Carol Burnett shows she’s still on top of her game

A few minutes before the curtain rose Wednesday at the Hult Center, and an evening of “Laughter and Reflection” with the legendary Carol Burnett got underway, a wailing Tarzan yell echoed from the upper balcony of the Silva Concert Hall.

No, Burnett was not warming up beforehand. It was just a female fan showing her enthusiasm for the 90-minute show, presented by the John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts, that was about to begin for a crowd of about 1,750.

Burnett, 81, is of course best known for “The Carol Burnett Show,” which ran on CBS from 1967 to 1978 and won 25 Emmy awards. And anyone who knows anything about that show knows that Burnett, who appears at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle tonight, always opened by taking questions from the studio audience, the format she uses for her road show.

“And it became one of my favorite things that I ever did,” Burnett told the appreciative audience, in response to the first question of the night, asking if she remembered her very first show in the fall of ’67.

Burnett’s greatest quality as an entertainer (and a celebrity) is her utter lack of pretension — despite the success, fame and wealth she’s achieved over a six-decade career. It’s a career rooted in humble beginnings that included being raised in a $30-a-month Hollywood apartment by her grandmother and the deaths from alcoholism of both her parents while they were in their mid-40s.

Hanging out with her in the Hult for 90 minutes is like hanging out with the world’s coolest grandma.

“My memories of watching you are so fond,” said a woman in the crowd who really had no question but just wanted Burnett to know that when she had to make a choice a few months ago between seeing her or Bill Cosby at the Hult this year, she choose Burnett.

That segued into a Burnett story about Cosby, who once asked her: “What’s it like to be pregnant?” Cosby used her answer — “Take your lower lip; pull it out as far as you can; then pull it over your head.” — in his act, she said.

Burnett is still remarkably quick-witted, and the “conversation” moved along smoothly with the help of several classic clips from her TV show that had much of the crowd in stitches. Many of these, if not all, you can see on YouTube, but seeing the late Harvey Korman trying so hard to suppress laughter that he looks like he’s going to wee himself never gets old for “Burnett Geeks,” as one Twitter fan page calls them.

“Poor Harvey,” Burnett said. “He should have invested in Depends.”

Most of the crowd Wednesday was older than 50, all either adults when Burnett’s show was on the air or kids who remember watching it with their parents on Saturday nights.

One question from the upper balcony, however, came from a 9-year-old girl named Piper.

“How old were you when you started your show?” the girl asked.

“How old do you think I was?” Burnett said.

“I have no idea,” the girl said.

“I was 34,” Burnett said, before adding, “Nine years old? And you know who I am?”

Forty-seven years after becoming a weekly fixture in American homes, Burnett is apparently attracting some new fans.

And, yes, she did the Tarzan yell. It was the fourth question of the night.

Follow Mark on Twitter @delmont5 . Email [email protected] .