Vicki Lawrence

Emmy Award-winning actress best known for "The Carol Burnett Show" and "Mama's Family." Advocate for women's health.

SPEECH TOPICS

Life is Just Too Serious to be Taken Seriously

ABOUT Vicki Lawrence

Emmy Award- winning comedienne Vicki Lawrence is one of the most beloved television personalities of her generation. 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." In the seventh season, at the ripe old age of 24, she created her most endearing character to date, Thelma Harper, or Mama as she is better known to her fans. After the "Burnett Show," Vicki went on to star in "Mama's Family," which consistently topped the ratings for its entire six-year run of original shows. "Mama" has attained almost a cult status among her legions of loyal television viewers, who still enjoy her in reruns twice daily throughout most of the country.

For several years now, "Carol Burnett Show" alumni Harvey Korman and Tim Conway have been touring as a comedy act in casinos and performing arts centers and doing skits from the Burnett show to tremendous response. Lawrence and Conway were recently coupled as parents on CBS-TV's "Yes Dear," where their popularity garnered that sitcom its highest ratings to date. Further, the unprecedented ratings for "The Carol Burnett Showstopper Special," which delighted more than 50 million viewers, convinced Lawrence that the time is right to take Mama out of the closet, dust off her sensible shoes and hit the road with her new touring production, "Vicki Lawrence and Mama: A Two-Woman Show." The show will be a mixture of stand-up comedy, music and Lawrence's own observations about real life.

The multi-talented entertainer is mostly known for her acting and comedic talents, but Lawrence also earned a gold record for the 1973 hit, "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia." She also became one of the few successful female game show hosts when she took on the daytime version of "Win, Lose or Draw." She further perfected her hosting skills on her own daytime talkshow, "Vicki!," from 1992-1994, becoming the only talkshow host since Oprah to be nominated for an Emmy in her freshman year.

On stage, Lawrence has appeared in numerous productions, including "Send Me No Flowers;" "No, No Nanette;" "My Fat Friend;" "Chapter Two;" "Annie Get Your Gun," and, live from the Grand Ole Opry, "Nunsense 3: The Jamboree," which aired on TNN. Most recently she appeared in "The Vagina Monologues." Her autobiography, Vicki! The True Life Adventures of Miss Fireball, was published in 1995.

Lawrence also travels all over the country speaking to charity groups about her life and career, women's health and being a woman in a man's world. Her efforts to protect women's rights were recognized in 1988 when she was the first woman to be honored as "Person of the Year" by the Coalition of Labor Union Women. Her speaking engagements have given her the opportunity to fine-tune much of her comedy.