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Chatting with Carol Burnett 1

By Michael Barnes | Monday, January 5, 2009, 10:06 AM

Carol Burnett can sing. Carol Burnett can dance. Carol Burnett can act.

Yet one thing Carol Burnett can do better than almost anyone else — talk, at length, impromptu and before a vast audience.

Whenever her bang-framed eyes ignite and her rubbery lips quiver, Burnett can engage anyone — fan, interviewer, colleague — with the conversational fluidity of a swan, the goofy grace of a classic comedian.

That’s when it sinks in. Burnett’s not just the star of a long-ago TV variety series bearing her name. She belongs up there with the most versatile and prolific comedians of the past 50 years.

Burnett no longer sings, dances or acts as often as she formerly did. She’ll take a recurring part in a sitcom, stage a reunion special, or perform in a studio or concert version of a musical. Or she’ll accept a plum role in a movie, like voicing Kangaroo in “Horton Hears a Who.”

But she still talks. A lot.

In fact, she’ll engage Austin audiences in public conversations at the Paramount Theatre on Friday and Saturday. The mass-talk format grew out of the question-and-answer sessions she portioned out to audiences in CBS’ Studio 33 during the 11-season run of “The Carol Burnett Show.”

“Let’s bump up the lights,” she’d memorably chirp before tapings, allowing fans freedom for three or four minutes to interact with the Texas-born performer however they pleased.