Joking Gracefully

The stammered, oh-so-polite, made-up telephone conversations. The wry, deadpan, gently satirical delivery. Comedian Bob Newhart is the guy you wanted to be your uncle, the funny one who cracks up the dinner table at Thanksgiving. At 79, Newhart has become the sort of entertainer pretentious people call "a national treasure." For a generation of adolescent wannabe class clowns growing up in the '70s watching him play psychologist Bob Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show, he was more than that. He was a reason for hope--as in, you hope women are serious when they say they like men with a sense of humor. If a droll little balding guy like Newhart could be paired opposite smoking dark-haired hottie Suzanne Pleshette--even if only on a sitcom--then maybe the jocks didn't get all the girls. (In reality, they did, of course, either because the girls were lying about that sense of humor, or because not every wiseass reaches the level of national treasure, despite what he might think.) Newhart will be picking up the phone Saturday at Bass Performance Hall, 4th and Calhoun Streets in Fort Worth. The show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $43 to $73. Call 1-877-212-4280 or visit basshall.com.
Sat., April 11, 8 p.m., 2009