A Comedian Who Knows No Routine

Early in my career, I would have done anything. But at a certain time, I did lose my sitcom ambitions. I auditioned for one and I realized, this'll never happen, and I went out on the road with my act. I knew I would never get the part. It's all in the book -- a sitcom called "Fireman's Ball." No relation to the Czech comedy film of the same title. This was an American sitcom about some funny firemen.

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I'm not up on the current state of comedy that much. I don't watch sitcoms, so I don't really know where that's at. Rarely do I watch a show on television, so I don't know what the real state of it is. I listen to old stuff on the radio -- XM or Sirius or something.

I do love Larry David's show. I couldn't watch it this season, so I TiVoed it and I'll watch it when I'm on vacation.

Was turning 60 at all traumatic for you -- more than turning 30, 40 or 50?

Yeah, a little bit. There's no kidding yourself when you turn 60. It's worse than the others. You start to see the dark at the end of the tunnel. But everyone I talk to says, 'Yeah, you do that for a couple years and then you completely forget about it.' "

Do you worry about "things not done" that you wish you had?

I don't think about that. But I do want to do something with the banjo. I don't know what yet -- make a record or something. Might play a couple of songs and then just present the banjo on a record the way I like to hear it. I've been playing it for 40 years and I like it, I really like it. I find it exhilarating and actually melancholy, too.

You're on a kind of award-collecting bender, but one award has eluded you. Do you long to win an Oscar?

I gave up on that a long time ago. The academy doesn't give awards to comedians. It took me a long time to [realize]: Oh yeah, I see, yeah. It's sort of a dream that I think every actor has, but I realized it's not really what I do, acting. I do it incidentally.

I'm very excited about the Kennedy Center, frankly. I've had some kind of endurance. I'm proud of certain moments in my work -- a joke here or there -- but I'm also proud that I'm just still around. That's why the Kennedy Center is a real nice validation, a way of saying: You're still around.