E-Mail This Article to a Friend Burnett vets Conway and Korman are still crazy after all these years BY SALLY CRAGIN

The phone rang at 11:15 a.m. A firm tenor voice introduced itself as that of Tim Conway and apologized for calling before our scheduled 11:30 interview appointment. "We can talk now, and then I can call again at 11:30," the legendary Carol Burnett Show funnyman suggested helpfully.

With that, Conway proceeded to hold forth on Tim Conway & Harvey Korman: Together Again, which comes to the Wang Theatre this Saturday. (The show also includes Massachusetts native and "latter-day vaudevillean" Louise DuArt, who presents celebrity impressions between sketches by the now-septuagenarian Burnett vets.) Conversation topics ranged from Korman and Burnett to the characters and sketches in this long-running tour that began six years ago at Foxwoods.

But Conway’s fame extends back into the 1950s, with a regular turn on The Steve Allen Show, which was followed by a stint as the mildly dazed Ensign Parker on the cult-classic ’60s comedy McHale’s Navy. He reaped five Emmy Awards for his work on The Carol Burnett Show as the deadpan utility player. Since then, he’s been a regular on sit-coms and variety shows, though his solo TV projects never quite achieved traction. (He got a license plate reading "13 WKS" as a tribute to the short-lived shows he headlined.)

As for Tim Conway & Harvey Korman: Together Again, he explains, "I got custody of Harvey when the show went off, so I just lead him around." Pause. "So far, nothing exciting has happened." And Korman is a likely foil, in Conway’s words an "obsessive-neurotic hypochondriac." His voice grows warm with affection: "There are so many wonderful things to torture him with in the course of a day. From the time I see him in the morning to the time we say good night, I just jab at him."

Together Again features six sketches, all new save for a reprise of the Burnett show’s "The Dentist," in which Korman is a patient with an excruciating toothache at the mercy of Conway, a practitioner learning his trade. (Dentistry for Dummies is a prominent prop.) "If you were coming to see a Burnett show being filmed, this is what you’d see," Conway says. And yes, the performer still cracks up Korman on stage, a habit that goes back decades. While filming the Burnett show, Conway was famous for doing business that convulsed his co-stars. "They were very poor performers to do that," he says, adding that his dual role as writer/performer meant that "I’d write one thing and then I’d do something totally different, so nobody ever knew what I was going to do." As the results were always hilarious, "Carol said, ‘Listen, go with whatever you do — just let it go.’ Most of the time they left it in, because editing at that time was different."

One of his missions then was to "try to capture a smile from Mr. Korman on almost every show. He’d think of something to break me up and he’d try it and I’d stare at him and he’d crack up anyway." The two have been friends for 40 years — "at least he thinks I’m his friend," says Conway, adding that "the best part of a two-man routine is both of us know when to shut up."

As for the viability of a Carol Burnett Show today, Conway demurs. "I don’t think the networks would allow this show to go on. It’s not political, we don’t deal in religion or bad language. Sometimes there’s a little nudity, but by mistake."

It’s almost 11:30, and our time is up, but before ringing off, Conway reassures me, "I’ll call you again at 11:30 to make sure that I’ve called you to talk to you."

Tim Conway & Harvey Korman: Together Again comes to the Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont Street in the Theater District, this Saturday, April 9, at 5 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $35 to $65; call (800) 447-7400, or visit www.telecharge.com, or drop in to the Wang box office.