From our files: The nonconforming George Carlin

"Long hair was adapted as a rebellious act and developed into a kind of natural badge. People who share my most deeply felt philosophy, the alternate culture, also wear their hair long. And it'll be a long time before it's out of style for us. Maybe with some trendy people but not with the real brothers. When straight people talk about long hair being over, it's just wishful thinking.

'NOT A FUNNY MAN'

Despite his new-found conformity, George Carlin never really fitted into a mold. This Morningside Heights class clown finished on only a year and a half of high school before he joined the Air Force at 17. At 18, he was already a disc jockey in Shreveport, La., the town where he was stationed. That started him on an entertainment career in radio, then into coffee houses, graduating into the Las Vegas "big time" and recording, at the same time making numerous appearances on late-night talk shows where his hard-hat routines made him a national comic figure. Then George Carlin discovered George Carlin.

"More and more I began seeking out the counterculture audiences. My kind of stuff just doesn't work for conventioneers. All those characters sending back steaks and making noise. I am a monologist - not a funny man but a man of funny ideas. Nightclubs and TV are strictly commercial arenas - entertainment comes second, art comes third. Before a concert-hall audience of students and other young people, it is you alone out there. The only the audience gets to eat is popcorn, and they have to go outside for that."

Where does he find his material? "In my own experiences, my own observations, my own childhood. Like, for instance, the cliches that all parents seem to use in dealing with their children. You see, my gift is that I see the absurdities and ironies of life, and have the ability to verbalize and mimic them. I'm the class clown. I made faces at the teacher and then did my routines on the street corner. In the end, I'm just the guy who thought of the stuff and got hold of a microphone. Once I'm on stage, my wits are my only defense against ignominy. It amounts to pure self-defense."

The new George Carlin performs some rather straightforward material. "But only before audiences who will understand," he insists. "At first, when I changed back to the real George Carlin, I was persona non grata on the TV talk shows. 'He he flipped out, grew a beard.' Then, they learned I was reliable, that I knew how to control my own routines, that I don't curse on camera, don't wiggle and jiggle and yell a lot. And suddenly I was doing the talk shows again - 20 since I came into my new feelings. I've been guest host for both [Johnny] Carson and [Dick] Cavett."

'AN EXPANDED GUEST APPEARANCE'

"I've also had offers to do my own talk show and a variety show. But I turned them down. I just don't want to be something I'm not. I work best in an auditorium with 2,500 people. That's really where I belong. That's where my people are, too.

"This TV special is the first one in a possible series of specials I'm considering. Like maybe one a year. I want to see if the freedom that was offered to me will really be forthcoming. It's just an expanded guest appearance. Instead of one monologue like on the Carson show, I get to do four monologues and have a few guest stars."

There's a knock at the door of the trailer and George Carlin hops out, his pendant swinging in the breeze as he mounts the steps of Grant's Tomb to begin one of his monologues...

"Hi, I'm George Carlin. I don't really have a beginning...."

The monologue catches the fancy of the youthful audience, probably unaware of its hint of Will Rogers and others. They are only aware of its flavor of the real George Carlin.

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