Lily Tomlin: Predictably Unpredictable

Lily Tomlin long ago embraced the unpredictable and the unlikely.
Born in Detroit, Mich. to blue collar-working parents from the South, she rode her talents to international acclaim as a funny woman with quite a gift for acting.
Now, she’s coming to the Mountain Empire.
Tomlin will perform on Nov. 8 at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va. The show serves as a fundraiser for the historic theater’s Annual Fund for Artistic Excellence, yet also as the latest stop in a nearly 50-year career for the wonderfully versatile Tomlin.
“[The show] will be relaxed and informal. I’ll interact with the audience,” Tomlin said by phone Tuesday evening from her home near Los Angeles, Calif. “I’ll do 10 to 12 characters and fool around and try to be funny.”
Trace Tomlin’s career.
“Long,” she said. “I have managed to stay afloat for a long time. I’ve always had an act, which many people in this industry did not have. That kept me off [1970s TV game show] “Match Game” as a regular.”
Humor maps to her childhood, growing up in multi-cultural Detroit and of summers spent with extended family in rural Paducah, Ky. A talent for manipulation of multiple voices took root then and eventually sparked her meteoric rise in television.
But first, she learned to perform comedy on stage during the early 1960s. She had quit college for New York City and stand-up comedy, which in turn amounted to an education in comedy.
“It had to be,” Tomlin, 69, said. “I just lived to do that stuff. I was on fire about it. I was so in love with it.”
Then, came 1969 and “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.”
“Everything,” Tomlin said of the show.
When Tomlin landed a spot on the hit television comedy variety show, her career took off. But America did not just fall for Tomlin – America fell over laughing for Tomlin’s character Ernestine, the telephone operator.
“Ernestine was such a hit,” Tomlin said. “Literally overnight. I aired on Monday night and by Tuesday morning I was a star.”
Tony Awards, Emmys, a Grammy Award, starring roles on Broadway and the silver screen followed Ernestine. And yet …
“She’s like a monkey on my back that I’ll have all my life, and she knows it too,” Tomlin said before breaking into a bit of the character of Ernestine. “It’s a lot of fun to do, darn it.”
Fun in part describes Tomlin’s career. Varied. She slid from humor in “Laugh-In” to drama in 1975 with Robert Altman’s film “Nashville,” for which she earned an Academy Award nomination. Five years and much laughter later, Tomlin struck huge alongside Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton in the movie “Nine to Five.”
“I’m lucky,” Tomlin said.
More recently, Tomlin enjoyed regular rolls on hit shows “Will & Grace,” “The West Wing” and currently “Desperate Housewives.” And yet despite parts on decades of hit shows and movies, Tomlin looks elsewhere for that which she enjoys most.
“The theater is still my favorite,” Tomlin said. “My favorite thing to do was ‘The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe’ that I did with my partner Jane Wagner. It’s so life-affirming of the human race and the human species. It’s not divisive in any way. It’s very cathartic.”
Act in a film or on television. An actor of course can’t hear the laughter or lack thereof from an audience. Not so on stage.
“It’s so immediate,” Tomlin said. “Sometimes wonderful surprises happen. Every audience is like a new romance. It’s so personal.”

IF YOU GO
Who: An Evening with Lily Tomlin, a fundraising event for the Barter Theatre’s Annual Fund for Artistic Excellence
When: Nov. 8, 8 p.m.
Where: Barter Theater, 133 W. Main St., Abingdon, Va.
Admission: $125, show only; $600 diamond level, which includes a pre-show dinner with live music on Stonewall Square, admission to Tomlin’s show and a post-show reception and silent auction; $300 gold level, which includes Tomlin’s show and reception
Info: (276) 619-3303
Web: http://www.lilytomlin.com

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at .