Monday, June 05, 2000
Carol Burnett likes to engage her audience
Carol Burnett has this fool-proof formula whenever she's asked to make a speech.
“I don't write anything. I have nothing prepared,” she says. Not to worry. Those attending her sold-out “Unique Lives & Experiences” lecture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Aronoff Center find her plenty entertaining — if they do their part.
“I just walk out and say, "Bring up the house lights!' And I ask people if they have any questions for me. Usually people put up their hands right away,” she says.
In other words, her personal appearances are like the audience Q-and-A sessions that closed her popular CBS' variety series, The Carol Burnett Show (1967-79).
“I don't do a lecture or a talk,” she says. “It's a conversation with the audience.”
Those at the Aronoff will see one of the most candid stars I've ever encountered in my 15 years as a TV columnist. She may be the only female star in this age-conscious industry to put her birthday on her bio. She turned 67 on April 26.
@subHed:Remembering the show
@text:Ms. Burnett says most questions during her personal appearances are about her long-running sketch show with crazy colleagues Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner.
When asked about it here, she'll no doubt mention that she recently taped introductions to her old CBS show with Mr. Conway and Mr. Korman for a Columbia House home video release later this year. Unlike the half-hour syndicated reruns, these will be complete one-hour shows.
“These haven't been seen since they were on 30 years ago. They will include all the musical productions, movie satires and all the musical numbers they cut out of the half-hour show, which was just the sketches,” she says.
If asked about her future plans, Ms. Burnett will beam about the play she recently wrote with her daughter Carrie Hamilton. They have adapted One More Time, Ms. Burnett's 1986 autobiography about growing up in Los Angeles, for the stage.
“It was my daughter's idea. For the fun of it, I started working on it two years ago,” she says. “That was my first love, writing, but I didn't pursue it as a career.”
Ms. Burnett, who starred in Stephen Sondheim's Putting It Together on Broadway last winter, has selected a director. If she can find a producer, the play could open next year, she says.
“The play is loosely based on the book,” she says. “I've changed names, and I've consolidated some characters. I don't want it to be about Carol. I want it to be about a little girl growing up in Hollywood with these adults.”
If someone asks about her two other daughters, they'll hear how Jody Hamilton produced the taped introductions for the Columbia House videos, and about Erin Hamilton's disco singing career.
“Erin, my baby, has released three albums. She's still looking for that one big crossover hit,” Ms. Burnett says. Then she pauses, and laughs at the possible headline: “White-Bread Woman Has Disco Diva.”
@subHed:Too time-consuming
@text:
Certainly someone will ask if she plans to do another TV series, more Broadway shows, or even a TV guest shot like her Emmy-winning turn as Helen Hunt's mother on Mad About You. To make a long story short: No.
“I never say never, but I don't like to commit myself to a long run on Broadway,” she says. Putting It Together let her sign a four-month contract; most shows demand six months.
“I don't want to be away from home that long. I don't want to live in a hotel room that long,” the Los Angeles resident says.
TV, even a recurring role, also can be too time-consuming. She liked working with Ms. Hunt and Paul Reiser but was dismayed that it took four to five hours to shoot a 22-minute episode of Mad About You. Her one-hour variety show was taped in half the time.
“Nowadays, they take so long to shoot these suckers. It's like they're doing a movie,” she says. “We had set changes, and costume changes, and I don't think we did our show in more than two hours. I don't know why they do it like they do today. It's insane.”
If anyone asks about CBS giving Ellen DeGeneres a “Carol Burnett-style comedy-variety show” for next season, she'll wish her lots of luck.
“What I wish for Ellen is that the suits (network executives) leave her alone. Mr. Paley (CBS founder William Paley) had a lot of faith in us and left us alone,” she says.
NBC executives were just the opposite in supervising her two short-lived variety shows: Carol & Company in 1990 with Peter Krause (Sports Night), Jeremy Piven (Cupid) and Richard Kind (Spin City), and the Carol Burnett Show in 1991 with Meagan Fay, Jessica Lundy and Mr. Kind.
“Suits came in to watch the rehearsals, and they tried to second-guess the audience and tried to tell us what's funny,” she says.
“If they knew what was funny, why weren't they comedy writers?” she says. “It just makes me crazy! It just makes me nuts.”
Some may ask Ms. Burnett about her earliest days in show business. While preparing to remodel her Los Angeles office recently, she found clipping about her 1957 appearance at New York's Blue Angel club, and a copy of her comedy record, “I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles.”
Others may ask about her unique life and experiences — her breakthrough as a sidekick on the Garry Moore Show (1959-62); starring in Once Upon a Mattress (1964); her her award-winning specials with Julie Andrews and Beverly Sills; her serious roles in Friendly Fire (1979) and The Four Seasons (1980).
“The questions are all over the place,” she says. “But it's fun. All I have to do is bring a dress and ask them to turn up the lights.”
Only one thing is definite.
“Yes, somebody will ask me to do the Tarzan yell. And I'll do it. It keeps me vocally resonant.”
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. His column appears Monday and Wednesday. Write: 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330.
