Emmy Award-winning actress Vicki Lawrence will be bringing both halves of her performance career to the Sedona Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22, when she opens the 31st annual Sedona International Film Festival with “Vicki Lawrence and Mama: A Two-Woman Show.”
“Plucked out of total obscurity as a high school senior, Lawrence went on to become part of the now-legendary cast of the ‘Carol Burnett Show,’” a SIFF press release stated. “ In the seventh season, and hundreds of hilarious sketches later, at the ripe old age of 24, Vicki created her most endearing character to date, Thelma Harper, or ‘Mama,’ as she is better known to her fans.”
Lawrence went on to star in “Mama’s Family” from 1983 to 1989, bringing the cantankerous but loveable Thelma Harper and the weekly misadventures of the Harper family to millions of televisions.
“Everybody has a ‘Mama’ in their family,” Lawrence said. “What I hear from fans — ‘Oh, my God, you’re my aunt or you’re my grandma’ — I have a friend who’s a psychologist, and she says, ‘If you are not living in a dysfunctional family, you are living alone,’ because everybody’s got crazy stuff going on with [their] family.”
The show is a combination of standup comedy and stories from Lawrence’s career before Mama takes the stage for the second half of the performance.
“I think even the older my story gets, the more fascinating it is to even young people, because that’s just not the way show business works anymore,” Lawrence said.
“You don’t write a fan letter and end up on national television, you don’t get trained by the best comedians in the world, and then you don’t go on to have a career and have so much fun. It just doesn’t happen that easily anymore.”
Thelma’s opinions on the 21st century include her issues with cloning and low-flow toilets, along with seemingly everyone now multitasking while driving. “Lord knows, the world keeps getting crazier, so there’s a lot of material to work with,” Lawrence said. “She’s a little upset with Washington, too, because why can’t they figure anything out? We’re just arguing all the time.”
Lawrence added that she didn’t know if Thelma will run for the highest office in the nation once more, as she did in the 2008 book “Mama for President: Good Lord, Why Not?”
“God knows our candidates are allowed to be old now,” Lawrence commented. “I do find as I get older, I think a little bit more like [Thelma] does. I think at some point you earn the right to say what you’re thinking. You just don’t have a lot of time to waste … Mama has an opinion on everything. She doesn’t always get it right, bless her heart, but she’s very opinionated.”
Before Lawrence and Mama’s performance, her long-time friend and colleague, costume and fashion designer Bob Mackie, will make an appearance for a 4 p.m. screening of his documentary “Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion.”
“‘Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion’ showcases the six-decade career of award-winning costume designer, Bob Mackie,” the documentary’s description states. “The documentary includes original interviews with Bob Mackie clients and collaborators, along with those he has inspired, including Cher, Carol Burnett, [Lawrence], RuPaul, Pink, Miley Cyrus and Tom Ford.”
Mackie will hold a question-and- answer session following the screening before introducing Lawrence.
“If people haven’t seen his documentary, they need to tune into that,” Lawrence said.
During his career, Mackie created over 16,000 outfits for the “Carol Burnett Show” alone. “Mackie was hugely instrumental, because he has such a great sense of humor. There were many times, Carol and I have both said, that we would be struggling with a character. We’d start on Mondays. Wednesday we’d go to wardrobe. Bob would dress you up, and you’d look in the mirror and you — ‘My God, I know who I am [as a character].’”
“[Lawrence’s] humor, charisma and incredible talent are legendary,” SIFF Executive Director Patrick Schweiss said. “This is going to be a night of side-splitting laughter and unforgettable entertainment. You won’t want to miss it.”
General admission for “Vicki Lawrence and Mama: A Two- Woman Show” is $59, or $49 for SIFF members. A limited number of VIP tickets including a meet-and-greet with Lawrence are available for $200. Tickets are available online at sedonafilmfestival.com or by calling (928) 282-1177.
