Vicki Lawrence at the Bankhead

Saturday, August 16th, Frank and I attended a matinee performance of Vicki Lawrence at our local Bankhead theatre. Vicki Lawrence is an American actress, comedian, and singer who is best known for her character Mama. From 1967–1978, she created many characters on the CBS variety show The Carol Burnett Show. I am dating myself but I used to love watching that show especially the skits where Carol Burnett played a southern ingenue Eunice and Vicki Lawrence played her grouchy rambunctious old mother aka Mama. 

Frank and I had seats near the front so we could hear fine and were close enough we could enjoy the nuances of Vicki Lawrence's facial expressions. The first half of the show was quite entertaining and revealing where we learned how Vicki got involved with the famous Carol Burnett. Vicki and Carol are close look-a-likes. This fact played a large role in Carol Burnett's "discovering " Vicki Lawrence at her high school talent show. Vicki's story of being a "natural red head" was also hilarious.

In the second half Vicki Lawrence came out in her Mama costuming and role. She read from a stack of questions someone might ask of Mama to hear her outdated and snide replies. This segment got some chuckles, but was nowhere near as good as the first half. In both halves of the show, a few classic clips from the Carol Burnett show were projected and we learned a bit of the back story behind them. Here was a YouTube outtake clip that was shown. Just for laughs, this YouTube clip is one of my favorites from the Carol Burnett show, too. Vicki Lawrence is not in this one, but it typifies the type of humor that made the Carol Burnett Show one of my favorites. Overall, we were glad we'd gone to this funny, relaxing show that stirred up fond memories.