Foreign let me tell you why tim conway is funny man he thinks funny he he does funny things about a couple of months ago we showed a movie the house joanna and i and we had i think harvey corman has learned two other people and we invited tim conway and uh tim said he had to come a little late so we’re having dinner in the dining room and the doorbell rings and uh the gentleman we have working for us at home as you know eugene answered the door and came back and said the projectionist
Is here i said fine and we went on eating now what had happened and 10 minutes had passed and we figured the regular fella who comes to run the picture has gone to the projection booth so we sit there and about 10 minutes later tim it was tim conway who would come and tim simply said and gene didn’t recognize him right tim says i’m here for the picture and jean took tim led him into the projection room and so conway with his mind set in there for about 10 minutes and finally walked out while we’re having dinner and says i
Got the first roll of film on the picture will be ready in about 10 minutes and walk out of the time hadn’t said a word oh let him the projection he’s a funny man as you know if you saw the emmys the other night he he won an emmy for his uh great work on the carol burnett show and this coming saturday night he has his own television special unfortunately i wish he was on this network we could we could use a special on that network uh it’s called uncle tim wants you tim conway
definitely i uh i wasn’t going to come out all evening that night i felt uh what the heck it was a lot better in there than going out and eating with harvey that was a weird night the man actually said are you here for the picture and i said yes and he put me right in the projection room and you sat there yeah well i didn’t know whether that’s where he wanted me or not i figured you know it’s just the first roll is on i’ll have it roll yeah look i’ve been doing this show now at the end of this next the end of this month we
Have an anniversary show coming up we’re starting our 16th year you have never been on this show that’s true and i know we have asked you before well you know i didn’t know you did this you know uh foreign no that’s true now we’ve known each other what four or five years and you have never said what you do you know so uh i just figured uh you know and i never asked you so i figured whenever i came over the house you just wanted people in the business coming over there eating and running films and things so i just
That’s uh but uh they mentioned it the other day that this is what you do this is working for a living yeah got abandon everything it’s really good yeah it’s dynamite hey congratulations uh for what well i thought you knew something about my private life no no um yeah that was it was always exciting for me uh to be even connected with the emmys i think it’s a great organization and i’m very excited about winning that award and my salary hasn’t even doubled yet nothing has happened i saw corman corman got up he started trying to get a
Standing ovation going yeah it didn’t go too well did it no he was the only one yeah harvey stood up and you looked out and nobody there was carmen and finally harvey sits down there yeah he’s embarrassing uh just before i went on the director bill carruthers who i thought did a sensational job with the emmys he said we are really running long he said don’t go out there and horse around just go out and say thank you and i said okay they didn’t realize you’re talking to the wrong fellow i guess and i just happened to have that telegram with me
And so i thought i’d kind of read it because i thought it was important to me wasn’t that from angie’s kitchen angie’s pitch and putt yeah tarzana pitch and putt yeah yeah and i also gave i have a friend ernie anderson that i’ve known for about 16 or 17 years from cleveland and i gave that was his telephone number i gave yeah because he said mention me if you win so i thought that would be the best way that was a real number yeah real number yeah he’s still getting calls incidentally if you didn’t get that number
It is a you want to give ernie a call and so where you’re from originally i’m from chagrin falls yeah chagrin falls yeah a little town outside of cleveland dynamite town yeah small kind of uh mark twainish type yeah the uh fishing when you were a kid and going down the river and yeah we didn’t have a river but we went down and fished just throwing that uh little spinner right on into the mud there i don’t know yeah it’s a nice town because everybody really cared about you you know it was a very small town and you say small i come
Yeah small midwestern towns yeah twelve hundred two thousand six thousand this was uh at the time i was there i think was less than eleven hundred yeah you know the old gag about they had a parade and everybody was in it but i went back one year for a parade and it was a cherry blossom thing and really everybody was in the parade and it just went down the street you know waving at sidewalks and there’s nobody there yeah in back yeah they were kind of excited that year yep it’s a it’s an old indian town now this
Is what they believe on how that town got its name that there is a falls in the town and a very little trickle of water and the indians were supposedly coming down this trickle of water evidently and uh heard this roar and when they got there it was such a small uh falls that they said we’re really chagrin and they believe that in that town as well yeah that’s one of the problems with the town right there they bought that we have to do something to eat we have to pause occasionally in our show oh boy to sell something i’ve never seen it before
This is exciting right well we’ll do this we’ll come right back with uh you do this every night yes most of the time foreignyeah you could record that and save yourself a lot of money you know and just play that each time yeah we’re talking uh with mr timothy conway did your mother call you timothy as a kid uh well my real name is betty which we had some problems came out here but uh no i might i guess my real given name is uh thomas it’s really thomas my mother’s romanian she couldn’t say it yeah no so yeah it’s
