Cary Grant met George Burns back in his vaudeville days, when he would go on tour as an acrobat, or with stand-up comedians. He said that one of the greatest influences on him was George Burns. Cary Grant would stand backstage and study what it was that made George funny, how he did it. It was quite technical. Grant studied timing, the way laughs came, how you had to pause, etc.
Cary Grant reminisced about George and Gracie:
I watched him and Gracie ever night I could when they were at the Palace. For their opening night five of us got together and chipped in five dollars apiece and bought them twenty-five dollars’ worth of flowers, a princely sum in those days. I asked George when we should have the usher bring up the flowers, and he said, “After the third encore!” Now, that’s confidence! George is an absolute genius … timing his laughs with that cigar. He’s brilliant.”
And about that cigar. Here’s what George Burns had to say about THAT. Now … here’s the deal. He’s talking about something magical, he’s talking about TALENT … Like, any Joe Schmoe could follow George Burns’ instructions below. Sure. Sounds simple. But to have it be so funny that you basically have sell-out shows for 40 years? That can’t be taught.
What is timing? Timing is this. You’re working with somebody. When the people laugh, I smoke. When they stop laughing, I stop smoking and I ask the questions. I talk. So what’s so great about timing? If I talk while the people are laughing, they’d have to put me away. So I use the cigar. It works for me.
Love that. “It works for me.” Uh, yeah, George, I would say it did.
Cary Grant had started to get cast as “the straight man” in these vaudevillian touring acts. The “straight man” to the comic. The straight man’s job is basically to set up the jokes by asking the questions. That’s how Cary Grant studied all of these fantastically funny people.
Cary Grant had more to say about Burns.
George was a straight man, the one who would make the act work. The straight man says the plant line, such as “Who was that man I saw with?” and the comic answers it: “Oh, that was not a man, that was my uncle.” He doesn’t move while that line is said. That’s the comedy line. The laugh goes up and up in volume and cascades down. As soon as it’s getting a little quiet, the straight man talks into it, and the comic answers it. And up goes the laugh again.
George Burns read Cary Grant’s words on being a “straight man” and he had this to say:
Now, that’s one way of being a straight man. Another way is to do nothing. Gracie and I worked together for forty years. I said to Gracie, ‘How is your brother?’ And Gracie talked for forty years.
