Ladies Nights?

TBPAC is seemingly teeming with gynocentric programming over the summer: Menopause the Musical, Woman in Mind, The Sisters Rosensweig. We just had Patty Larkin and Lily Tomlin. I suppose Clay Aiken, though not a woman, fits in line as a very female-friendly artist.

Of course not all of those shows or artists have exclusively female appeal, but at least on the surface they all certainly do. Women account for the largest group of people who buy tickets for shows here at TBPAC, so that's not so bad.

Actually if you really want to get technical, we know our most regular ticket buyer is a woman between the ages of 45 and 55 who has at least some college education and a household income of over $75,000. So I won't act surprised that artists/shows like I listed above do very well here.

Menopause is certainly an event, and is an enormous draw. The show posted the single-best record for a show in the Jaeb Theater last summer. It sold more than a million dollars in tickets - simply amazing. It handily beat out heavyweights like Forever Plaid and Shear Madness in the process.

The show opens officially tonight and is currently on sale through the end of July. Tickets are going extremely fast - people will be hard-pressed to get decent seats unless you want to buy a minimum of two to three weeks in advance.

Get 'em while they're hot-flashing. Ok, ok ... I'll stop.

And you dudes? Depending on your age and sense of humor there's laughs to be had at Menopause, Woman in Mind should easily appeal to anyone with a like of BBC comedies like The Office, Fawlty Towers or old Python - and there's always that icon of male humor, Mel Brooks, who has a little musical coming back this summer that you might have heard of based on some movie.

We're not getting rid of the men's rooms. Promise.

Photo op with Lily Tomlin

This is a photo sent in to me from the meet and greet with Lily Tomlin after the show on May 5. In my many, many years of working here I have never met a artist of Ms. Tomlin's caliber who was so absolutely generous with her time and so gracious with fans.

I hope we can bring her back again soon!

-dj

CreLo's covergirl: Lily Tomlin

Check out this week's cover story in Creative Loafing for a good interview on Lily Tomlin. She talks about her career, the Laugh-In Days, Robert Altman, playing in the south - and yes, that YouTube video I brought up yesterday.

For the record - she's right about what it's like working on a project with actors and a director. It's no different from stage to film. I had an acting teacher in my MFA program tell me once that "all artists are just bundles of exposed nerves" - and he was right. Tempers can flare, things can be said and at the end of the day everyone can usually still go out and grab a pint or cocktail and act like nothing happened.

-dj

Lily Tomlin - YouTubesday

After all the fuss made over the now-infamous Lily Tomlin video from the set of I Heart Huckabees (oh, you know which video I'm talking about ...) I thought I'd offer up some classic Lily Tomlin. Consider it a taste, a tease, for her show coming up this weekend.

A whole mess of her characters on a road trip. And no, that's not Jason Lee of My Name is Earl fame at the pump.



Edith Ann on a classic ep. of Sesame Street



A monologue from her stage show: World's Oldest Beauty Expert



What she says is her favorite monologue: Mrs. Sweeney

Searching for Lily Tomlin?

I saw this today and thought it was pretty funny ...

And of course they can talk to her in May, if the case is still open. ;)