Lemme tell you what I mostly know about Carol Burnett…
Along with Lucille Ball she was one of my mother’s favorites. Two looney ladies of the 50s, 60s and 70s – Burnett being the one who did the Tarzan yell.
Coupled with the fact that Thursday’s Burnett show at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts could sell out and the Pitch even recommended it, that speaks volumes for the staying power of the 79 year-old comedy legend.
What to expect? Not your standard issue senior citizen standup comedy show.
Burnett’s 90 minute throw down is – mostly anyway – an anything-could-happen Q&A session with the audience. They ask, she answers. It went down in Tucson recently late last month.
“She spent most of the night with the lights of Centennial Hall lit as she answered questions from audience members,” write the Arizona Star‘s Cathalena Burch.
“There were a couple of requests for hugs from adult fans; Burnett awkwardly declined. One woman told Burnett she had dreamed the night before of giving her a necklace. Another woman said that her father was an artist and he was up in the balcony sketching Burnett and would Burnett sign the sketch after the show; the comedian told her to g
ive it to an usher and she’d be sure to sign it.”
Knowing all too well how mainstream newspaper reviewers leave out the good stuff – the Star’s Robert Trussell didn’t even mention that there was onstage nudity in his review of Hair last week – my hunch is some outlandish questions must have been asked.
And the way I see it, Kansas City can do better.
The trick being to dig a little deeper into some of the uh, livelier high points of Burnett’s 60-year show biz career.
****For example Burnett’s been to the alter no less than three times and is currently sporting a husband 23 years her junior. Which makes her a senior citizen cougar.
Hypothetical questions: Is it difficult keeping up with a 58 year-young husband and is he jealous of actor George Clooney who Burnett joked about having the hots for in Tucson?
****Burnett sued the National Enquirer for libel in 1981 and almost walked away with a cool $1.6 million (the judgement was later reduced to $200,000). All because the tabloid described an episode of her alleged public drunkenness alongside Nixon era Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Hypothetical questions: What was it that women of that time found so darn attractive about Kissinger aside from him being a powerful political dork? And what did she think of TMZ’s headline last November: “Carol Burnett Sued from the Grave Over Home Video Deal?”
****Burnett became best buds with Lucille Ballaround 1966 and received flowers from Lucy every year on her birthday. Including Burnett’s 56th on which she awoke to the news that Lucy had died. Hauntingly, later that afternoon, flowers arrived from Ball with a note that read; “Happy Birthday, Kid. Love, Lucy.”
Hypothetical question: What’s Burnett’s second wildest “I Love Lucy” story?
****Burnett is also very good friends with comedian Jim Nabors of “Gomer Pyle” fame. And Nabors was her first guest every year during her 11 season-long variety show run on television.
Hypothetical questions: What does she think of Nabor’s recent announcement that he’s gay and his marriage to his partner of 38 years in a Seattle hotel room? Did she send him a wedding present and if so, what was it?
That should do it for now. I’ll leave the rest of the questioning to Pitch readers.
Enjoy!
Back in the mid-60s Carol Burnett did a week at Starlight Theatre. I recall my parents coming home from the theater in the middle of a raging Midwestern thunderstorm. I assumed the show had been rained out. They reported that far from cancelling, Burnette kicked off her shoes, danced out onto the stage in the pouring rain (this was before the big shell had been built over the stage) and clowned for 20 drenching minutes. People who had taken shelter along the sides of the seating area came out to stand in the rain and watch.
My folks proclaimed the abbreviated show one of the highlights of their live entertainment experiences.
That would be a good question for someone to ask tomo. Does she remember that night and what was she thinking?
We’ll be there, front and center as she’s one of my wife’s all time favorites! And therein lies examples of her cross generational appeal! She watched her as a kid with her parents.
I didn’t realize until this past week, she’s done this one woman format for 25 years and, apparently, sells it out everywhere she goes! That has to speak to something that she can sit on stage, alone, play random video clips, talk about a show that ended 30 years ago and people still pack the place to hear her stories once again. That’s staying power that I’m not sure you’ll see anywhere else from today’s stars.
There’s a line in a James Taylor song; fortune and fame is a curious thing, people pay good money to hear you sing Fire and Rain, over and over again…..
She is just a great all around talent. She does comedy, singing, and acting all very well. She also did a better job keeping a straight face with Tim Conway than Harvey Kormann ever did. That would have been hard in and of itself!
There won’t be anyone there under 60, I’ll be scalping Cialis over by the main entrance.
Two bathtubs, because let’s be honest you fuckers aren’t fitting into one anytime soon.
Think you may be right.
But honestly, I’m not sure how many adults that were kiddies when their parents watched her show on television would want to go see her now at age 79. Unless they’re taking their (surviving) parents.
But geez, if the audience is composed of her actual fans I think the base line age would be closer to 70 and up.
Then again, it’s on the Pitch recommended list so it must be a hipster show.
I’m 51 and watched her show on TV when I was growing up.
There you have it; I’m wrong again!
The infomercial touting her DVD collection is on all the time. The endorsement from Amy Poehler gives it the cool factor Burnett’s show lacked when the original SNL cast viewed themselves as polar opposites of the old-school Carol Burnett Show.
That show was a hoot. My mom and dad loved it.
How much on that Cialis balbonis?
Mr. Chuck forget the Cialis and try Horny Goat Weed taken with decaf green tea. That should put enough lead in your pencil to write all night long in your journal.
Before taking Cialis talk to your doctor and make sure your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. Possible side effects include headache, indigestion, back pain, muscle ache, nasal congestion, flushing and pain in your limbs….basically things you are already experiencing.
If you have heart problems, high or low blood pressure, liver or kidney problems, retinitis pigmentosa, severe vision loss, stomach ulcers, Peyronie’s Disease or blood cell disorders Cialis may night be right for you.
Your right, it’s not worth the trouble.
Or death, don’t forget death.
I liked to watch reruns of her show when I was a kid, funny stuff. Conway and Korman were no slouches either, man those guys were funny also.
figures that smarmyman would be an expert on e.d. He’s a total
misfit. He’s a jagoff!!!! He suffers from the jagmyselfitis!!!!!
Whats even more amazing is that any woman/man would allow that
guy in bed with all the diseases/scum/etc he gets from recycling
those used hot tub. I mean seriously…what woman/man would let
smarmyman near them without first putting on a hazmat suit????????????
gross!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Probably has to pay the hookers on independence avenue…but even
they kick him out of the room when they get a whiff!
Harley, you’re forever jacking someone about how OLD their flow is, how worn out the material is. Do you ever read what you write? Love him or hate him, how many times do you think readers want to read:
…………all the diseases/scum/etc he gets from recycling
those used hot tub. ?
You want to talk old, worn out material. Thats old worn out material, dude.
When you get to be Harley’s age, you often forget what you’ve already said!
I always thought that Carol Burnett and Jonathan Winters together on stage free to do what ever for an hour would be the show of the century.
If she didn’t know that Jim Nabors is gay then she’s the only one.
I’ll wager that she did know.
On the other hand, I’m not sure that many people were tracking Nabors the past, oh, 20 or 30 years.
Until the recent news that he just got married…
Nabors didn’t announce he is gay. He got married. EVERYBODY knows he is gay. They’ve know it for more than 30 years.
Everybody, huh?
I don’t think anybody much outside of the Nick at Night crowd even gave Nabors a second thought for, oh, the past 30 years
His nabors knew!