How the kindness of strangers got Carol Burnett into showbiz

Q53:59Carol Burnett

At 90-years-old, Carol Burnett is one of the most influential comedians of all time. Her comedy chops and creativity made her a TV icon, but it was the generosity of strangers that gave her a leg up when she needed it. 

In 1954, a San Diego businessman saw her perform a musical comedy skit at a party. He enjoyed the performance so much that he gave her $1,000 — the equivalent of $11,000 today — to leave L.A. for New York to try and make it on Broadway. 

"He said, 'I'm lending it to you, hoping that if you do make it, you pay me back, no interest,'" she tells Q's Tom Power. "'Other stipulations are: you must never reveal my name. You must use the money to go to New York on. And if you're successful, you must help others out.'"

Burnett kept all her promises. She went to New York and performed on Broadway. She made 276 episodes of The Carol Burnett Show. She has guest-starred in Better Call Saul and Glee. She has won seven Emmys and six Golden Globes. 

Most importantly, she inspired many women to get into comedy, such as Kristen Wiig. The Bridesmaids comedian now co-stars with Burnett in Palm Royale, a mini-series about an outsider trying to break into Palm Beach high society. 

But Burnett never intended to perform. It was only because of another earlier act of kindness that she got into comedy.

Burnett originally wanted to study journalism at UCLA. The tuition at the time, in 1951, was $43. But her family could barely afford the $30-a-month rent on their one-room apartment in Hollywood. Burnett didn't even have her own bed; she slept on the couch. They couldn't afford to pay for her to go to school.

One day, Burnett went to check the mail and found an envelope with her name typed on it and a $50 bill inside. 

"That was my ticket to UCLA," she says. "To this day, Tom, I don't know where that came from … Everybody in the neighbourhood was poor."

Burnett took the kind stranger's money and enrolled at UCLA. She discovered that they didn't offer journalism as a major, so she switched into theatre arts.

Burnett didn't even think of herself as a performer or a comedian. It only clicked in her compulsory acting class, when her classmates laughed at her comedic impersonation of a hillbilly. 

"I thought, 'This is kind of a good feeling,'" she says. So she started doing comedy. 

Fast forward to August 1954, when Burnett arrived in New York, thanks to the money that San Diego businessman gave her. She arrived on a rainy August night and burst into tears in her hotel room. She wasn't sure she could make it here. 

But then, Burnett received a sign.

"I turned on the radio in the hotel room, and it said — swear to God — 'Hurricane Carol is landing in New York,'" she says. 

Burnett suddenly remembered she knew one girl from UCLA who had moved to New York. She called her up and found out that the woman was staying at the Rehearsal Club, a boarding house for aspiring actresses. 

When Burnett arrived, they had one spot left. She slept on a cot in a room with four other girls.

"I was thrilled," she says. "I had never slept in a bed. I'd always slept on a couch."

From there, Burnett made her own breaks. She put on variety shows with the other women in the Rehearsal Club. She became a regular on The Garry Moore Show. She then created and became a bonafide superstar on The Carol Burnett Show. 

"I was never not optimistic," she says. "I think being that naive is what helped me."

The full interview with Carol Burnett is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power and YouTube channel. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Carol Burnett produced by Vanessa Greco