What’s So Funny?

By Tim Conway with Jane Scovell - Read by Dick Hill - © Brilliance Audio 2013

There are people out there that seem to be born to make us laugh. The late Tim Conway (1933-2019) was one of them. Maybe it was in his genes, maybe it was his quirky upbringing (mom Sophia was Romanian and father Dan an Irishman), maybe it was something in the water in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, from whence he hails. But one way or another, from the moment he said his first words, Conway lived every minute of his 85 years with one intent - to keep us mere mortals in stitches.

And he does just that via narrator Dick Hill throughout his 2013 New York Times bestselling autobiography What’s So Funny?: My Hilarious Life. The hilarity begins in Chagrin with eccentric Dan and Sophia, spills over into his years in the military, careens into his early days in radio and television, and culminates in the roles we know him from so well: Ensign Pulver, the Oldest Man, Mr. Tudball, half of the Apple Dumpling Gang, Dorf, and court jester to queen of comedy Carol Burnett and her court

With friends like Burnett, Ernest Borgnine, Harvey Korman, Don Knotts, Bob Newhart, Dick Van Dyke, Vicki Lawrence, and Betty White, it would be impossible not to have a book filled with incredible stories and lots of laughs! Conway’s love and respect for his fellow comedians, especially Burtnett, flows off every page and Burnett returns the affection with a heartwarming foreword to the book. Make sure to have YouTube at the ready, What’s So Funny will have you itching to revisit the classic scenes and skits and shows Conway and friends turned into classics.

Conway’s life was a happy one and his book is a refreshing read in our career-comes-first, success at all costs, Tik-Tok celebrity culture. Throughout his sixty years in show biz, Conway was always just happy to be working. And whether he was accepting one of his six Emmy awards, clowning with Korman, playing bad golf with shoes around his knees, or donning gorilla costumes to entertain his seven children, the man I saw Bob Newhart eulogize as “the greatest physical comedian in history” always stuck to his first ambition in life - simply to keep his audience laughing.

We’re still laughing. So, to answer the question in your title, Tim - What’s So Funny? You. Still.