APRIL 1976

HIGH GEAR

AN INTERVIEW WITH LILY TOMLIN

By NICK DANGER

After doing three dazzling somersaults down a conference room table at a press conference held after a recent comedy appearance at Kent State University last month, comedienne Lily Tomlin settled 'back and began to tell us what she's all about.

Lily, who was not answering most questions seriously for. a group of inquisitive reporters, attributes her success to "the low standards of the people."

Using no make-up or props for her show, Tomlin created an electrifying series of characters including The Operator and Edith Ann accompanied by her dog Buster. Some of her characters attempted explanations of boogie, mocked detergent commercials, and poked fun at college sororities.

Attending the show on a Thursday night in March some 1500 people came to the performance held in the Student Center Ballroom. The two hour show opened with "Sister Boogie Woman" who talked raspy boogie talk: "I know some people's got so much boogie, their boogie's got boogie," ad.ding, "Boogie's when you take no-deposit, no-return bottles back to the store and they give you your money back cause they like your attitude."

As questions were asked,. spicy and salty words flew across the room at interviewers from various sources of the media. "I'm so sorry I keep saying these crude things," she commented to Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Janice Munson.

The conference began at 11:30 p.m. after her stage performance that night. Lily was asked about her somersaults which she claims relieve her tension. She commented, "I wouldn't have the nerve to do this at the Paramount."

Much of Tomlin's humour looks at the 50's, a period when she was growing up in Detroit. "When I was in high school, no one was gay, only shy."

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Lily's comedy can. described as unbelievable. It is totally shocking, striking, and plain far out.

In a personal interview with Ms. Tomlin held after the press .conference, she straightforwardly expressed herself and her feelings. It went like this:

Danger: Do the characters you portray come from personal experiences?

Tomlin: Yes, they have to. They have to come through me. Danger: Do you see yourself as a comedienne or a commentator?

Tomlin: I don't know what to say because I never thought about it. People would say I was a comedienne, I remember,. when I first started in New York. I would watch people, who in my opinion, were just as talented as

I am, but they never built a body of material. I just couldn't understand it. They would be brilliant,

improvisationally in all kinds of

Photo by Nick Danger

ways, and I would say you must develop that into a piece you know. From the beginning I always thought only of evolving a unit that had shape and made

some

comment. So over the years, I've naturally built a large body of material.

Danger: What point in your childhood did you realize you were a performer?

Tomlin: Well, I did things for a long time all through my childhood. I lived across the street from a park with recreational facilities, including a Police Athletic League Baseball Team. We lived in an economically low class neighborhood, which basically consisted of "blue-collar" workers and their families. So we had a lot of programs to participate in. I did take-offs of characters, men included. I performed and did little shows then.

Danger: On stage you tell a story about your father taking you out to dinner and learning. how to be popular. Can you extrapolate on that?

Con

Tomlin: When I first became well-known from being NBC's "Laugh In," I went to Fort Wayne, Texas where my parents had moved for a visit. My father who had been a drinker and gambler all his life arranged for us to go out to a restaurant for dinner that night. So I went to this restaurant which was more like a tavern. You could order all sorts of Bar-b-qued foods. So we all were having dinner when my father called the waitress over, pointed to me, and asked her, "Do you know who this girl is?"

" guess that's your daughter," answered waitress.

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"You're damn right," he nodded directing his next words to me: "Get up and sing a song, babe." I said poppa I don't want to. "Babe, get up and sing a song for the people." I said poppa, I couldn't, I'd die of embarrassment. "Babe, you've gotta learn how to be popular," he said.

Because the story is so meaningful to me, I told it on my first television special. I guess, when you embark on a television career, you have to learn how to be popular. I haven't learned it quite yet..

Danger: How do your audiences react to you?

Tomlin: Different audiences react differently. A college or young one would basically respond because they are totally in tune to what's going on. They come because they are fans. But if I were to appear in a place where different acts were booked each week and the same crowd would come, then they would probably be less responsive and even quiet.

Danger: What do you think comedy is?

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Tomlin: I'm actually not sure, because we've been exposed to so much stuff. In the old days, it was all so innocent. Entertainment was innocent; but after TV. people were exposed to So much comedy, there was a variety of it. As a child, I used to love to watch Lucille Ball. I would always watch her and Ethel. I mean there was nobody greater than them, you know. and they did very much of a physical type comedy. But as I

matured or whatever it was that I did, I was more attracted to someone like Elaine May or Mike Nichols, and Ruth Draper. These people. were such masters because they had great input and were so sophisticated.

Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball really mastered physical comedy. They were brilliant, and there was no physical joke they hadn't thought of. I don't even know how to I articulate it. Whatever it was that opened up my response, nobody else had ever made me laugh that way before. It was comedy that was intelligent and had some perception behind it.

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