Did anyone see Lily Tomlin?

[Sydneyguy]

HEy peoples
a few months ago, Lily tomlins, who i only regonise from Seasame Street came out to do a show, did anyone see it? i didnt even know she was a stand up comedian!! IF someone did, i would like to hear how it went!!

[Dom Romeo]

Originally Posted by Sydneyguy

HEy peoples
a few months ago, Lily tomlins, who i only regonise from Seasame Street came out to do a show, did anyone see it? i didnt even know she was a stand up comedian!! IF someone did, i would like to hear how it went!!

Lily Tomlin put on an excellent show. She opened with a localised monologue that - I later found out - may well have had gags written by local comics.

Not so shocking - Lily has always performed work written or co-written by other writers. But what was interesting was that two comics I know turned down the offer to contribute gags because they didn't believe it was a serious offer; they thought someone was putting them on.

Lily then went through a bunch of characters - some of it old material updated, some of it quite new - but all of it fresh for Aussie audiences since it was her first visit here. There was only one point in the whole night where one monologue - quite a long one - started to drag; it was a baglady character from 'The Search For Intelligent Life in the Universe', the award winning broadway show Tomlin wrote with partner, playwright Jane Wagner. Everything else was just perfect. Ernestine (the telephone operator) delivered political material, about a phone call between Howard and Bush. The Southern frustrated housewife delivered an advertisement for a dildo (that, believe me, was hilarious; moreso if you know and remember that character's sketches from Tomlin's CBS specials).

Two great moments included someone's mobile going off, which threw Tomlin; she just couldn't pick up the bit and had to go back to the beginning of that monologue, but not before sharing the time her mobile went off during a theatre performance of Medea (I think; memory's cloudy now; may have been some other Greek tragedy); the other was Q&A time, when someone asked the necessary question regarding her role on The West Wing.

Lily Tomlin has been a live performer from the beginning of her career. Her earliest stuff - like the little girl Edith Anne who she used to do on Sesame Street, and Ernestine the telephone operator, date from the late 60s show 'Laugh-In'. More recent characters are from stage shows like the Wagner collaboration 'The Search...'.

Lily's an awesome performer, and also a gracious, attentive and open interview subject, and pardon be for being so gratuitous about it, but if you're interested, I interviewed her for Episode 40 of Radio Ha Ha.

It lives here:

http://podcasts.freedigitalcontent.c...ohahaep040.mp3

More episodes: http://www.radiohaha.com.au

There aren't many lesbians I fancy, and few of them are in their 60s, but Lily Tomlin's name would appear in that Venn diagram intersection of the two subgroups. You didn't, strictly speaking, have to know that!

[unfrufru]

you didn't know she was a stand-up comedian?

[Sydneyguy]

i didnt have a clue she did stand up, i dont know much about her as you can see

Thanks for the feedback, just sometimes when these international acts come, its usually costly and you think should you take the risk?

International acts i have seen include Billy Connolly, i thought it was good but my friends thought it was great, Steven Wright i think was just the seating, i hate sitting upstairs at the enmore but i didnt like it but my friends loved it!!

Wasnt rosanne suppose to come out but cancelled? she was pricey, i think $80 or more

[Renee_Turner]

If you paid me $80 I'd go see Roseanne...

[susanjacobs]

Roseanne is in the new series of My Name Is Earl (which I happen to see before it has been on free to air TV down here), and she was hilarious.

When she isn't mumbling, she is funny, but $80??? No way would I pay that.

[Dom Romeo]

I think Roseanne cancelled because nobody wanted to pay that much!

[Sydneyguy]

I heard the same about Rosanne, that she cancelled because not enough people was going to go but who would at that price!! She hadnt been on tv for a while and she was doing a talk show i beleive at that time!!
Sometimes too American comedy doesnt translate well when it comes to aussie humour

REmember Brad garrett, the big brother of RAy romano in everyone loves raymond, he was going to do a few shows too but he was $65, i heard it was cancelled because he was doing a movie but i wonder if he didnt sell well either....

[katrant]

If an international comedian appeals to me, I would pay to go - after all I paid $60 to see Ben Elton this year, and it sold out pretty quickly here in Melbourne.

[Sydneyguy]

i saw Ben elton too, what did u think of him? i had high expectations, had good seats but was bored!! i am not sure why, i do like his wit but his stories werent that funny, they were amusing at best!!

[katrant]

I saw him last time he was here, in 1997, and frankly thought that show was better than this year's was.

[Sydneyguy]

actually i heard from others that they didnt like his show either, and you say his show is better now? BUGGER i do think he is funny, on tv anyway but not stand up,

[katrant]

No, I said the 1997 show was better. I also didn't say I didn't like the show, I did like it. You were right, it wasn't rip-snortingly funny, but the show in 1997 had me laughing so hard I nearly wet myself.

[Sydneyguy]

sorry i misread what u said
so what made the 1997 one better? was some of it the same material?

[katrant]

Well, a comedian will generally change material a lot in a 10 year period! Also, given how much of Ben's act is political, it's politically a very different world now to what it was 10 years ago. The show then was generally better. Please don't ask specifically what it was that made it better - it was after all a long time ago and I can't remember all of it! I do remember his jokes about Crown Casino opening which was very funny and topical, I also remember his dig at the Spice Girls and also about the Australian Sorbent ads which had the people in the street scratching their arses. It was a lot more of a belly laugh