Skelton - '-5 Red Skelton UJ 1 more Warbucks By CAROL HASKIN Staff Writer Lansing has changed a lot since 1931 and three-shows-a-day vaudeville, so Red Skelton showed up a few days early to refresh his memory. "I go around meeting people, to get the feel of the place," Skelton said, ensconced in a Hilton suite since Saturday evening. "The cadence here differs from the cadence 30 miles from here. There are only two cities that are almost alike New York and Boston. There they ask you questions and answer them themselves." SKELTOIVS research is in preparation for his Wednesday night Civic Center appearance, marking the first time he's played Lansing in 48 years. On Monday morning, dressed in an immaculately-tailored three-piece suit ("My wife raises thoroughbreds and quarter horses and I walk around the barn like this," he said), chewing his . expensive cigar, Skelton looked more like Daddy Warbucks than Clem KadiddlehoDoer. The cigar, one of his trademarks, is never smoked, but Skelton is known to chew through about 20 of them a day. "IN BURLESQUE I carried a comcob pipe," he explained. "Then I used a rubber cigar. They asked me why didn't I use a real one so I did. You know, when you get mad, all your energy goes out through your fingertips... I hold onto the cigar and at times when I have to think harder than I should, the energy goes back into my body." At 65 (he'll be 66 in July), Skelton has been performing comedy for 55 years, first in medicine shows when he was a youngster and later as the country's most successful television comedian. So the creator of Gertrude and Heathcliffe, Freddie (There's only one thing worse than not having a job, and that's having one...') the Freeloader, Cauliflower McPugg, San Fernando Red, Junior the mean widdle kid, George Appleby and Boliver Shadnas- than Kadiddlehopper ty, knows a thing or two about comedy. WHEN YOUNG comedians ask for advice, he tells them: change material often. He warned Flip Wilson not to do Geraldine every week, and told Shields and Yarnell they were killing their mechanical dolls routine with overplay. He avoided this pitfall himself by developing his large stable of characters, so each was on only a few times a year, he said. Most of the comedy he sees today he doesn't like. Young comedians such as Steve Martin, David Brenner and Richard Pryor rely too heavily on vulgarity and not enough on wit, he said. "They shock people into what they think is laughter," Skelton said. "I'D RATHER walk out and have them say, 'God, Skelton's hokey as hell,' than have them say, 'That comedian with the dirty jokes what's his name?' They'll forget you." The infamous "blue rehearsal" or "Red Skelton Dirty Hour," Skelton said, was not so named for vulgar ma terial used while cameras were off, but because "we played tricks on the actors, so people got the impression it was off-color." In fact, Skelton said, he eventually left television because he refused to incorporate off-color material into his program. "THEY ASKED me, 'Would you spice up your material?' And I asked, 'What for?'" he said. '"We want to educate people for the films we bought.'" He sees television as a misuse of power and misrepresentation of truth. "Television is one of the greatest potentials, but if they don't watch it will be the first medium to die in its infancy," he said. "It is selling violence and fear. If in 30 seconds it can sell products subliminally, what will an hour do to your mind? "I'VE BEEN in town two days and I've heard no sirens, seen no shootings or rapes, but on TV I've seen about seven of them," he said. Skelton is a veteran of 20 consecu tive years on television, and winner of three Emmy Awards. Before that he was on radio for 15 years, following years of performing in tent shows, minstrel shows, on a showboat, in a circus, m.c.-ing walkathon contests, in burlesque, vaudeville, on Broadway and in films. Today's "innovative" comedy, he said, is nothing new. "The most they can do is rehash something do something that's been done over and over again," Skelton said. "Comedy never changes." THE PRATFALLS Robin (Mork) Williams gets such laughs with have been a Skelton specialty since before Williams was born. ' In the line of duty Skelton has broken both legs, one arm, and several ribs. He came up with a "smash" ending for his show having stagehands behind the curtain pull his feet out from under him, causing him to crash forward. Eventually this ending resulted in internal damage and required Concluded on A-3 "