Q+A with Lily Tomlin

POSTED: Friday, May 4, 2012, 2:00 PM

Filed Under: Arts Theater

A legendary comedienne takes the stage at the Keswick Theatre tonight in “An Evening of Classic Lily Tomlin.” The show will feature the characters Tomlin has made famous for decades, including Ernestine, Edith Ann, and Mrs. Beasley. Catching up with Tomlin on the phone between gigs, she explained her performance would be, “Informal and intimate. I use film, multimedia to satirize myself, or I interact with screen, or use visuals that might enhance what I’m doing on stage. I like to think of it as filmic, because I can cut and take you any place with me. On the stage I want to create that transformation that the audience believes [I am] another person, or in another location using just my voice and body.” She also promises an off the cuff Q&A. City Paper spoke with her before the show.

City Paper: What prompted you to return to live performance?

Lily Tomlin: I never left! I never stopped doing concerts or Broadway shows. I always do 30-50 dates a year.

CP: You obviously observe and research all the characters you perform. How do you invest yourself in the characters you play on stage or screen?

LT: I don’t know. It’s on the page. You try to get a look for the character that seems right, correct, accurate. It’s the fun of being an actor, [playing] different ages and genders, and what they would do or not do…. I want to do different people and that’s the fun of doing it. When I performed Tommy Velour [a lounge lizard] people wondered, “Who is that guy?” [laughs] and I can’t believe people don’t realize it’s me! I just put on different hair. Would I put a talentless guy on a show? Hip fans aren’t unobserving. In 1977, I opened the box office in Mrs. Beasley’s Red Cross uniform. So Mrs. Beasley sees the kids sleeping in line outside and so she goes and takes care of them. These characters live for me. I have the fun of taking them out into the streets and pretending they are real. Fans—they love the history of every character. I share their made up reality with them. Ms. Beasley cares for them…. It’s like a stunt, but we don’t plan on it, and press comes. She’s in character all day. Then street people start coming by. You stay in character and it’s street theatre. They go on the trip with you.

CP: You developed many of your famous characters Ernestine, Edith Ann, on Laugh-In, and this show brings them back to the stage. How have these characters grown and changed over time? Is Ernestine outdated in this age of cell phones? Will Edith Ann ever grow up?

LT: Ernestine’s had lots of other jobs—she did not hang around Ma Bell, or work where she had to compete in business. She’s working at a health care insurance corporation now. She likes to be in control, and browbeat people. She worked in the Bush Administration. Edith used to be 5 ½ and now she’s 6. We made an Edith Ann doll in the 1980s when the show thirtysomething was popular, and she had a tag “six-something.”

CP: What difficulties, if any, did you face as a female comedian?

LT: I guess it had to be difficult to some extent. There was a much slimmer playing field at the time, because culturally, women were not viewed positively doing comedy unless they were scatterbrained, fat, flat-chested, or otherwise couldn’t get a man. Even Lucy—as much as we adore her—always had to make it up to Ricky, who was the boss, because she was scatterbrained. Those stereotypes were plumbed. I was doing characters, which others weren’t doing. Now Tracy Ullman and Kristin Wiig do them.

CP: Do you feel pressure to be funny when you take on a project?

LT: No, not if the script doesn’t call for it. There’s always humor. You have to have that perspective if you want to fill a role. If the line is there, it’s “How would my character would deliver it?”

CP: You’ve never been shy about your relationship with your partner Jane Wagner. Can you discuss your work with her?

LT: I’m always performing stuff she’s written—she’s as brainy as they come. The line “No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.” I am quoted as saying it, but Jane wrote it. When I was [selected to receive] the Mark Twain prize, I didn’t take it for a few years until they’d give it to Jane and me together. Jane encouraged me to accept it, and I acknowledged it in a speech “Written by Lily Tomlin as told to Jane Wagner” how much more she’s like Mark Twain than I am.

CP: Dare we discuss the film, Moment by Moment, which Jane directed, and you starred as the older woman John Travolta’s character Strip fell in love with? Can I argue that this film was a cougar drama ahead of its time?

LT: Maybe so… It could have been called that. We didn’t know that in those days. It was a terribly difficult situation and horribly sad—a difficult time for John. He had a 3-picture deal with [producer Robert] Stigwood and he wanted to do this next movie with Jane and me…. Everything doesn’t succeed. She can be a marvelous director, but she’s much more introspective. It’s not her temperament. She’s much too sensitive to run a male crew not keen on having a female tell them what to do.

CP: What project in your career has been your personal favorite—the opportunity that you are proudest of?

LT: Because of Jane’s authorship, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe is important to us.

CP: What is something fans would be surprised to learn about you—a hobby or skill you have, perhaps?

LT: I don’t think I have too much skill. I’m a good typist. And I can get in and out hammock.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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