Thomas daniel comedy but there’s another was another actor called tom conway so i had that’s right yeah young fell with the mustache good-looking captain yeah and i was getting a lot of his bills so he changed my name are there other conways brothers and sisters no even though we know each other and been out social right now isn’t it well on this show i have to ask these questions you see um no there were no others i was i guess they just kind of said on that when i uh you’re an only only yes sir yes sir but a real bright kid and i’ve done real
Well so thank you i want you to lonesome as a child i mean anybody to play with um no uh well i went to school you know oh well yeah there were other kids in school so i had those i never thought of those kids to play with yeah you probably didn’t do that um but no and those are the only children i had played with yeah no brothers or sisters you know we go to school players like i was you know doing the i uh you know i had a funny i used to get physically ill uh whenever i appeared in front of people and as a matter of fact
Um on the first time i did the gary moore show what was the other guy’s name that was with derwood kirby i actually uh before going on uh did something on durward that he’s never forgotten because uh i when they would and it would only i would get very nervous before a show and then when they would mention my name it started in football they would say uh number uh 21 here he is uh right guard whatever uh tim conway or tom conway and i would actually get sick i just go over to the fence and get ill so uh then they stopped giving my
Name because they thought that was the problem number 48 and it got so i would even do it on the number so uh thank you i know people aren’t actually forgotten about excuse me but i’d forgotten it but i really was not going to get into the business because of that that’s interesting i know a lot of people who um who are performers now who were founded excruciating to appear in front of people did you get the feeling that people everybody all the attention was on you when it really isn’t you know that about being self-conscious people
Aren’t really concerned they’re concerned about themselves aha but people who are self-conscious thank all these yes i am then yeah that must be it because that that and how did you overcome that well um i told this to a guy and he said why don’t you go to a doctor and uh he’ll you know straighten it out for you and uh the doctor said that he talked to my wife and he said what you should do is uh occupy his mind before he goes on so uh i went to one show and i noticed that she was talking a lot and kept saying
You know and but she was telling me about a lot of bills that we’d run up and i actually got sick about the bills that we were running out it just kind of went away and it went away once and then i never had it again but up until that time uh just uh what happened every time so all you kids watching who get sick before an audience you realize you can turn out like this right i have something to shoot for i mean that was a combo yeah sure i understand you mentioned your one here your wife is a ranked as they say bridge
Player is she not i i have no word on that is she uh yes she is she yeah i mean she said well i don’t talk to her that much you know i mean i well i know you love the show so i uh yeah and uh she travels around the world as a matter of fact playing bridge yeah which is real nice for me so it’s a lonely town when they’re out of town well you know i know it’s loneliness yeah but fortunately a lot of people ask me over for dinners and things like that but you have a large family six is it that many six yeah i guess i
Guess a six i don’t um well they’re not brought to me until they’re 10. So i thought it was a bad news yeah so i’ve only seen three of them uh but there are there are other littler ones running around the house i noticed that six of them yeah it’s a big family yeah well i can’t uh singer dance and obviously with six kids i have no sense of rhythm but um no i i love my i am the best father in the valley yeah i really am i live for my kids i really do i i didn’t care too much for the early years i mean but i i
Got right in there boy i i went through the diaper thing uh in the uh toilet there and everything and yeah yeah i was real crow close with a roto-rooter man for about oh four or five years there no but i i i grew up with him because in this business you know you have a lot of time during the summer and everything and they uh they’re very fond of me i think i hope yeah because when i go to the old uh actors home i want them to come out on sunday and don’t we all yeah you know do something put you out there in the
Sun put a little blanket around yeah that’s good it’s not going to be long for us well i know i’m on my way we’ve talked to them already and we have a hold on a suite over there yeah uh how long have you known gorman oh i would say 10 or 11 years yeah so you get to him easier than he gets to you you can break him up harvey’s a pretty easy breakup uh yeah at least for you well that started kind of uh we were in the dressing room one day uh during the brunette show and uh he had on a chicken outfit with red stockings and
Big chicken feet no he just come in from home uh and he had a big beak on that in order to talk he had to pull it open like this and i was dressed as an avon lady and uh i had on a dress and the wig and the pearls and everything and these uh and the pantyhose and everything and he had had a personal problem which he was trying to talk to me about and he said gee i don’t know what to do and he was pacing up and down with these uh this chicken thing on and talking like that and going you know if i don’t find
A solution to this thing and uh and i was sitting there listening to him and i said uh you know would it be better if we got out of these outfits i just can’t lock into this thing a man talking about chicken lips and uh that kind of got to him and we went out to do the schedule we never got through it because he just couldn’t uh visualize these two guys trying to be serious in these elephants and uh ever since then it was kind of an easy target yeah you can just give them a little uh yeah a little wing we had a 50 bet going that
