Snohomish County entertainment
The brothers Smothers coming to Monroe fair

By Diane Wright
Times Snohomish County bureau

Thirty-five years after their TV show was canceled, Tom, left, and Dick Smothers continue to hit it big in live performances. They did 134 shows together last year.

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A hint: It likely wasn't Dick.

"She would never admit it publicly, but she probably liked me best," Tom said of Mother Smothers.

The man who parlayed "Mom always liked you best" had a secret even he didn't know: a learning disability.

"I played the victim all my life, even as a child," Tom Smothers said. "I was majorly dyslexic. Dick and I went to a lot of different schools, and I'd be discovered slow in academic things. I'd say, 'I'll show you dumb.' I embraced it."

The Smothers Brothers will perform their comedy act at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Evergreen State Fair, complete with Tom's "Yo-Yo Man" act, demonstrating his considerable skill with yo-yos.

The act, intact since 1959, is a zany combination of music (Tom on guitar, Dick on bass), brotherly tirades and fractured folk songs ("Boil the Cabbage Down").

Though their TV series, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," ran only from 1967 to 1969, the brothers were part of the classic age of recorded comedy albums, and they've been a continual hit in live performances. Last year, they did 134 shows, 10 of them with symphony orchestras. A benefit gala they did with the Boston Pops earned the orchestra $800,000.

Show information The Smothers Brothers will perform at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Evergreen State Fair grandstand. Tickets are $20 for preferred chair seating (with seat backs), $15 for reserved grandstand seats. Both prices include fair admission. Concert-only passes ($15 preferred, $10 grandstand reserved) also are available. On Monday, people 62 and over will be admitted free to the fair. Tickets to the Smothers Brothers are available at Ticketmaster outlets and at the fair box offices from noon to 6 p.m. today and from noon to 8 p.m. tomorrow through Monday. Information: www.evergreenfair.org or 425-388-3200.

Tom is 67 to Dick's 65, but "most people see the act and assume my brother's the oldest," Tom Smothers said. "He's the authoritarian and tries to keep us in line."

There's comedy history in that. Often it was the comic doofus who masterminded the act.

"Our longevity is based on what we do best," Tom Smothers said. "We watched Laurel and Hardy and Abbot and Costello, and noticed the straight man did most of the talking."

On their albums, it was Tom doing most of the talking.

"Now it's 70-30, weighted toward Dickie," he said. "The straight man's qualities determine if you succeed."

And Tom said he's learned a lot from his brother.

Tom Smothers is an avid golfer and helps run a wine operation, Remick Ridge Vineyards and Smothers Winery in Kenwood, Calif.

"[But] I'm a one-trick pony," he said. "I think about [the act] all the time. My brother — I learned about living life from him — golf, sailing, winemaking, food."

Tom was the spokesman when the brothers were fired by CBS for their satiric barbs at the Johnson and Nixon administrations' handling of the Vietnam War.

"When we were first fired, and I was so passionate, I was handling all the questions. They'd ask, 'Hey Dick, how do you feel about your brother trying to save the world?' "

Being siblings and professional partners required so much togetherness that there was a period about six years ago when they were hardly talking to each other. Believe it or not, they went to a couples counselor.

"It was a man and a woman, and we spent 18 hours with them, and they cut right through it," Tom Smothers said.

He now referees sibling dramas in his own home.

"I've got an 11-year-old boy and 8-year-old girl, and all they do is go at it," he said.

He also has a son, Tom, now in his 30s, from a previous marriage.

Though the Smothers show is a family act — complete with a film clip of the Smothers' home movies and their television show — even today, satirical humor creeps in.

"We're in a terrible time. We're walking a thin line," Tom Smothers said. "It's hard to get those kind of satirical observations that transcend partisanship.

"When Lyndon Johnson was president, we skewered him all the time on the war. When he said he wasn't going to run again, he did a wonderful speech for [Hubert] Humphrey about being a Democrat.

"I wrote him a letter [that said]: 'I sure enjoyed your speech. I had thought I was against you in the war.' He wrote me back."

Johnson's letter read: "To be genuinely funny at a time when the world is in crisis would tax the talents of a genius; to be consistently fair when the standards of fair play are constantly questioned demands the wisdom of a saint. It's the part of the price of leadership of this great and a free nation to be the target of clever satirists. You have given the gift of laughter to our people. May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives."

"I admire dissenters," Smothers said. "Dick and I play it softer, but it's still satire."

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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