Elevating Sibling Rivalry to a Comedic Art Form
The
family that plays together stays together, isn’t that how the old
saying goes? Nobody proves it better than the Smothers Brothers, who have
been playing their brand of folk music, liberally salted with comedic
banter between the two, for some 40 years now. And after all that time
they’re still going strong! Not many comedy duos, if any, can stake
claim to that kind of longevity. Come to think of it, not even many marriages
can make that claim these days.
“Whenever someone asks…‘how did you guys stay together
for so long?’ we say… ‘It’s like a very old marriage,
a lot of fighting and no sex’,” jokes bass playing brother and
straightman of the duo, Dick Smothers. “There’s no divorces
in this marriage! Though, we could have separated, you know, we didn’t
promise mom.”
When Tommy originally talked younger brother Dick
into joining him in the folk trio, performing was just going to be something
they’d do for a short time while they were attending college…
a way of having a little fun. But when a friend, who was in a band, talked
the two brothers into auditioning for a small club in San Francisco, called
the Purple Onion, they soon found themselves opening for comedienne
Phyllis Diller.
They honed their act at the Purple Onion and as they got better and
better other doors would open for them. In time TV beckoned with an offer
from CBS to do a sitcom. Although this would not be a success for the
talented duo it did lead to the show that would become a TV legend —
‘The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.’
“But there were so many memorable experiences,” adds Dick,
as he continues to reflect back on a career that has spanned some four
decades in show business. “And, every experience was necessary to
get to the following memorable experience… Being a regular on the
Steve Allen Show. That’s the thing that just cemented it for us.
It made the records go and the whole rest of our careers go. …And,
working the Hollywood Bowl when we were really hot as a duet. Just two
kids, with an acoustic guitar and bass, on this huge stage that held symphonies,
and a lake between us and the audience …there were 15,000 people.
And it was scary, and at the same time exhilarating, tremendous. It was
all just a really nice ride,” says Dick Smothers as he sums up.
Nice Ride… isn’t that the perfect way to describe the careers
of these kings of comedy, of the sibling rivalry variety? For who can
get through a long trip, in the family car, without having it bring out
a bit of sibling rivalry in even the closest of brothers? All I can say,
to both of mother Smothers’ exceptionally talented sons, is…
thanks for all the laughs along the way and for inviting us along for
the ride!
The Smothers Brother’s best of CD, ‘Sibling
Rivalry’ is available from Smothers Winery
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Tommy’s
talent for comedy was first showcased on-stage when he, brother Dick,
and a college friend Bobby Blackmore formed a folk trio. Realizing that
performing folk music was more than just playing a tune, waiting for the
audience to finish applauding, and playing another tune, Tommy started
interjecting stories between the trios musical numbers. The only problem
was they weren’t necessarily true. “Tommy started making up
these little stories… these lies, these terrible lies about the songs.
He did it in a very insecure manner,” recalls Dick of their earliest
days performing while still attending San Jose State. Tommy’s on-stage
persona was similar to Woody Allen’s early stand-up persona. “Woody
looked like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world but on that
stage,” relates Dick. “Well Tommy had the ability to create
this character that people felt so sorry for. Sorry that someone that
inept and that confused would be on-stage trying to do something he had
no talent for. That came very early for Tom and that just got integrated
into the show. As a trio there was no brother relationship,” says
Dick Smothers of those early days. Then Bobby Blackmore left the trio
and got married. “Tommy’s patter was already pretty funny by
then,” confides Dick. “I slowly… and I tell you it took
me a long time… I slowly started interjecting… ‘Shut up,’
‘No,’ ‘Stupid,’ ‘That’s not right’
…just little things and then we developed our relationship.”
