George Carlin wasn’t just a comedian, he was one of the great American artists of the later half of the 20th-Century, and he was shaped by and interacted with the great events of his day with intelligence, wit, and an ever-adapting nature.  That’s what co-director Michael Bonfiglio (with Judd Apatow) of  “George Carlin’s American Dream” explains when he sat down with Mike.

Bonfiglio’s (producer of “Paradise Lost 2 & 3”, “Some Kind of Monster” & “The Zen Diaries of Gary Shandling”) film traces the “straight” comic of the 60s, the more personal and edgy comic of the 70’s that we all know, and even the darker–but equally important, the film argues–comic of the 80s and 90s.  Michael and Mike discuss the roots of Carlin’s comedy in his Catholic school childhood in Manhattan, the birth of his comedy career in Los Angeles, and the cocaine-fueled 70s.  Throughout, his wife Brenda and daughter Kelly stood by him, and despite his solitary nature, his comedy cohort inspired and challenged him.  “George Carlin’s American Dream” is now playing on HBO.

Hidden Gem:  The Velvet Queen

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