ENTERTAINMENT

Bob Newhart comes to Mayo PAC

BILL NUTT
CORRESPONDENT

Bob Newhart wants to make a point: His current live appearances should not be considered a “return” to stand-up comedy.

“I never quit stand-up,” he says. “Whenever my TV shows were on hiatus, I would do stand-up. I played most of the hotels in Las Vegas. I never stopped doing it.”

Even during the TV season — notably during filming of “The Bob Newhart Show” from 1972 to 1978 and “Newhart” from 1982 to 1990 — he kept his hand in stand-up. “I’d do a few minutes to warm up the audience,” he says. “It was important to me.”

Newhart, recipient of the 2002 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, will bring his routine to the Mayo Performing Arts Center on Saturday.

“A lot of what I do (are) observations of the crazy world we inhabit,” he says. “You have to laugh, or you don’t make it out in one piece. Laughter is a survival kit.”

Newhart adds that he occasionally reprises some of his vintage routines. That includes the one-sided telephone conversations prominently featured on his 1960 LP “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart.”

That album showcased Newhart’s deadpan delivery, his skillful way with pauses, and his gentle satire. Routines like “Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue” and “Driving Instructor” established his reputation.

“The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” went on to become a best-seller and win the Grammy for Album of the Year. Even more notably, Newhart won the Grammy for best new artist; he remains the only comedian to receive that award.

Newhart heralded a new generation of comics. Other talents who emerged in that late 1950s/early 1960s era were Mort Sahl, Tom Lehrer, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Lenny Bruce and Shelley Berman.

These comedians were far removed from the nonstop joke-tellers who had dominated stand-up. Part of the difference was derived from assumptions about the audience, according to Newhart.

“Lines like ‘Take my wife, please’ had no relevance to our audiences, many of whom were college students,” Newhart says. “I assumed an audience was intelligent enough to know who Abe Lincoln was and would laugh about it.”

Newhart adds that he was not the first to employ the telephone.

“It’s been a prop for comedy for a long time. Mike (Nichols) and Elaine (May) would use the telephone, but they would do both sides of the conversation,” he says.

“The thing about the telephone is that audience does most of the work,” Newhart says. “Based on my response, they have to supply the other end of the conversation.”

In September 1961, Newhart headlined a network variety series.

“It was painful,” he now says. “They had these sketches, and I wasn’t good in them. They were the kind of thing that Harvey Korman and Tim Conway were so good at.”

A decade later, however, Newhart found his calling as Dr. Bob Hartley, the protagonist of “The Bob Newhart Show.”

Originally, the character was pitched as a psychiatrist.

“But psychiatrists deal with severely damaged people,” Newhart says. “I suggested making him a psychologist. Bob was very good at listening.”

Though the later “Newhart” series actually ran longer, “The Bob Newhart Show” regularly appears on lists of all-time favorite TV series.

“It came together because we had extremely good writing and a great cast,” he says.

He was especially fond of the late Suzanne Pleshette, who played his wife Emily.

“When I did ‘Newhart,’ I told Mary Frann (who co-starred on that series) she had the most thankless job in the world,” he says. “I had a special chemistry with Suzy.”

At age 86, Newhart has no plans to forsake performing entirely.

“There’s a gravitas from having done it for 55 years,” he says. “People will stop me and say, ‘Thank you for all the laughter.’ All I can say is that it’s been my pleasure.”

BOB NEWHART

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Mayo Performing Arts Center, 100 South St., Morristown

TICKETS: $49 to $99

INFO: 973-539-8008 or www.mayoarts.org