After 40 years in show business, Vicki Lawrence is still making the comedy rounds. The spunky actress, singer and comedian will perform in "Vicki Lawrence and Mama: A Two-Woman Show" at 7:30 p.m. today in Emens Auditorium.
A native of suburban Hollywood, Lawrence was involved in as many performance arts organizations as she could join.
"It never really dawned on me that it was something that I wanted to pursue," she said. "I actually thought that I was going to go to my dad's alma mater, which is UCLA, study dental hygiene, marry a rich dentist and hang it up. That's really what I thought I was going to do."
A fan letter to Carol Burnett during her senior year changed all that, and Lawrence found herself as part of the cast of 1967's "The Carol Burnett Show."
Dom Caristi, associate professor of telecommunications, spent most of his late childhood and early adulthood watching "The Carol Burnett Show," a program that spanned 11 years and was "one of those musical variety shows that was the last of an era," he said.
"There were no others that were as successful as 'The Carol Burnett Show,'" Caristi said. "The late '70s really marked the end of musical comedy variety shows."
Lawrence's work with Burnett resulted in the creation of Thelma "Mama" Harper, her most identifiable character to date. Described by Caristi as "eccentric," Mama was the stubborn and opinionated grandmother-figure with a devil-may-care attitude.
"I think that everybody has a Mama in their family," Lawrence said. "We all have that crazy relative in our family that says the most outrageous things in the world and you know, you're sitting at the lovely Thanksgiving dinner and you go in the bathroom with your sister and you laugh and say, 'Can you believe she actually said that?' And you look at each other and you laugh and say, 'She's right, you know.'"
The then-24-year-old received the role after Burnett, the intended actress, preferred the role of Eunice, the sketch's other character.
"I've often said that Mama was just another gift from Carol, because she didn't want it, so I got it," Lawrence said.
That unexpected gift expanded outside the walls of "The Carol Burnett Show" into its own TV show, "Mama's Family," which aired from 1983 to 1990. Because of Mama's following, however, Lawrence felt it was time to bring her alter ego out of the closet, dust her off and let her fans see her in a different format - on stage, she said. "Vicki Lawrence and Mama" allows fans of both Lawrence and her character to see them in person instead of behind a TV screen.
The show will feature Lawrence as herself, detailing "everything you'll ever want to know about me and more" and singing her No. 1 hit "When the Lights Go Down in Georgia" before bringing out Mama and her politically incorrect observations, Lawrence said.
"I wanted this to be my opportunity to push the envelope a little bit, to be outspoken, to be very modern," she said. "Mama gets to say all of the stuff that we all think but we would never dare say out loud because people would look at us cross-eyed."
Lawrence said she has a love-hate relationship with her alter ego.
"I know that everybody loves her so much and she's by far the most favorite character that I've ever portrayed that sometimes I feel like I could fall off the planet and if Mama was still here, nobody would miss me," Lawrence said.
As a piece of advice for Ball State University students who wish to enter fields in the performing arts, Lawrence said she felt that what happened to her - discovery from a fan letter - would be outrageous and unusual in the business now.
"The industry has changed so much," she said. "You just need to have your wits about you. For me, it was easier. I'm like the little hamster who got put on the wheel."
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