Delight creeps in. Like watching Agnes Moorehead
devour every single moment of screen time she has
in The Magnificent Ambersons. Or watching
Carol Burnett, Vicki Lawrence and Dick Van Dyke
initially feign attempts to stifle laughter (and hence
‘break character’) by bowing their heads as if in
prayer, and then each literally lose it, while
Tim Conway (Tim Conway’s ‘character’)
conveys in earnest (ever so slowly so as to
accommodate audience laughter) a story
about an elephant who was rumored to have
fallen in love with its trainer, who happened
to be a ‘dwarf.’ The pair come to a tragic
end during a purported sexual act (the
elephant has to be shot). They were
buried together. Then, another long
pause for audience laughter and
camera concentration upon the
rapt trio who’ve been attempting
to exhibit restraint (and therefore
‘character’), but who are each
beginning to fail, to succumb
to their own (non-‘character’)
senses of humor, to Tim
Conway’s deadpan delivery
of a silly story full of false
endings (each one a punch
line). After which Conway
begins another story, this one
about two circus elephants
who were Siamese twins—
they were attached by their
trunks. When one of them
would sneeze.....
After the movie, Curran
mentions that it is rumored
that Moorehead had a long fling
with Debbie Reynolds.
I’m feeling a bit vulnerable today. Heartsunk.
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