Bob Newhart: Still standing, as long as the jokes don't get old

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http://www.thestar.com/entertainment...-don-t-get-old

Now an octogenarian, comedian proves his `button-down mind' is sharp as ever.

At 80 years old, with two successful television series under his belt, numerous honours, including three Grammys and the coveted Mark Twain Prize for American humour, awarded in 2002. Bob Newhart just can't resist the urge to get out there on stage and entertain.

"I just can't imagine not doing standup," said Newhart, who appears Friday night at Roy Thomson Hall, one of the 20 gigs he still does on average each year.

Born in Oak Park, Ill., and growing up on Chicago's west side, Newhart realized comedy was in his blood.

"Comedy was something I was going to expose myself to," Newhart said, before pausing significantly.

"Well, that's not quite the way of expressing it, I suppose," Newhart said with a soft self-deprecating laugh, during a telephone interview this week.

That comic style gently satirical, determinedly "button-down" and middle class propelled him into a decades-long career and induction into the Television Hall of Fame on the popularity of his eponymous 1980s sitcom and his scores of other television appearances.

After failing as an accountant he famously joked that his "close enough" attitude toward balancing the books showed he wasn't suited to a lifetime of number-crunching. Newhart said standup presented the first opportunity to find his comic voice.

"It (standup) is something I really didn't start out to do. But the first job I was offered was a standup job and that was the only job I was offered so I said, `Well, I guess you'd be learning how to do this. This is the only thing you've got going,'" he recalled.

After travelling far and wide Newhart recalls one of his early gigs was in Windsor ? his big break came with his first comedy album called The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, which won him Grammys for Best New Artist and Album of the Year in 1961, beating out competitors like The Sound of Music cast album, Harry Belafonte and Frank Sinatra.

"I found out later that Frank wasn't all that thrilled that he lost to a comedy record. It didn't take a lot to upset Frank," Newhart noted.

But if that sounds a bit critical, Newhart quickly offers an anecdote in praising of "Old Blue Eyes."

Newhart said Sinatra was known to close friends as Mr. Anonymous because he was very generous but didn't like to brag about it.

Once, while heading to an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Sinatra stopped for a shoeshine.

"(Sinatra) said to the guy shining his shoes, `What's the biggest tip you ever got?' And the guy said, `$100, Mr. Sinatra.' So Frank took out $200 and he gave it to him and said, `Now that's the biggest tip you ever got.' He started to go in to do the show ... and he said, `Just out of curiosity, who gave you the $100?' And he said, `You did, Mr. Sinatra,'" Newhart said.

Newhart has always avoided political humour. "Bcause you wind up offending half your audience automatically, according to the demographics anyway" and the use of profanity, despite the fact that the late Richard Pryor, the very first recipient of the Mark Twain Prize, is one of his idols.

"The language is language I wouldn't use but it's language that's appropriate to the story he (Pryor) is telling. It's the street language, which I would expect. I wouldn't expect Richard Pryor to say `Gosh, darn,'" Newhart said.

Newhart's other big idol is the late Jack Benny, a comic known for his wry cheapskate persona.

"Jack was one of the bravest comedians who ever worked because he wasn't afraid of silence. There are some comedians, they panic if they haven't got a laugh in the last 15 seconds," Newhart said.

"But Jack would take the time to tell the story because he knew it was going to pay off. I guess I'm not afraid of silence either as long as it doesn't go on too long, like a half an hour."

Part of the joy of performing these days is playing in old-time theatres and vaudeville houses that have been "beautifully restored," except the backstage dressing rooms.

"That's where the money stops," Newhart said with a chuckle. "Which is fine because it's kind of like the way it was years ago."

"As you walk on the stage, there's a whole bunch of people who have gone before you and it's kind of a nice feeling. You're standing there and you're getting laughs and you're saying, `Wow, I'm standing where Jack Benny was and he was getting laughs and I'm getting laughs.'"

Newhart, who has performed across Canada over the decades, has a soft spot for Canadian audiences because of their appreciation for his low-key comedy.

"There's something about the Canadian understatement and what I do that we seem to connect," he said. "I love Canadian audiences, they're very polite."