Today on another encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we speak to guest Kelly Conway daughter of comedy legend Tim Conway. This episode is equal parts fun and funny as well as difficult and heavy as Kelly tells us about the wonderful early years with her father as well as the end-of-life care battle that she had to endure in his later years. It’s the stuff you won’t soon forget.
We discuss her father’s career in comedy, beginning in Cleveland with comedian/voice over actor (and sometimes television horror show host) Ernie Anderson. Moreover, we were blown away to learn that Tim Conway was nominated for a whopping 13 Emmy awards. But through it all, Tim Conway was a fantastic father who made family life a priority with silliness and games and is the focus of Conway’s biography, My Dad is Funnier Than Your Dad.
We discuss her father’s connections to Carol Burnett, Steve and Eydie, Bob Newhart, Mike Connors, which were both personal as well as professional. Kelly also doesn’t shy away from the dark chapter in the Conway story as the elder Conway became less able to take care of himself. We hear stories about how he was cared for by his second wife and her daughter that is one of the most difficult interviews we have ever done. Somehow Kelly is able to guide us on a journey that had us laughing one minute and on the verge of tears the next. Through it all, Kelly is warm, self-effacing and brutally honest about her father, whom she loved dearly. Take a listen to this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast and keep the Kleenex handy.
Tim Conway was so loved by so many people, myself included. He was so genuine while he was spinning all those ad-lib yarns on Carol Burnett’s show, and to this day I just love revisiting some of those routines on YouTube. In fact, he seemed genuine all the time, and he made me smile all the time. I am sorry the end of his life was so overwhelming for his family when it didn’t have to be.