Carol Burnett says she still feels ‘like I’m about 11’ as she prepares to turn 90

Carol Burnett confessed that she “can’t get over it” that she will be celebrating her 90th birthday this month.

The comedy icon was on the cover this week People and told the magazine, “I still feel like I’m about 11, but I’m amazed. It certainly happened quickly.’

She joked, “But I’m happy because I’ve got all my parts — got my hips, I’ve got my knees and I’ve got my brains, so I’m happy with that.”

On her birthday, April 26, NBC will air a pre-recorded star-studded retrospective in her honor called Carol Burnett: 90 years of laughter + love.

In her new interview, Carol, who has been a star since her Broadway debut in 1959, looked back at the origins of her career.

Born in San Antonio, she grew up in Los Angeles, where she “pretended to be on a radio show” and impersonated an announcer.

I yelled out the window, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got a young girl who’s going to sing here without any musical accompaniment,” she recalled.

“A neighbor once said, ‘Do you want to turn that damn thing off?’ And I thought, “I’m a hit. They think it’s real.”

Unlike “so many artists who started when they were 3 and 4 and 5 years old,” she didn’t discover her talent until college, making her a “late bloomer.”

Carol recalled, “I was pretty much a quiet student through gymnasium, high school, and Hollywood High. I joked with my friends, the neighborhood kids, things like that. But I never really thought about it until I went to UCLA and I was in an acting class,” she admitted.

“Many of the kids in the class were doing heavy, dramatic things and I thought, I can’t do that. So I chose something light and they laughed. That’s when the bug bit.’

Over the course of her long and illustrious career, her most celebrated performance has been her 11 years as the star of the groundbreaking sketch program The Carol Burnett Show.

But when she first started making her bones in the entertainment industry, TV wasn’t particularly receptive at first.

“It was a local TV show in New York and I got up and sang a song and the emcee I was auditioning for said, ‘You’re too loud for television.’ I didn’t agree,” said the titan of theater and film.

She eventually found her way to fame on stage, landing her role as a star in the 1959 Broadway musical Once Upon A Mattress.

Based on The Princess And The Pea, the show featured music by Mary Rodgers – daughter of The Sound Of Music composer Richard Rodgers – and catapulted Carol to show business fame.

From her beloved run on The Carol Burnett Show to her stealing scenes in movies like Annie, she established herself as a superstar and then a national treasure.

She hopes to be remembered for the fact that ‘I made people laugh, made them feel good when they might be down. In my fan mail, many say that was the only time the family got together to watch and laugh. And that they were sometimes a bit lonely and were cheered up by our show. That’s a good feeling.’

Carol Burnett: 90 Years Of Laughter + Love features a glittering array of celebrities ranging from Amy Adams to Ellen DeGeneres to Bill Hader.

Some of the comedy actresses who succeeded Carol as TV stars will also be in effect, including Lisa Kudrow, Sofia Vergara and Tracee Ellis Ross.

Cher and Lily Tomlin, who both appeared on The Carol Burnett Show, and Aileen Quinn, who played the title role in Annie, are also part of the retrospective.

Some of the names that succeeded Carol in TV sketch comedy are also included, such as Saturday Night Live alumnae Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Amy Poehler.

Filming for the special took place a month ago, preceded by a red carpet where Carol basked in the adoration of her co-stars and socialized with her friend Julie Andrews, whom she’s been friends with for over half a century.

The long-standing personal and professional bond between Julie and Carol, including a 1962 concert at Carnegie Hall that was taped for TV, will be highlighted in the new special.

One of the musical performances on Thursday’s recordings is Stephen Sondheim’s song Old Friends from the 1981 musical Merrily We Roll Along.

Musical artists aplenty will bring their talents to the performance, from pop act Katy Perry to Broadway legend Bernadette Peters to POSE’s Billy Porter.

While the upcoming NBC special will, of course, cover the pinnacle of her career during her 11 seasons fronting The Carol Burnett Show, it will also highlight some of her less well-remembered projects, such as the Pete ‘N’ Tillie movie.

The ceremony will feature showbiz stars such as Marisa Tomei, Steve Carrell, Laura Dern, Taraji P. Henson, Allison Janney and Bill Hader.

The musical performances will reportedly include a rendition of I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together, the theme song of The Carol Burnett Show during its 11 years on the air.