When Carlin was about 7 years old, he started attending a Catholic boys' camp on New Hampshire's Spofford Lake, Camp Notre Dame. According to New Hampshire Public Radio, the young Carlin was a huge fan of radio comedy; he used to mimic various voices he'd heard and invent his own radio commercials. And when the camp hosted a talent show, Carlin took part, performing his first stand-up comedy sets to an audience of fellow campers and counselors.

Carlin went on attending that summer camp — and winning the talent competition — every summer until he was a tween. In his second to last year there, the talent show prize was a necklace with twin comedy-tragedy drama masks. Carlin's daughter told NHPR that Carlin wore it constantly later on in his life and was even wearing it on the day that he died.

Carlin's time at Camp Notre Dame represented the first sign the young comic got that he was on the right path pursuing the performance arts. It meant so much to Carlin that he asked his family to scatter some of his ashes over the lake after he died, per NHPR.

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