I see Bob Newhart is going to do a show at the Grand Falls Casino in Larchwood, Iowa on October 19. I didn’t even know he still did standup.
At $55 a ticket, it sounds like a bargain to me, but then I think he’s one of the best stand-up philosophers the world has ever known! If you go, come back and give us a review of the show, please.
Does he still spend half his act pretending to be on the phone?
I would go.
If he is half as sharp as he was years ago, you will have a great time. I don’t know how old he is, or if he’d start telling a joke and forget the punch line (like Sinatra forgetting words to songs he sang for 50 years), but I’d be willing to roll the dice.
Maybe it’s a smart phone now…
He’s welcome to do so - as far as I can tell, he *invented *that schtick, or at the very least perfected it. Few comedians have defined a whole sub-genre of humor like Bob Newhart did with his phone stuff. He also had two brilliant and well-loved situation comedies, but that stuff doesn’t translate to the stand-up experience. I doubt that he needs to do stand-up to pay the bills, so he’s probably doing it because he’s a comedian and loves to make audiences laugh.
And is his mind still buttoned down?
I wouldn’t mind it, I still listen to it when it get’s played on XM, I just wonder if he’s still doing it.
I remember a few years ago when he was doing an interview, he said he was doing a scene with someone else where they had to talk on a phone and after a few tries (IIRC) they asked for someone to be on the other end to say the other lines and he said something like “see, it’s not that easy”.
Astonishing piece of trivia: Bob Newhart won his first Emmy last month.
Don’t let Shelley Berman hear you saying that. He’s always claimed that he invented it and Newhart stole his act.
Newhart has acknowledged that Berman and other comedians were doing a similar act before he did.
I’m seriously thinking about it, but Larchwood is almost 100 miles away and the show doesn’t start until 8:00 pm.
I’m not sure if Newhart’s a comedian, or just the best straight man in the history of the world. That’s his way of being alone on stage and still giving the other guy all the funny lines.
Well, no. There are examples of it going back to 1913. Shelley Bermanwas associated with it before Newhart (as Newhart has admitted).
Keep digging, but probably no examples earlier than ca. 1876.
George Jessel dictating a “Hello Mama” bit to a telegraph operator?
Way way back (early 1960s?) I saw Bob Newhart play Elwood P Dowd in a production of Harvey. in Fairfield, Iowa. I still remember how brilliant he was.
Don’t know where exactly you are, but he’s going to be at the Riverside Casino in Riverside, Iowa, on Friday, October 18, which is the night prior to his show in Larchwood.
I’m guessing Riverside is probably a lot further than 100 miles away for you, but in case I’m wrong, I’ll throw that out there.
My wife and I would definitely have gone to that show (especially with our 25th anniversary only 4 days later!), but I have a commitment that night that was scheduled long before I found out Bob Newhart was coming. Bummer. As far as former CBS television stars from the 1970s go, we did get to see Carol Burnett live onstage in Des Moines about a year and a half ago. She doesn’t really do standup, she tells funny stories about her life and her co-stars and “The Carol Burnett Show” … and yes, she still takes audience questions.
A couple years ago I saw Tom & Dick Smothers perform. They looked close to identical to how they looked during their heyday and did many bits that were familiar.
Watch 1962’s Hell Is for Heroes with Steve McQueen sometime. Bob is in it as a GI who drives the Germans tapping into the Americans’ communications crazy.
I remember seeing this movie with my dad when I was seven. Imagine my shock several decades later when I saw it again and immediately recognized Bob Newhart!
I’m in northeastern South Dakota, so Riverside would be about 500 miles away. 
Thanks for the suggestion anyway!