Tim Conway: A Jockey?

You wouldn’t know it by looking at him, but Tim Conway had dreams of being a jockey.

“I wasn’t really intending to be in show business. My dad was a trainer and I exercised horses at a track in Cleveland. So being a jockey seemed the logical thing to do. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I fell off as much as I did -- and was terrified of horses -- I think I could have become one the world’s greatest jockeys.”

Relating this story with wry smile, it’s not clear whether Conway is pulling your leg, or not.  If he really did aspire to be a jockey, we all would have missed out, as he is one of America’s most beloved comics.

His career spans 50 years of television and film appearances. From playing the befuddled Ensign Parker on McHale’s Navy to providing the voice for Barnacle Boy on SpongeBob SquarePants, Conway’s antics still tickle his audiences, old and young.

With his dream of being a jockey dashed, Conway did a stint in the army and followed that by getting a job writing jokes for a radio DJ in Cleveland. Never having written jokes before, he bought a joke book and put together a script.

“One thing led to another and the next thing I know I was in show business,” Conway said.

Today, that means doing close to 100 shows a year touring with Tim Conway & Friends. He brings the same wacky sketch comedy as back in his days appearing on the Carol Burnett Show.

Conway, Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman would notoriously crack each other up on stage, sometimes having a hard time getting through the sketch. Audiences at at the can expect the same level of hilarity and good, clean fun.

Conway stresses that he has no interest in off-color jokes or ‘blue humor.’

“I’m from the old school. I’m not sure that I really lock into what’s going on today because of the language that is used in television and features,” Conway said. “It’s kind of uncomfortable for me.”

That dedication to classic comedy is a welcome relief to many families wanting a respite from offensive language and situations.

“So we don’t do that,’’ he said. “We just do funny for funny. So consequently we have people of all ages coming to our show because it’s a safe haven.”

And who makes a funny man laugh? “Don Rickles, Jonathan Winters, Bob Newhart …” Conway reminisced. “I’m hanging on to the comics I grew up with … Steve Allen, Don Knotts, Tom Poston … All of those folks brought a smile to my face and some of them still do.”

Conway still misses his pal Harvey Korman, who was a part of the show for eight years, until his passing in 2008. But Conway’s team of cohorts, comic Chuck McCann and impressionist Louise DuArt, work together like a well-oiled machine.

 “This is the first show of the New Year. We’ve been at the McCallum probably over a dozen times. I think it’s a beautiful theater, one of the nicest we play, with the nicest people. The audience that we play to is basically the same audience that we played to at the Burnett show.”

The show is a series of set sketches that follow familiar Conway characters (The Old Man, Tudball, Dorf), but there is always something different that happens with each live performance, keeping the three of them on their toes and the audience is brought in on the fun.

IF YOU GO: Tickets are priced at $95, $75, $65, and $55, and are available by calling the McCallum Theatre box office at (760) 340-ARTS (2787) or online at www.mccallumtheatre.com. McCallum Theatre accepts payment by cash, personal check, VISA, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.

ON THE WEB: www.timconway.com