(3 of 8)
Instead of saying something is not quite right for one of her people, Lily will say with genuine surprise, "Oh, no, she wouldn't do that." A few years ago, AT&T offered her $500,000 to play Ernestine for the phone company, instead of against it. Ernestine—not Lily —was offended and turned it down. It was not something a toughie like Ernestine would do. Says Lily: "Do you think Ernestine is not a real person? Do you think my characters are not real? They're out there somewhere. I just imitate them."
Lily can become one of her "real" people very suddenly. At a dinner, when the conversation has begun to annoy her, she will pucker her lips and pull her face down so that it looks long enough to get her into the starting gate at Aqueduct. That will be Ernestine:
"A gracious hello." (Snort, snort.) "This is installation and repair service, Miss Tomlin speaking clearly into her mouthpiece. Who's calling, please. The A.M.A.? What's that stand for, Anna Maria Alberghetti? Oh, don't get so uptight. It's just a little joke. Not unlike Medicare."
Says Jane Wagner, her friend and collaborator: "I don't know how she takes on the personalities of these characters. I've never seen her rehearse to get them, or stand in front of a mirror experimenting. She just gets up and does them. It's a comedic possession, but maybe demonic possession is just around the bend."
Comedian Richard Pryor believes that both he and Lily are possessed. "We are soul mates. I mean the characters we do literally take possession of us. You're O.K. as long as you keep an eye on what's happening, as long as you don't get scared and tighten up. Because then you lose control over yourself and the character takes over completely. I've never seen it happen to any other entertainers but Lily and me. You can see the physical change take place when she's working. It is eerie."
With some of her new characters —like Sister Boogie Woman—the possession seems complete. Sister Boogie Woman is a Southern evangelist, and when she's got the boogie she shakes like a palm tree in a hurricane. What's boogie? Let her tell:
"Boogie's not a meanin', boogie's a feelin'. Boogie takes the question marks outa yer eyes, puts little exclamation marks in they place. Are ya on my beam? Boogie's when the rest of the world is lookin' you straight in the eye sayin' you'll never be able ta make it and ya got your teeth in a jar and those teeth say, 'Yes I can, yes I can.' [At this point Sister Boogie Woman puffs with exertion.] 'Yes I can. Yes I can.' I say think of yourself as a potato chip and life as a dip. I say think of yourself as a chicken leg and life as Shake 'n Bake."