Flip Side: Happy Not Being Funny : Television: ‘I’m a different person,’ says Wilson, the first black to host a successful variety hour.

Comedian Flip Wilson spends a lot of his time singing the blues. But that doesn’t mean he’s feeling blue. Not in the least.

In fact, when Wilson sings the blues, it probably just means he’s relaxing in the sauna of his large Malibu beachfront residence, feeling particularly good.

“Everyone in this house and the houses next door knows when I’m in the sauna because I start singing, and I sing the blues when I’m in a really good mood,” Wilson said last weekend, smiling mischievously in his sunken living room. “I have a really loud voice, you know.”

The blues come easily these days for Wilson, although there are fans and others who probably wonder whether he’s singing the blues for real. After all, Wilson is an entertainer who topped the comedy world during the late 1960s and early 1970s with his successful albums, concerts and television appearances, then opted for a lower profile after his ground-breaking variety show went off the air in 1974. Much of the news surrounding him in the following years revolved around difficulties in his personal life.

But Flip Wilson has risen above questions about the halt of momentum in his career. More important to him are his recreational and spiritual passions, which range from hot-air ballooning and long ocean cruises to studying the works of author and philosopher Kahlil Gibran. He is financially independent and greatly at peace with himself, he says.

“I tell fans who ask me why I’m not doing comedy anymore that I’m a different person,” Wilson said. “I’ve grown and I’ve matured. I’ve made a transition to where I really want to be.”

Wilson, the first African-American to host a successful TV variety hour, will take time out to look at the past when he makes a rare public appearance Friday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Leo S. Bing Theater for a salute to “The Flip Wilson Show.”

The tribute, sponsored by the New York-based Museum of Television and Radio, will feature clips from the show, which ran on NBC from September, 1970, to June, 1974, and appearances by Wilson and behind-the-scenes executives, including producer Bob Henry.

During its first two seasons, “The Flip Wilson Show,” which aired on Thursdays, placed No. 2 among all programs on television. He won two Emmys and made the cover of Time magazine in 1971. His expression “The devil made me do it” became part of the national pop culture vocabulary.

On the show, Wilson combined jokes with storytelling, often punctuating his routines with a confident snap of his fingers and a graceful light dance in which he floated backward, forward and sideways. But it was his numerous characters that eventually became his trademark: Herbie the surly Good Time Ice Cream Man; Rev. Leroy of the Church of What’s Happening Now, who never let a sermon get in the way of passing the collection plate, and, most prominently, Geraldine Jones, the raspy-voiced, brash and blunt woman who always had great love for her unseen but very jealous boyfriend, “Killer.”

Wilson said he expects the salute to be emotional.

“I’m wondering what it’s going to be like,” Wilson said. “It should be quite interesting, but it can’t be anything that will hurt me, because I don’t have any bad memories. I’m glad that my son and daughter will be there to see it.”

At 60, Wilson looks much the same as he did at the height of his television career. His round face is still dominated by wide, expressive eyes. His closely cropped hair is flecked with gray.

Much of the Wilson flair for storytelling is also intact. Anecdotes about his family and his show business days almost tumble out of him at lightning speed. His obsession with Gibran, who is most noted for his book “The Prophet,” is a particularly favorite topic that he likes to share with his fans wanting him to “do” Geraldine or Rev. Leroy.

“I have my outlet for my humor through my characters, and I also have the intimacy of rapport with my fans that allows me to explain my philosophy and spirituality,” Wilson said.

But despite his friendly nature, Wilson remains an intensely private man who, as he did during the peak of his career, is guarded and protective about his life and emotions.

That attention to privacy has left many to speculate about Wilson and the reasons why his high profile decreased following the end of his television show, which came after CBS’ “The Waltons” eroded much of Wilson’s audience.

Although he continued to appear in concerts and starred in a few failed series (“People Are Funny” in 1984 and “Charlie & Co.” in 1985), much of the news about Wilson revolved around his legal problems, which included lawsuits by former live-in lovers seeking financial support and a highly publicized arrest for drug possession in 1981 at Los Angeles International Airport that was eventually thrown out after the California Supreme Court ruled that the evidence was obtained illegally.

Wilson said the biggest reason he walked away from the hectic pace of his career was because he felt he needed to devote more time to his four children.

“There was a time when I was doing the show when I was a hero to everyone else’s kids, but my own kids were not seeing me,” Wilson recalled. “There were other people looking after my kids.”

He said he didn’t want to miss out on their formative years “because I was too busy chasing my own ego. No one knows the value of that to me. I can’t explain that to anyone else.”

A perspective on Wilson’s demeanor and personality during the years of “The Flip Wilson Show” may be necessary in order to understand what happened to him after the show ended, said producer Bob Henry.

“When Flip was doing the show, every fiber of his being was going at full speed,” Henry said. “For four years, he did one hour of comedy every week, except for two musical numbers. At times, he would say to me, ‘I wish there could be a little less of me on the show,’ but I told him that was the appeal.”

So much of Wilson’s energy would go into the show that he declined doing interviews or guest appearances, said Henry: “His theory was that he gave his best for one hour a week, and that he had no more to give.

“He was essentially a very private man. We would tape on Fridays, and there would be all this love and adulation for him from the audience. Then afterward, he would get into his Rolls and drive to someplace far away like Santa Maria alone. He would sleep in the Rolls. That’s just the kind of person he was.”

Henry said that Wilson made a deliberate choice to leave the spotlight behind: “NBC wanted him to do more shows. But after four years of this tremendous adulation, he just wanted to have peace and quiet. He never had that drive that other performers have that you always had to be out there all the time, in front of a crowd. He was never motivated that way, and he could have played Vegas and clubs all over the world.

“So the fact that Flip didn’t do anything for so long is so unique, so unusual that anyone could come with a cliche explanation. Flip’s only problem was that he was a man who wanted to be left alone to sleep in his Rolls if he wanted to.”

The success of the show, which he co-owned with Henry, and other business ventures enabled Wilson to walk away a very rich man. Said Wilson: “I invested wisely and I am well taken care of.”

The financial independence gives Wilson the luxury of taking three long cruises a year, and competing in hot-air balloon races (“To my knowledge, I’m the only black helium balloon pilot in the world”).

His main involvement has been his passion for Gibran.

“The only way to explain it is that Gibran and I have a communion of spirit,” Wilson said. His motorcycle is named “God’s Fool,” after a Gibran story in which the main character sees good in everything, no matter how bad it really is.

As for fans who want him to put on a dress and wig again, Wilson said, “I don’t think Geraldine will be back. She was the girl of my dreams, and she carried me longer than my mother did. I have sincere affection for her and an appreciation of the affection that many fans express for her. But I think Mr. Wilson will have to go the rest of the way alone.”

However, Wilson will not be totally alone. Future plans include managing and performing with his daughter Tamara, 26, who is launching her own stand-up comedy career. Their act, said Wilson, will be called “Pride and Joy” and will be “good, wholesome, family entertainment.”

The biggest event on Wilson’s schedule will happen after Friday’s tribute. Wilson, his son Kevin and other family members plan to go directly from the museum to a nearby hospital to await the birth of Kevin’s daughter.

The name of Wilson’s new grandchild? “Geraldine!” he declared, beaming proudly.