Lily Tomlin at Lunch

Lily is Fourth from left being regaled over lunch

I did video the thank you speech made by Ms. Tomlin at the Pioneer Broadcaster's. I was able to get it to work on Quicktime. I was unable, however, to upload it here and I lost the last version of this blog as a result of my technical frailty.  So, think of the photograph above as you might of the refurbished Lost Horizon, and imagine the lost scene!

So, let me back up. How did I even end up here? Well, as you who peruse these pages know, I have embarked at ever so snail's a pace on two new careers, one as a writer and the other as a voice over artist. In conjunction with the latter endeavor, I have been taken under the wing of a love comedienne "Nooch" Egidio ("Her Noochness") who has given me advice and introduced me to her friends. She has invited me to various functions and this was one.

I have great respect for Ms. Tomlin from my young days in the Bronx watching "Laugh-In" and more recent days having seen her live in "Signs of Intelligent Life. . ." and so the idea of a more informal formal venue to see her appealed to me. Now, a couple of my friends declined to go because these types of industry gatherings at places like the well used Sportsmen's Lodge in Studion City, tend to be full of, shall we say, people of a certain advanced age, averaging probably around 75 with a good number in their 80s, and it really isn't an opporunity to see the object of their affection in a gala sort of way and they don't usually say much as they might in a performance. Since I am on the cusp of, if not in what Erik Erikson called the "generativity" phase of life, myself, who am I to shy away from old age?

And, what I like about events like this is the collision of real life with entertainment history. And what I thought, not for the first time, in watching the old timers on the dais and the ones in the audience, is that they are examples of never giving up the chance of "making it" or "making it again". They remain not only engaged in life, but full of goals, immediate and long term.  They have been in a profession which one might argue is even more cutthroat than the one of which I once was a part, the law, where rejection is regular and cruel and they have persevered in what they love. 

So there I was, at overflow table no. 43, way way way in the back eating my late served (if Nooch hadn't talked to the floor manager, our table would have been bereft of the main course) cold, but appetizing, sliced sirloin, part of the crowd applauding a many years' creative woman and nodding with enjoyment as her friends and co-performers, George Schlatter, Leslie Jordan (you'd know who he is if you watched Laugh-In--very short and a great delivery), Sally Kellerman, JoAnne Worley, Allee Willis (really quirky songwriter), Bruce Vilanch, celebrating her.

Sometimes, I become a little pessimistic that at this stage in the game of life I can begin at ground zero in entirely new endeavors. I suppose if I am thinking only of being lauded and sought after, my pessimism may be well founded, but if I think about the process in doing things that I love, like these people, both known and unknown, and of a certain age, then my pessimism is slowly transformed into an uncharacteristic optimism.

Ms. Tomlin was at ease and relaxed in her humor. She told us that she had once lived at the Sportsmen's Lodge, in early days. She acknowledged everyone on that dais for their parts in her life's road to here, a road that she is still running down with a palpable joy. Maybe one day I'll figure how to download or upload the video so you can hear it. Maybe I'll try to get it on my Facebook page separately, so you can share the moment with me. But if not, trust me, ain't nothing like being in Hollywood (or in this case the Valley) with performers of long standing.