be appearing in any network TV series again anytime soon, following his experience with last season’s “The George Carlin Show” on Fox.

“I had turned down all those kind of things for 20 years or so,” he said. “Fox was very aggressive and persistent in coming after me for several years, and they made the offer very good, and they put me with someone who, at least on paper, it should have been a wonderful creative marriage. But it really didn’t turn out to be that.”

Network TV was not the place for Carlin, who has also appeared in the series “Justin Case” and “Working Trash.”

“What I suspected all along was true, that I don’t really fit into that corporate comedy culture,” he said. “It’s too much committee stuff. It’s really like being a passenger rather than one of the crew. I need to control more things personally. I’m happier as a soloist, always have been, in every bit of my life, not just my professional life.”

Carlin has, however, continued with his role as Mister Conductor on PBS’ “Shining Time Station.” The counterculture comic, best known for his “Seven Dirty Words,” appearing on a kids’ show?

“I looked into it a little bit, realized how professional they were, what a good job they do and how good the shows are and it just seemed like a good association for me, another chance to do a little acting that was different,” Carlin said. “And I do like confusing people, and it serves that purpose.

Another important outlet for Carlin is his HBO specials, which he does every other year.

“It’s not the kind of stuff you do when you visit Dave Letterman or Jay Leno, but the thing I really do can come through,” Carlin said. “So that’s very important to me. It helps my box office, and the box office, the people in the theater, that helps my HBO. So they feed each other.

Still what Carlin does most, 120 to 130 times a year, is his stand-up routines. He promises a lot of new material to his Maine audiences, as he’s preparing for his next HBO special.

Even after 30 years, stand-up never gets old for Carlin.

“It’s the most natural thing to me,” he said. “I was always that way as a kid, trying to get laughs verbally. It’s what I do. It’s my art. It’s my way of expressing and interpreting things. It’s what I do centrally.”

For tickets, call 581-1755 (Orono) or 764-0491 (Presque Isle).