Knowing Conway, it probably was.
The thing about riding a unicycle is that you don't think of staying on top of it, you think about keeping it underneath you. Falling forwards? Pedal faster to bring it back under you. Falling backwards? Stop pedalling so you catch up. The side-to-side balance largely looks after itself when you're riding - it's different when you're idling.
But I'm not sure that's what he asked about. It was 31 years ago.