Carol Burnett: What a character

She got laughs just by looking at the stagehand who put on mike on her. She made a 40-minute Q&A fly by in about 15 seconds with funny and fond memories of "The Carol Burnett Show," her time in the hot seat on game shows, how she never really cared for her famous charwoman character and how all she really wanted to be when she grew up was Mary Martin or Ethel Merman.

Carol Burnett turned all of her natural charm at the Paley Center for Media on Thursday night at the premiere screening of the "American Masters" docu "Carol Burnett: A Woman of Character." On hand in the aud for the Q&A by yours truly and screening were "Burnett Show" alums Tim Conway and Harvey Korman, Phyliss Diller, Jon Cryer, Carl Reiner, Burnett couture-ist Bob Mackie and Kyra Thompson, producer of the spesh.

Thompson (pictured above with Burnett) noted that one of the most eye-opening aspects of researching the Burnett docu was just how much physical comedy she'd done over the years, and how it made her stand out among femme actresses. Thompson also described how excited she got when she laid her hands on a clip of the very first physical stunt Burnett did, as part of the Garry Moore variety show in the late 1950s. "Woman of Character" bows Nov. 5.

(Pics by Kevin Parry/Paley Center. Forgive the self-indulgence with the pic at right.)