I have been aware for sometime that comedian Tim Conway was ill and suffering from dementia. It saddened me that such a brilliant innovator would be silenced by a mind which once produced the most memorable of characters.
Oddly Conway was generous in naming Don Knotts as the legend, but Tim Conway was the legend, as he joined the ranks for improvisation, in there were only two other comedians who were like Tim Conway in the field. They were Red Skelton and Jonathan Winters. Skelton and Winters excelled at on the spot making things up. Winters was the best at it, while Skelton was outstanding in vaudeville humor in his routine for the Seagulls, Gertrude and Heathcliff, in his playing both while tucking his arms in his shirt and flapping his hands out the arm holes.
Where Tim Conway excelled like none other, was not in improv or vaudevillian routines, but he pioneered something which he had no rival, and that included the great Dean Martin who practiced the same comedy, in Tim Conway made a point to including the audience in the routine, where they sat transfixed waiting for him to do something which would make his co stars burst out laughing.
It became one of the delights of comedy to watch Conway practice a routine all week with Harvey Corman of the Carol Burnett Show, and come air time with a live audience, Conway would change the routine when Corman was helpless to do anything about it. If you watch the routines closely, you will see Conway set up the torture of Corman after Corman delivered his line, and then Corman had to wait for Conway to respond, but time and again, Conway would not deliver the line, freeze in place and just wait, deliver another line and then slowly look into Corman's face which would be too much for Corman who would burst out into laughter.
Audiences hung on those moments, and the mark of Conway was he practiced this so well, that Corman and Carol Burnett knew it was coming and on conditioning they would crack up. Vickie Lawrence or Lionel Wagner for their character were never part of this, as they could not be baited. Harvey Corman though was perfect in this.
For many Harvey Korman was never noticed for the abilities he possessed. He was remarkable at time playing suave chauvinists to delight audiences.
It requires great character for comedy duos to survive. Most do not from Martin and Lewis to Abbot and Costello. Egos get in the way, but that is what his odd about Conway and Korman, in Korman was the regular star, and Conway the guest star, before joining the show. They grew into roles acting together and in all of that time jealousy never manifested. Conway was crediting others and Korman was secure in never being jealous of Conway.
I am pleased that Tim Conway is set free of this world and his mind is a spirit which now has now boundaries. He is one of the few people who could make me laugh and I have the fondness for him as I do other legends in Bob Denver, Allan Hale, Larry Storch and Forest Tucker, and that fantastic comedic trio of Mclean Stevenson, Gary Burghoff and Larry Linville. People always make the mistake of heradling Alan Alda, who had zero comedic ability. It was Stevenson, Burghoff and Linville which created the genius of MASH.
Most of the comedians are dead now, and that is why comedy is no longer funny, as none of them have fun, and none of them are now generous.
The blessing is though that in a recorded age that Tim Conway lives on forever, like other entertainers who were loved by audiences like Johnny Carson and Jack Benny.
The fact is Rango lives on, and maybe now they will restore this series to it's full produced shows and make them available to the public.
agtG
