Lily Tomlin tells tales of her early years and characters as she heads to O.C. for a one-woman show
With a show business career spanning more than 40 years, 30 movies and countless stage and television appearances, Lily Tomlin has entertained audiences with monologues, self-created and scripted characters, comedic gags and a sweet-and-sour sarcasm that is distinctly hers.
But beneath those outsized characters, some derived from her childhood neighbors, is an unpretentious and outspoken Detroit native, one who gets the big laugh from an endlessly quotable string of one-liners like: “The trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat”; and “If love is the answer, could you rephrase the question?”
The comedian, actress, singer, writer and producer, who turned 77 in September, will return to Segerstrom Center for the Arts Saturday for a solo show that features her stand-up comedy and popular variety show characters, such as condescending phone operator Ernestine and precocious 5 1/2-year-old girl Edith Ann, as well as a Q&A segment with the audience.
Speaking by phone from her hometown during a stop on her current tour, Tomlin spun yarns about her upbringing.
Tomlin was born Mary Jean Tomlin in Detroit, Mich., on Sept. 1, 1939, to parents who had moved there from Kentucky during the Great Depression.
From an early age, she learned to deal with cynics.
She, her brother and parents lived in an apartment building mainly occupied by older teachers living on on fixed incomes.
When she was 10, Tomlin befriended these adults, studying and ingesting the mannerisms that would one day appear on TV.
There was Betty, the “building’s hussy” whose boyfriend was a communist, and Mrs. Rupert, a botanist who never opened her back door and shoved a refrigerator against it.
When not listening to Mrs. Rupert complain about then-presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, the two would read the New York Times together and shop downtown.
But that friendship dissolved when Mrs. Rupert insulted Tomlin’s interest in entertainment.
Tomlin, who always put on performances with neighborhood kids, needed to pay back her mother $11 for the whoopee cushions, rubber lizards and fake vomit she ordered from a comedy magazine.
After earning a dime for each time she ran an errand, walked a neighbor’s dog or took out the trash, she was allowed to use the gags in her acts.
The routine was ill-received by someone she thought was a friend.
“Mrs. Rupert hit the ceiling,” Tomlin remembered. “She said, ‘Do you know how that magazine is just an illusion? You’re going to end up in show business.’”
Tomlin stormed out of the neighbor’s house.
And overnight fame followed her.
After a stint on the ABC’s “Music Scene,” Tomlin joined NBC’s pioneering sketch comedy, “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.”
She modeled characters after the adults she knew growing up. The portrayals became so well-known that she played them in later recordings and television specials.
She has been honored throughout her four decades of making people laugh with numerous awards, including the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the Kennedy Center Honor, and Emmy, Grammy, Tony, Peabody and Drama Desk awards.
These days, when not performing, she is preparing for the fourth season of a Netflix series, “Gracie and Frankie,” with similarly lauded co-starJane Fonda.
It’s a collaboration she would like to continue, she said.
Tomlin was quick to point out that the person who should receive the most recognition for collaborative efforts on comedic material is her wife, writer Jane Wagner, whom she married on New Year’s Eve 2013.
Wagner is the author of “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,” a one-woman stage show that starred Tomlin and won the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience.
Fans still make comments to Tomlin about the performance, she said, and ask her questions about 30-year-old roles.
Favorite character?
“That’s like asking Mrs. Duggar to pick out her favorite of 19 kids,” she said. “They’re all significant.”
Worst survival job?
“Waitressing at a Howard Johnson hotel off 49th and Broadway. We had old, 1930s uniforms that were shapeless and hung down to our ankles.”
Most asked question?
“What is Dolly Parton really like?” (Tomlin and Fonda starred with Parton in the 1980 comedy “9 to 5”).
What would you like to do that you haven’t done?
“I’d like to go some place and just sit down and be quiet,” Tomlin said, at a much softer volume. “I don’t do that, and I would like to do that.”
Pre-performance ritual?
“Oh, let me make something up,” Tomlin said. “I go outside three times because I’m compulsive and erratic and I step on certain stones. Then I come back and I do a somersault. How’s that?”
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IF YOU GO
What: Lily Tomlin
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
Cost: Tickets start at $49
Information: (714) 566-2787 or scfta.org
Twitter: @KathleenLuppi
