Tom Foolery

Friday, Nov. 1, 2002 | 3:33 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: Nov. 3, 2002

After 43 years in show business, the Smothers brothers still keep up a hectic pace traveling the country entertaining fans with their sibling rivalry.

Tom, 65, and Dick, 62, begin a 12-day gig at the Las Vegas Hilton Tuesday, after their most recent performances in Laughlin, Fort Worth, Texas and Washington.

Their first professional appearance was at The Purple Onion in San Francisco in 1959. They hosted "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" on CBS from 1967 until 1969, when their social and political commentary and their opposition to censorship got them fired.

Tom Smothers recently spoke to the Las Vegas Sun by phone while on the road:

Las Vegas Sun: Why do you continue to work so hard?

Tom Smothers: We've done over 100 dates this year. I recently looked at our concert schedule in '83 and '84 and we were doing 200, so we have slowed down a lot. And the dates are spread out. We don't know when we're going to retire. We just take it a year at a time. As long as there is interest and we fill the seats, we will keep going.

Sun: What's the secret of your continued popularity?

TS: We respect what we do. We pay attention to our act. And because we're brothers, we have a long history together that people are familiar with.

Sun: Where do you and Dick live now?

TS: Most of our lives we lived within 50 miles of each other. Now, I live on my 40-acre vineyard (Remick Ridge Vineyards) in Sonoma Valley (Calif.). Dick lives in Florida. He had lived in Vegas the last 10 years.

Sun: When did you and Dick first perform here?

TS: The first time was in 1963 at the Flamingo when it was a two-story motel. We opened for Juliet Prowse.

Sun: How did you get your first break?

TS: The last Saturday of every month The Purple Onion would hold open auditions. At our audition we just killed them, but they told us they wouldn't have an opening for a couple of months. But a week later, one of the acts got sick and we were called in. We were a trio back then. We played there for 13 straight weeks, and then Dick and I went to Aspen as a duo.

Sun: Do you and Dick sit down and brainstorm about bits in your act?

TS: No. We always improvise onstage. That's where most of the routines come from.

Sun: How has the act changed over the past 43 years?

TS: The biggest change has been our aging. We're not as youthful so we don't talk about Mom liking who best. For two men in their 60s to talk about Mom that way would be weird. We still have that little edge of family conflict, but the act is more complex now. I like it better. It's more sophisticated, more balanced.

Dick is an incredible straight man, a little like Bud Abbott of Abbott and Costello. Did you know that in the early days of vaudeville, the straight man was paid more? It was considered a skilled position. If an audience doesn't believe the straight man, the act doesn't work, no matter how good the comedian is.

Sun: How did the Yo-Yo Man routine come about?

TS: Mason Williams, who wrote the "Classical Gas" song, brought us a song about the yo-yo man, a traveling Duncan Yo-Yo demonstrator in the '30s, '40s and '50s. He suggested I demonstrate some tricks while we sang. I could do three tricks. After one of our performances the world champion of 1937 came backstage and showed me some tricks. After another show the Kansas state champion of 1940 showed me some more.

If you relate it to golf, I'm about a 12 handicap.

Sun: What don't you like about the act?

TS: We don't take the same risks we used to take. You always want to be at your best, so you fall back on familiar routines you know will work. I guess the tendency is to be more conservative. But we need to take some risks, so we're working on a bunch of new material, some new songs.

Sun: When you and Dick were fired by CBS over censorship issues, Richard Nixon was president and we were at war with Vietnam. Today, George W. Bush is president and we are at war with terrorism. How have things changed?

TS: Sounds the same, doesn't it? In the Vietnam era there were protests about the war and about freedom of speech and censorship. Today, there are people with strong views about the war on terrorism, but many of us censor ourselves and don't say anything. And those who speak out, we don't hear about it in the main media because they are owned by like three companies. I don't think the issue today is freedom of speech, it's freedom of hearing. We can't hear those who are speaking out on issues.

Sun: What are your views on the state of politics today?

TS: It's the same way comedy has gone. Today's comedy is rude and self-serving. It's mean-spirited and there's an edge of ugliness to it.

People aren't participating in politics today. They forget what a democracy is about. They wave flags, but they don't do anything else.

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