his best to keep the young comedian busy. In the new year Carlin played five more weeks of bookings at Café Au Go Go. He also did two stints at another Chicago club, Mother Blues, in the city’s folkie Old Town neighborhood, and he was invited for return engagements at Paul’s Mall in Boston and the Inverurie in the Bahamas. Other gigs were not so notable. At a place called the Blue Dog in Baltimore, he performed without a paying soul in the audience.
Still, he was getting plenty of laughs most nights. He’d been honing one hunk in particular, “The Indian Sergeant,” which was emerging as his surefire crowd-pleaser. The premise involved an Indian warrior who called his troops to order like an army drill sergeant. Carlin introduced the bit by noting that classic Westerns typically spent an hour and a half showing the cowboys getting ready for the climactic Indian attack, but never showed the Indians preparing. “It was a standard fish-out-of-water gimmick, the thing that Bob Newhart was doing so well then,” he once explained. “The idea was that if the Indians were good fighters, they must have been organized, and military organization means N.C.O.s.” Carlin’s Indian sergeant addressed his troops in one of the born mimic’s favorite, and most natural, voices—a posturing Bronx baritone that mangled the word “loincloth” as lernclot’ . The braves, the sergeant reported, were performing their drills admirably: “Burnin’ settlers’ homes—everybody passed. Imitatin’ a coyote—everybody passed. Sneakin’ quietly through the woods—everybody passed, except Limping Ox. However, Limping Ox is being fitted for a pair of corrective moccasins.” He then made a few scheduling announcements: “There’ll be a rain dance Friday night, weather permittin’.”
In May Carlin landed an audition for a new syndicated talk show set to premiere in July, The Merv Griffin Show . Having broken into show business as a singer, the host first found fame as the featured vocalist on popular bandleader Freddy Martin’s 1949 hit version of “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts,” which inspired Kaye’s own version a few months later. Before he got into television, Griffin had a brief film career, including an appearance in a 1953 musical ( So This Is Love ), in which he and costar Kathryn Grayson shared a then-controversial open-mouthed kiss. After hosting several game shows, the affable Griffin lent his name to a short-lived daytime talk show for NBC in 1962. Three years later he launched what would become his long-running syndicated show for Westinghouse Broadcasting. Most affiliates ran the show in the afternoon, though it was seen in some markets in prime time or in a late-night time slot opposite Carson’s Tonight Show .
Bob Shanks, the former Tonight Show talent coordinator, had joined the Griffin program as a producer. When Peter Paul urged him to take a look at this new comic, Carlin, Shanks agreed. “I had sort of forgotten George from The Tonight Show ,” says Shanks, though his memory was refreshed when they were reintroduced in his office. On cue, Carlin performed “The Indian Sergeant” for his private audience. “I was falling out of my chair,” says Shanks. “I booked him right away.”
Carlin became one of The Merv Griffin Show ’s earliest guests, along with another smooth-shaved product of the Bleecker Street scene, Peoria’s Richard Pryor, who sometimes did impromptu improv sketches with Carlin when they introduced each other at Café Au Go Go. “It was a gift to me to have both Carlin and Pryor walk in,” Shanks says. With the nightclubs beginning to move away from folk and comedy in favor of British Invasion-style rock ’n’ roll, Shanks felt fresh comic talent was becoming tougher to find: “I was looking hard for new comedians, and suddenly these two geniuses appear.”
“The Indian Sergeant” went over so well with both Griffin’s audience and the host himself (“Oh,
Still, he was getting plenty of laughs most nights. He’d been honing one hunk in particular, “The Indian Sergeant,” which was emerging as his surefire crowd-pleaser. The premise involved an Indian warrior who called his troops to order like an army drill sergeant. Carlin introduced the bit by noting that classic Westerns typically spent an hour and a half showing the cowboys getting ready for the climactic Indian attack, but never showed the Indians preparing. “It was a standard fish-out-of-water gimmick, the thing that Bob Newhart was doing so well then,” he once explained. “The idea was that if the Indians were good fighters, they must have been organized, and military organization means N.C.O.s.” Carlin’s Indian sergeant addressed his troops in one of the born mimic’s favorite, and most natural, voices—a posturing Bronx baritone that mangled the word “loincloth” as lernclot’ . The braves, the sergeant reported, were performing their drills admirably: “Burnin’ settlers’ homes—everybody passed. Imitatin’ a coyote—everybody passed. Sneakin’ quietly through the woods—everybody passed, except Limping Ox. However, Limping Ox is being fitted for a pair of corrective moccasins.” He then made a few scheduling announcements: “There’ll be a rain dance Friday night, weather permittin’.”
In May Carlin landed an audition for a new syndicated talk show set to premiere in July, The Merv Griffin Show . Having broken into show business as a singer, the host first found fame as the featured vocalist on popular bandleader Freddy Martin’s 1949 hit version of “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts,” which inspired Kaye’s own version a few months later. Before he got into television, Griffin had a brief film career, including an appearance in a 1953 musical ( So This Is Love ), in which he and costar Kathryn Grayson shared a then-controversial open-mouthed kiss. After hosting several game shows, the affable Griffin lent his name to a short-lived daytime talk show for NBC in 1962. Three years later he launched what would become his long-running syndicated show for Westinghouse Broadcasting. Most affiliates ran the show in the afternoon, though it was seen in some markets in prime time or in a late-night time slot opposite Carson’s Tonight Show .
Bob Shanks, the former Tonight Show talent coordinator, had joined the Griffin program as a producer. When Peter Paul urged him to take a look at this new comic, Carlin, Shanks agreed. “I had sort of forgotten George from The Tonight Show ,” says Shanks, though his memory was refreshed when they were reintroduced in his office. On cue, Carlin performed “The Indian Sergeant” for his private audience. “I was falling out of my chair,” says Shanks. “I booked him right away.”
Carlin became one of The Merv Griffin Show ’s earliest guests, along with another smooth-shaved product of the Bleecker Street scene, Peoria’s Richard Pryor, who sometimes did impromptu improv sketches with Carlin when they introduced each other at Café Au Go Go. “It was a gift to me to have both Carlin and Pryor walk in,” Shanks says. With the nightclubs beginning to move away from folk and comedy in favor of British Invasion-style rock ’n’ roll, Shanks felt fresh comic talent was becoming tougher to find: “I was looking hard for new comedians, and suddenly these two geniuses appear.”
“The Indian Sergeant” went over so well with both Griffin’s audience and the host himself (“Oh,
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