March 31-April 6, 2005

mixpicks

Mom-and-Pop Culture Reference

comedy

Harvey Korman may do the too-occasional Mel Brooks film. Tim Conway may voice Barnacle Boy from SpongeBob SquarePants and pop onto that wretched Yes, Dear show. But anyone born before 1980 — and I can hear you wheezing — knows well the talents of Conway and Korman, the gatekeepers of televised costumed comedy legend. See, television in the '60s and '70s used to be dumb. Dumber than Fox News, The Contender and The OC? No, not that heinous, but hokier. There were ribald, winking asides, pie 'n' pratfall routines and corny bow-tied crooners pulled into an act that often lampooned the currency of pop culture. Yet it always felt like their version of "pop" lasted until JFK died: The dysfunctionality of the Cold War, nuclear families, Gone with the Wind — these things were still ring-a-ding-swingingly funny to them. We know them best from The Carol Burnett Show between 1967 and 1978, where they'd laugh through each other's punchlines. Expect the same tonight as the duo reunite for a show at the Kimmel Center. Burnett, Korman and Conway's daffy routines may have given rise to more happening, more topical variety shows, but rarely were they funnier.

Tim Conway and Harvey Korman: Together Again, Thu., March 31, 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., $32.50-$87.50, Academy of Music, Broad and Locust sts., 215-893-1999, visit www.kimmelcenter.org/broadway.

—A.D. Amorosi