You Can't Keep a Good Comic Button-Down

[Zoneboy]

At 79, Bob Newhart says he can't sit still when stand-up calls

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Bob Newhart is still standing, still stammering and still making people laugh. He has outlived TV co-stars -- Suzanne Pleshette, Tom Poston, Mary Frann -- and comedy colleagues -- George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Johnny Carson.

Although robust at age 79, Newhart doesn't need to be onstage. Yet he continues to go under the lights around the country, telephone in hand and a serious if slightly puzzled look on his Everyman face.

Newhart is the mind behind two long-running television sitcoms -- "The Bob Newhart Show" during the 1970s and "Newhart" in the 1980s -- and the best-selling comedy album in history -- 1960's "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart." He's also got a Peabody Award, three Grammys and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

That's not bad for a guy who gave up an accounting job in Chicago in the late 1950s to try his hand at a career in comedy.

Two years ago, the Library of Congress National Recording Registry selected "Button-Down Mind" for inclusion in its collection of the most significant recordings in history. Other inductees that year include FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech following Pearl Harbor and the Rev. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C.

"That's one that kind of slaps you in the face," Newhart said from his home in Los Angeles. "I never thought I'd be there."

Yet, he said, the urge to perform still burns.

Q. Why are you still doing stand-up at the age of 79?

A. It's where I started. I can't ever imagine (stopping). . . . I always figure, what if I think of a routine? Who am I going to do it for, the dog? And hope he barks? No, I'm cutting back, but I could never picture not doing stand-up. It's something that's in your blood.

Is your act a mix of old and new material?

Mostly new. I may do one or two of the ones that got me where I am. The driving instructor or Sir Walter Raleigh. Because people expect me to.

They might storm the stage if you didn't do some of those.

(Laughs) Yeah. I'll tell you another reason I still do it, and this was recent. I was at Borders. I was standing in line to pay for a book, and a guy walked past me, and he said, 'Boy you sure look like him.' I get that a lot. I automatically say, 'Yeah, I've been told that.' So he stood behind me and he says, 'Is he still alive?' I said, 'Yeah, I think I read somewhere that he's still alive.' So that's another reason for doing stand-up, is to let people know I'm still alive.

What is your creative process?

The good routines, they come as full-blown. I was doing a show in New York on television called "The Entertainers," which thankfully no one remembers. We were having dinner at the Top of the Sixes. My wife and I were married like a year. We were looking at the Empire State Building and it was right there, you could almost touch it. I thought to myself, I wonder what it would be like if it's the first night on the job for a new security guard, and it's the night King Kong climbs the Empire State Building. And I had the whole routine. Sometimes it just comes like that. That's when you get nervous. "Have I heard this before? Did somebody else do it?" It's a weird feeling.

Do you still get nervous before a show?

I get . . . well, apprehensive. I think you should. I mean, I think it's good. It gives you an adrenaline rush that you need. I don't think you should ever take it for granted, ho-hum, and walk out and do it. It's like a friend. I'll start pacing in the hotel probably around 6 o'clock, getting ready for the show.

Who is your audience these days?

I would guess 40 on, although Nick at Nite kind of revived it, kind of got a younger audience involved. I'm judging by the mail. I get mail from 9- and 10-year-olds, and 40-year-olds, and 80-year-olds. I guess that's my audience.

You had two long-running TV shows, which is an amazing feat. You were just in everyone's living room for a long time.


More and more people just say, "Thank you for all the laughter." And I say, "It was my pleasure," which it was. Movie stars don't get that. When you're a movie star, you are not a part of people's lives. I get people who say, "Yeah, Mom and Dad and I used to sit and watch the old 'Bob Newhart Show.' I guess I was 9. I didn't get a lot of the jokes but I enjoyed it." And you realize you are part of people's lives.

How did you study comedy when you were young?

I always say every good comic I ever watched influenced me. Because I'd watch the (Ed) Sullivan show long before I was on it. I'd see Alan King or I'd see Buddy Hackett. And I'd go, why did that work? What made that work?

Do you think about your own legacy?

Well, I'm hoping at 90 I will be shot by a jealous husband. (Laughs.) Gee, I don't know. That's for other people to say. No, I'll say I'm proud of the longevity. I thought it was all going to be over after a couple of years. I thought people would be on to me long before this.

[CAJeannieFan57]

Thanks for sharing!

[catlover79]

Thanks for posting that, Charles! BOB ROCKS!!!

[Schmoopie]

Wow, that's great that he's still out there performing. I'm sure the loss of his co-stars and friends has been hard on him, though.

Andrea

[barnabus62]

Thanks