If i could break him up he’d give me 50 and if i he could break me up he’d give me 50. And he put three of my kids through school you’ve done some some great sketches on carol show over the years the dennis saskatchew there are million sketches you do what’s your favorite stranger may seem the dennis sketch yeah that kind of all came out of uh spontaneity really because uh uh we knew i knew i was going to do that with a hypodermic needle in my hand but when that got rolling then i went for the head and the leg and
Everything else and just stayed out because i saw harvey was in pain too and i loved him to be in pain and so we just just went with it and i think it was one of those nights when people were laughing you’re brilliant when you’re working you really are i was just thinking about that myself look you haven’t been here now in 15 years i’ve mentioned you’re special now you must have something to say about it you just didn’t come here to listen to our band i know that uh i haven’t asked you anything yeah actually i did uh know
All these specials well you said it’s on saturday night and uh it’s jonathan winters whom um and bernadette peters and the marquee chimps i want to get somebody for jonathan to work with and um strange i think johnny is is funny on this as i’ve seen him in a long time because we just had a sketch where we let him go i was a drill instructor in the marines and he was a private and the only setup i gave him was you’re going to put together an m1 rifle and i’m going to stay on you until you get this thing together and that was the premise
Of the sketch and he just fractured me i mean he came well you know well the man was insane no johnny when he gets rolling when he gets going and he did he just came up with a classic it was good wait for another commercial you’re going to stay with us aren’t you just you’re just not gonna sit here and run every 15 years i like to kind of rest that’s right well uh we’ll do this we’ll come right back
The Hilarious Secret Behind Tim Conway’s First Tonight Show Debut: You Won’t Believe What Happened
Article: There is a specific kind of magic that occurs when two legends of comedy sit across from each other—a shorthand of timing, a shared understanding of what makes an audience tick, and a mutual respect that transcends the screen. When Tim Conway first sat down with Johnny Carson, it wasn’t just another interview; it was the beginning of a comedic masterclass that would define a generation. Even now, years later, the sheer, unadulterated joy of that moment remains a masterclass in the art of the interview.
The story of Conway’s arrival on the show is almost as funny as the sketches that made him famous. It began not in a studio, but at Johnny Carson’s own home, where a simple mix-up regarding a “projectionist” led to Conway spending ten minutes in a basement projection room, only to emerge and announce that the film would be ready shortly. It is a story of absurd timing, a man who, in his own words, “thinks funny” and “does funny things,” even in his private life. Watching Carson recount this with such glee is a testament to the fact that for them, comedy was not a job—it was a way of moving through the world.
As they dive into the conversation, we learn about Conway’s roots in Chagrin Falls, a small Midwestern town that sounds like something out of a Mark Twain novel. He describes it with a self-deprecating warmth, painting a picture of a place where “everybody really cared about you.” This small-town upbringing seems to be the bedrock of his comedy—a grounded, observant style that found humor in the quiet, mundane details of life.
What would you have done in this situation? If you had accidentally been mistaken for a hired hand in the home of one of the most famous men in America, would you have played along with the joke, or would you have quickly corrected the misunderstanding to save your own dignity? It is a question that highlights the core of Conway’s genius: he was always willing to prioritize the bit, the laugh, and the human connection over his own ego.
Of course, the conversation inevitably turns to his time on The Carol Burnett Show, a platform that allowed his improvisational skills to truly flourish. He tells stories of his long-time creative foil, Harvey Corman, and the ongoing, high-stakes battle to see who could “break” the other during a sketch. The tale of the chicken outfit—a ridiculous, feathered spectacle that became the site of one of their most intense comedic duels—is a reminder of the sheer dedication it took to make a nation laugh. They weren’t just reading lines; they were trying to dismantle each other’s composure, a testament to the trust they shared.
He discusses his spontaneity, particularly the famous “dentist” sketch with the hypodermic needle—a performance that he acknowledges was born out of a desire to see Corman in pain, not because of malice, but because he knew how much it would elevate the comedy. It is a revealing look at the collaborative, sometimes cutthroat, nature of great comedy.
As the interview winds down, one is struck by the timelessness of Conway’s humor. He speaks about the importance of being “real,” about not letting the fame or the accolades diminish the humanity that is the source of all humor. He laments the modern pressure of the industry, the need to “sell something” every fifteen minutes, and he does so with a grace that only someone who has seen it all can possess.
Think about the character who has brought you the most joy in your life. Was it someone who made you laugh until your stomach hurt, or someone who made you feel seen in your quietest moments? For millions, Tim Conway was that person—the man who could turn a basement projection room or a ridiculous chicken suit into a moment of pure, comedic gold.
Ultimately, the interview is a tribute to the power of a shared laugh. It is a reminder that while the world changes, and the technology evolves, the fundamental human need to connect through humor remains as strong as ever. Conway didn’t just tell jokes; he lived them. He showed us that the best stories are the ones we create when we aren’t even trying to be funny.
As we look back at this moment, we are left with a lingering sense of gratitude. Gratitude for the talent that once filled our screens, for the stories that have endured the test of time, and for the simple, beautiful fact that for a few minutes in 1978, we were all invited to sit in on a dinner party, a film screening, and a conversation between two of the greatest friends that comedy has ever known.
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