Oct 20, 2006 By Cindy Ekas-Brown 5 min read

Dick Smothers can’t wait to bring his half-century-old music and comedy act to Uniontown because he loves little vaudeville theaters that were built in small towns across America. He also enjoys the positive response and the connection that the Smothers Brothers always seem to make with enthusiastic small-town fans.

Dick and his brother Tommy, stars of the controversial “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” in the 1960s, will perform at the State Theatre Center for the Arts in Uniontown at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22. This is their only scheduled appearance in Pennsylvania until March 2007 in Lancaster.

“We’re generally strong in the smaller towns,” Dick Smothers said during a recent telephone interview from his hotel room in Monterey, Calif. “We just performed at a little vaudeville theater in Santa Rosa, Calif., built in 1926. There was a huge theater-building era in the 1920s before the stock market crashed.

“Small towns (like Uniontown) invest a lot of money in their theaters,” he added. “We would have a hard time replacing those theaters. It’s really the meat and potatoes of a lot of acts, like ours.”

Dick, who is 67 years old, said many older performers don’t feel comfortable in the larger venues and stadiums.

“But you do feel the connection in the smaller towns,” he said. “There is a connection with a sense of community in the smaller towns. I grew up in the L.A. area, and you just get lost in the big cities.”

The brothers started their act in the late 1950s in San Francisco, Calif.

“It wasn’t really a plan to drop out of college and start an act. It just sort of happened and grew, and now we’re five or six decades down the road,” Dick said. “You keep doing it…. I have no idea what I would be doing without performing.”

Although the Smothers Brothers have changed their routine over the years, it’s basically the same act. Most of their routine is built around physical comedy.

“Our act has totally evolved, just like we have as individuals,” Dick said. “We are living life and learning from our experiences. Hopefully, we get wiser. Whatever we have gotten out of life is incorporated into the show.

“It’s mostly music and conversation. Music is more of a framework for our comedy act,” he added. “It’s an ongoing discussion of disagreement, conflict and life. ‘Mom liked you best’ is the subtext of the show.”

Audience members in Uniontown can expect to see the “Yo Yo Man,” who always gets special billing at the shows, Dick said.

“Tommy made the ‘Yo Yo Man’ famous in the 1980s,” Dick said. “We are just gracefully aging brothers who are singing and arguing and throwing in a few laughs. We are there to make people laugh.”

The brothers are known for bucking television censors and making political jokes in the 1960s when TV executives eventually fired them over it. In the current show, Dick said they try not to dwell on politics.

“It gets a little sad if we focus too much on politics because what’s going on in this country right now is sad,” he said. “We elude to politics enough in the show that we get some laughs.”

The brothers are proud that their show is very clean, and they don’t rely on dirty jokes to make the audience laugh.

“It’s never been a show you couldn’t take your kids to see,” Dick said. “Our show is so clean that it really stands out from other comedy acts. The humor is in the thought and the message.”

Dick said he is concerned about the future because many schools are stripping music, art and theater education away from students.

“I don’t like the direction this country is taking, and I’m afraid it’s going to turn into ‘The Jerry Springer Show.’ I wish we could go back to the days of performers like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland,” he said. “What’s going to be happening in the future in this country if we keep going down this road?”

The brothers focus on maintaining a healthy lifestyle and exercising on a daily basis even though they spend a lot of time on the road.

“You just have to make an effort to live a healthy lifestyle,” Dick said. “We don’t like to go out and party like I did when we were kids. We walk and do yoga and if there is a little fitness center at the hotel, we go there and exercise. I eat mostly vegetables. I don’t smoke. I haven’t had a drink in 13 years. I’m having more fun as a sober and healthy adult than I ever had when I was young.”

Dick said he hopes that their fans appreciate the effort they make to stay healthy.

“We just do what we do, and we love performing,” he said. “The audiences are so gracious, and it’s an honor to have them see our show. We won’t make them feel old and tired by showing up on stage as two old fat guys.”

As he ages, Dick said he becomes more spiritual and tries to pass his wisdom along.

“I think it’s important to turn spiritual as you get older and to pass along some wisdom,” he said. “Kids go to their grandparents for wisdom because they have more life experience and they have made more mistakes. You’re not born with wisdom, and you don’t learn it in school. But hopefully, you do acquire some wisdom as you age.”

For tickets, call the State Theatre box office at 724-439-1360. The box office is open Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit the Smothers Brothers Web site at www.smothersbrothers.com.