With Lily Tomlinwho has an over 40-year careermany words come to mind: actress, comedian, writer and producer, but also a legend. She has won many honors, including a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy, as well as an Academy Award nomination.
Windy City Times: Hello, Lily. You are a dream interview for me! Edith Ann was my favorite on Sesame Street. So I guess I have been a fan since diapers.
Lily Tomlin: Well, thanks. I am glad of that.
WCT: You just had a birthday by the way, Happy birthday!
LILY TOMLIN: Thanks a million.
WCT: I want to talk about your career. You were one of the first female comedians to do Black male drag with Pervis Hawkins. What inspired that character?
LILY TOMLIN: That character came about during the "Lily for President" special. The feat was that not only was Lily such a grass roots candidate but a great Black soul artist. I was so widely beloved, that all these people came to do a show for her. [ Both laugh ]
WCT: I recently interviewed Paula Poundstone and she named you an influence. What comedians inspired you growing up?
LILY TOMLIN: Paula is a great friend of mine. She's a darling girl. A lot of stuff influenced me early on as a child from radio and television. We didn't even have a TV until I was ten. But I still watched shows on neighbor's televisions such as Bea Lily on The Ed Sullivan Show, Imogene Coca, the sitcoms with Lucy and Joan Davis. Any female that was doing funny stuff on television I am sure was an influence.
As far as stand-up, Jean Carroll, who used to be on Ed Sullivan too, did husband jokes and I would just take her stuff. I would be eight or nine years old telling husband jokes on my back porch! I would put on a show and throw pearls around my neck like Bea Lily.
WCT: So the different characters came out of that?
LILY TOMLIN: I lived in an old apartment house so there were a lot of people living there. My parents were southern and I grew up in a Black neighborhood. I would go to Kentucky every summer and grew up in inner city Detroit. I saw a lot of stuff and different kinds of people.
WCT: What did you think of 9 to 5 the Musical?
LILY TOMLIN: First of all, it was very eerie watching it because it seemed like I was up there. The clothes were very similar. Allison looks enough like me from the stage, you know tall and lanky. Meg Hilty looks just like Dolly. They wore the very same clothes; that light blue leather coat with the white collar that she has when we go shopping. Oh and the smock that I wore in the office and the red trench coat.
When we first saw it in L.A., Dolly, Jane and me, we cried, wept and were spooked by the surrealness of it. But overall we really enjoyed it. Allison is also a good friend because I did West Wing with her. I was disappointed that it closed.
WCT: Well, maybe there will be a tour of 9 to 5 the Musical to Chicago. I heard they want Dolly Parton to play on tour with Hello, Dolly!
LILY TOMLIN: Wow, you might be right. That would be something!
WCT: I loved you in the movie Flirting With Disaster. Was there a lot of improvisation?
LILY TOMLIN: Yeah, a fair amount. David is pretty freewheeling in some ways, in many ways. We improved a lot of that. There's a script but we did a lot of ad-libbing. I love that movie too. I just screamed when I saw it.
WCT: You did the movie Nashville, where I am from, Short Cuts and A Prairie Home Companion with Robert Altman, which was his last film. Any thoughts on him?
LILY TOMLIN: For me that was a long and deep relationship, just being part of that Altman family. I was really sad and unhappy when Bob died. He was in the middle of his next picture. In Prairie, he was getting chemo very frequently during the shooting. He was like a warhorse, and unflappable. Even undergoing that he was still the boss, totally in charge, never overbearing. I used to say he was like a benign patriarch. You felt completely confident that Pops was going to take care of you and yet he was totally flawed himself, open and human. That's why actors loved him I think.
WCT: How's Jane Wagner [ Tomlin's partner and collaborator ] doing?
LILY TOMLIN: She is doing great. She just had a root canal so she is not incredibly happy. But she will be happy soon.
WCT: Tell our readers about your current tour. Are you playing the different characters such as Ernestine, or is it all stand-up?
LILY TOMLIN: Well, I do a little of both. I do a little of the characters and I also talk to the audience and do first person. I will talk about Aurora and the surrounding environs. Every year I play forty or fifty dates. I fit it in between everything else.
WCT: So it's a way of life for you.
LILY TOMLIN: Yeah, as soon as I got famous I always had an act, from starting on my back porch. My first real gig was at Mr. Kelly's in Chicago. It's not there anymore but that was the first time that I played a club where my name was on the marquee. I still have a photo of the line around the block. I was popular because of Laugh-In and played Mr. Kelly's every year.
WCT: You were hilarious on The Kathy Griffin Show!
LILY TOMLIN: She's funny and really quick.
WCT: I heard that you are in talks to do a spin off from Desperate Housewives with Kathryn Joosten.
LILY TOMLIN: Kathy and I are working on that. I am going to do several episodes of Damages this year. This is the third season and the only show that I run home to see. It's so scary and spooky and ruthless. You never know who is a bad person or a good person. It's off the chart. I was a big fan of it so I was really glad to get a part in it this year.
I am also going to play Vegas this year at the MGM.
WCT: Sounds like your name is going to be up in lights for a long time to come!
Lily Tomlin will be appearing at The Paramount Theater, 23 E. Galena, Aurora, on Friday, Oct. 2. Visit www.paramountarts.com .