I knew today was coming and I remember thinking I would have no idea what to say. Still don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tim Conway is inextricably linked to the Carol Burnett Show, which was a huge part of my comedy education. I watched it religiously, and my laughter became tinged with a sense of awe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I watch comedy like some people watch ballet. There is grace and beauty in it. And Conway was Nureyev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was gleeful satyr, full of joy and danger. You could tell when he was about to go in for the kill. It was in his eyes and when I saw it I was riveted, because I knew something marvelous was about to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tim Conway was going off book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From there on it was just masterful. Absolutely impeccable timing and a mind like lightning. I felt a bit of sympathy for the people who were biting the inside of their cheeks trying to hold it together. It was a lost cause. Particularly for Harvey Korman, the poor bastard. Conway batted him around like a cat toy, got spit on him and knocked him under the sofa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those were moments of transcendent comic brilliance in a show that was already ridiculously well done. Nobody but Conway could raise those stakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent years his health had been failing, and there were rumors of Alzheimer\u2019s or dementia. It turns out he was suffering from Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH), which is no less brutal to the brain. That magnificent brain that made me ache from laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bright spot in all of this\u2026this absence of one of the most underrated comic minds I have ever seen\u2026is that somewhere, in whatever afterworld exists beyond our reckoning, I am certain that Harvey Korman is pissing himself with laughter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A spark of comic brilliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedy","category-remembrance","tag-comedy-theory"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mkuhl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/5F4A6BEA-9EDE-499F-BBDF-8A403AF947B0.jpeg?fit=1140%2C798&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":243,"url":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/comedy\/second-city-60th\/","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":0},"title":"Second City\u2019s 60th Anniversary","author":"The Official Michael Kuhl","date":"December 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"My time with a comedy institution.","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mkuhl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/A6B4DDF2-A99A-4B20-90C6-78E83AAEA641.jpeg?fit=376%2C570&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":558,"url":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/comedy\/tony-hinchcliffe-cancel-culture-vs-comedy-cause-and-effect\/","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":1},"title":"Tony Hinchcliffe: Comedy Cause and Effect","author":"The Official Michael Kuhl","date":"May 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The recent video of a comic\u2019s opening remarks has quite a bit to say about comedy in general.","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":201,"url":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/comedy\/9-11-and-humor\/","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":2},"title":"9\/11 and humor","author":"The Official Michael Kuhl","date":"September 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Humor exists everywhere. You just need to know where to look.","rel":"","context":"In "Comedy"","block_context":{"text":"Comedy","link":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/category\/comedy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":247,"url":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/comedy\/9-18-19\/","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":3},"title":"Comedy and \u201cBoundaries\u201d","author":"The Official Michael Kuhl","date":"September 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I have questions.","rel":"","context":"In "Comedy"","block_context":{"text":"Comedy","link":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/category\/comedy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":231,"url":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/comedy\/on-racism-at-2nd-city-6-6-20\/","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":4},"title":"Racism at The Second City","author":"The Official Michael Kuhl","date":"June 6, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"There have been allegations of systemic racism at The Second City. My thoughts.","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":106,"url":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/comedy\/on-right-wing-comedy\/","url_meta":{"origin":257,"position":5},"title":"On \u201cright wing\u201d comedy.","author":"The Official Michael Kuhl","date":"February 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a question I am asked quite a bit. This is not a definitive answer, but I think it\u2019s a piece of the puzzle.","rel":"","context":"In "Comedy"","block_context":{"text":"Comedy","link":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/category\/comedy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions\/273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}