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Canwest News Service
Laughter and Reflection with Carol Burnett
Orpheum Theatre
Thursday, Sept. 24, 8 p.m.
For tickets, go to Ticketmaster.ca or call 604-280-4444.
VANCOUVER – At 75, Carol Burnett could be forgiven for favouring a little retirement time over hard work. Instead, the tireless queen of comedy continues to tug at her ear and pull in the crowds.
Next week, she returns to Vancouver for another of her popular audience- participation events, Laughter and Reflection with Carol Burnett, as part of the Canwest Comedyfest. She tours the show all over the continent, is about to release a new book based on those question-and-answer sessions, and may just arrive here clutching a brand-new Emmy Award.
Burnett, who already has half a dozen Emmy statuettes from the 11-year run of The Carol Burnett Show, is nominated for U.S. TV’s top prize in an unexpected category: Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. (The award will be presented Sunday night.)
While her fellow nominees include Sharon Lawrence in Grey’s Anatomy and CCH Pounder in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, the buzz is about an Oscar- worthy horse race between Burnett, Brenda Blethyn and Ellen Burstyn – each of them appearing in a different episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
In a phone call from Santa Barbara, Burnett reveals that her character, a reclusive actress, was written especially for her.
"I was very flattered," she says, "but I was nervous when I read it. I thought, Whoa, how am I going to get away with this and not be too funny?’ "
Happily, she was already a fan of the program.
"I really like the show. I like the way it’s written and produced and all, so I thought, Why not? What the heck?’
"I girded my loins and flew to New York, and it was one of the nicest experiences I’ve ever had."
Speaking of New York, this year marks the 50th anniversary of a period in Burnett’s life she describes as "crazy and wonderful." In 1959, her struggles as a comedic actress were paying off big-time: She was a member of the ensemble on The Garry Moore Show and was doing eight shows a week of the off-Broadway hit musical comedy, Once Upon a Mattress.
She’d rehearse the TV show all week and perform on stage each night. But Friday was crunch day.
"Garry’s show would tape in front of a live audience on Friday nights. We would be finished right on the dot at 8 o’clock and then I would run to the subway, get on the subway and go down to the Phoenix Theater, which was off- Broadway, and get out. There would be the neighbourhood kids, who would be waiting for me, and we’d all run to the theatre. I’d be there in time for the 8:30 curtain."
The old chestnut about asking a cabbie, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" is answered with "Practise, practise, practise." For Burnett, the answer was to star with Julie Andrews in a groundbreaking 1962 show, Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall.
But how does a financially strapped theatre-arts student at the University of California at Los Angeles get to New York in the first place?
Answer: Start some years before, in childhood.
Burnett grew up in L.A. with the Hollywood sign perched high above her home.
"There wasn’t a day that went by when I was going to school in Hollywood that I didn’t see the Hollywood sign when I would come out of the apartment building where we lived," she recalls.
"We had a neighbourhood gang. We’d go out and play, and a bunch of us would climb up there."
And proceed to climb the sign.
"The rickety scaffolding there – it’s a wonder we weren’t killed," she says.
"I remember my favourite letters were the O’s. For some reason, the scaffolding was a little bit easier to climb up on an O."
As Burnett prepares for a December induction into the California Hall of Fame, she looks back on a key moment in her life. While at UCLA, she and other students were invited by a professor to perform at a posh party in San Diego.
"I was at the buffet table, stealing hors d’oeuvres," she recalls. "I was putting them in my purse to take home to my grandmother.
"There was a tap on my shoulder, and there was a gentleman and his wife. It was a black-tie affair and it was quite the thing, so I thought, Oh my gosh, I’m busted.’ "
But, no, the gentleman wasn’t interested in her culinary kleptomania. He complimented her on her performance and asked what she wanted to do with her life.
"I said, Well, some day I’d like to go to New York and try my luck with musical comedy.’ "
Why wasn’t she already there, she was asked.
The reply, of course, was that the actress didn’t have the money to make the trip.
"I’ll lend you the money," came the reply.
A total stranger had just offered to lend her $1,000, interest-free, to be paid back in five years, with some caveats attached:
"I should not reveal his name, ever, and I should use the money to go to New York on and, if I am successful in what I choose to do, I must promise to help others out, in any way I can, to be successful in their chosen field."
The proof of the pudding is in the tasting – Burnett has been lending a helping hand to others ever since those subway rides between Moore and Mattress.
Sun Theatre Critic pbirnie@vancouversun.com
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Excellent job interviewing a living legend!
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