Bob Newhart, the stammering, dry comic who died Thursday at the age of 94, only went into comedy because as an accountant, he kept having to use his own money to balance the petty cash fund at his company.
“I was never a certified public accountant,” he acknowledged. “I just had a degree in accounting. The reason I was never a certified public accountant was because it would require passing a test, which I would not have been able to do.”
Restless, Bob and a friend began doing comedy bits for Chicago radio stations in their spare time. The unsuccessful venture ended when Bob’s friend at the company took another job in New York. Undeterred, Bob took a shot at solo bits, especially using a telephone as a prop.
The most iconic was his supposed conversation with Abraham Lincoln, with Bob playing the 16th president’s agent.
“Hi there, Abe, sweetheart,” he begins. “How’s Gettysburg?” “Sort of a drag, huh? You know those small Pennsylvania towns, they’re sort of a drag.”
Newhart’s signature sitcom shows, Newhart and The Bob Newhart Show, were highly rated and continue to run in reruns.
Pushed to make his comedy more hip and edgy, even encouraged to add in off color material, Bob refused.
“There were times along the way over 50 years — mostly in the 70s — when there was the temptation to maybe get a little bluer in my standup act,” he told the Catholic group, Legatus. “It just never felt comfortable. It was like a sweater that never felt right, you know?”
He added:
“Being a comedian, I have a lot of Jewish friends, and they always talk about the Jewish religion,” Newhart said. “I thought, one day, ‘You know it’s kind of funny growing up Catholic.’ So I do a whole thing on being Catholic and it’s been very well received — especially if you get a bunch of Catholics together.”
Bob was always his own man. Told to speed up his delivery, he refused. “If I lose the stammer, I’m just another slightly amusing accountant.”
The comedian Buddy Hackett introduced Bob to his wife, Ginnie. They were married for 60 years, raised four children and had ten grandchildren.
“I’m most proud of the longevity of my marriage, my kids, and my grandchildren,” he said. “If you don’t have that, you really don’t have very much … You can be the richest man in the world and look back at your marriages that were disasters and what have you really accomplished? That’s the way I look at life.”
Not surprisingly, Bob Newhart also stressed the need to laugh, echoing King Solomon, who taught, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22).
“People with a sense of humor tend to be less egocentric and more realistic in their view of the world,” he said. “And more humble in moments of success and less defeated in times of travail.”
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