While most celebrities have been reluctant in recent weeks to voice their opinions on controversial subjects -- be it the Dixie Chicks reneging on their anti-Bush remarks or the removal of Amanda Bynes' peace sign on the movie poster for What a Girl Wants -- there is one who will most likely go out of his way to shake people up.

That celebrity, George Carlin, will perform at 7:30 tonight in the Eisenhower Auditorium with special guest Dennis Blair.

Carlin, who has been doing stand-up comedy for more than 40 years, is best known for his bold, somewhat abrasive style of sociopolitical humor, exemplified in classic bits such as "Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV," and "Rockets and Penises in the Persian Gulf."

Sociology professor Sam Richards finds Carlin not only funny, but also socially conscious enough that he shows a clip of Carlin's stand-up in his race relations class. "Carlin is a really great sociologist," Richards said. "He is amazingly bright and was one of the first [stand-up comics] to talk about things that the others didn't want to talk about."

English lecturer Aimee Labrie, who teaches English 134 (American Comedy) said Carlin is a comedian of rare abilities.

"I think he's one of a few comics who discusses political issues in such a no-holds-barred way; his humor allows him to talk about things that are otherwise too dangerous to bring up," Labrie said. It was Carlin's willingness to bring up seemingly taboo topics that won him a Freedom of Speech Award at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in March 2002. It was also a big influence on Penn State student Dan Hopper (sophomore-theater) who is an aspiring stand-up comedian himself.

"I saw George Carlin for the first time in his HBO special in 1991. Up until then, all I had seen is sitcoms like Full House, where everything was safe and predictable," Hopper said. "But Carlin was so unpredictable. It wasn't just that he was vulgar, but that he was really free with his comedy and creative."

Hopper believes, however, that Carlin's comedy has withered somewhat in the last decade. "He is not as creative as he was back then, but I'd still like to see him in person," he said.

Tickets are $36 for floor seating and $30 for balcony seating, and are available at Eisenhower Auditorium and the HUB-Robeson Center desk from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the Bryce Jordan Center.

The high cost of tickets has lowered the event's appeal for some students. "Thirty dollars is a little too much to pay for a comedian who's not Richard Pryor," Ted Slama (junior-English) said. "They probably could have charged a little less. George Carlin's not starving."

Most people predict Carlin will bring controversial, contentious topics to the forefront. "He talks a lot about world issues and speaks his own mind," Hopper said. "He tends to be pessimistic about America and a lot of the time I agree with him."

Richards predicted a few obvious targets of Carlin's comedic and political rants. "He'll hit everything: the Bush administration, the war on terror, and definitely the war on Iraq," Richards said. "He'll ruffle some feathers, but ... he'll be funny at the same time."

Labrie, too, hopes that students who go to see Carlin will get more than a few laughs. "I hope that students will find themselves laughing when they're there and then thinking about what he said later on," she said.