A Modern Man

This past week, I have had the opportunity to watch some stand up comedy from my DVD collection. Among them, I stumbled into an act performed by George Carlin called "A Modern Man" from his HBO special "Life Is Worth Losing." This comedy routine has a special meaning to me as it was the monologue I selected in my first year Drama class. This routine showcases some of George Carlin's greatest assets as a comedian.

The first being his ability to continually adapt and change. Carlin's success was largely due to his always changing form of stand up comedy from radio station humor to dissection of euphemisms to his social commentary comedy. This routine continues to explore his fascination with vocabulary with contradictions put together in a humorous fashion.

Secondly, it showcases Carlin's physical humor, his intonations, his rhythm and his emphasis on words.

I think from this, as educators, we all have to review, adapt and change our teaching methods and strategies to keep it fresh and interesting for our learners. Like comedians, we all have messages (learning goals and objectives as comedians have punch lines) that we want our audience to receive, the challenge is keeping our intended target audience interested during our delivery.

Anyhow, here's the monologue that I selected in Drama class so many years ago.



Greg