Lily Tomlin plays one show in Rosemont

Lily Tomlin loves performing live.

She might be best known for her work on TV, in particular her breakthrough appearances on the hyperkinetic 1960s comedy variety show "Laugh-In." And she might have a list of movie credits to die for, including at least one bone fide movie masterpiece, Robert Altman's "Nashville."

But when you talk to Tomlin, it is clear that after more than 40 years in the business, her heart belongs to the stage. "I am very easy with the audience on stage. I don't want to say I don't have any fear. But I feel like the hostess. And they come to my house for a party," says Tomlin, who appears Saturday, Nov. 1 at the Rosemont Theatre in "An Evening of Classic Lily Tomlin."

Anyone who has seen Tomlin perform knows just how comfortable she is with her audience. She always makes time for answering audience questions. And she's always poised, even when the light and sound cues went wrong one night during the Chicago run of "Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe."

Tomlin charmed the audience for a good quarter hour while the technicians tried to get things right again so the show could continue.

"You have to share the truth and the reality of performing live with an audience," Tomlin says. "The audience is conscious of watching a live show. If something happens in the audience we all know it. One time I was performing for an audience of blind people. They all had their dogs. And their dogs started howling."

Many performers would be thrown off by such an occurrence. Tomlin's response: "It was really funny. I live for those moments, those unplanned moments, when you have to do something spontaneous."

This is why, Tomlin explains, she never gave up her act. "No matter what else was going on I always did at least 40 or 50 days on the road," she says. "I always tell people that's why I wasn't a regular on "The Match Game," or shows like that."

And that's why, after a career that spans 40-plus years, she is still getting her act together and putting it on the road. Her current show, "An Evening of Classic Lily Tomlin," is, in Tomlin's words, "a retrospective show." In the show the chameleon comedian will reprise her best-known characters: Edith Ann, Ernestine, Trudy the Bag Lady.

"I will be performing without props or lots of light and sound cues," Tomlin says. "I don't want to be encumbered. It will be just me on stage."

And that's the way Tomlin likes it. "I will talk about my life and about Chicago and about the election, which will only be a few days away. I want to take the audience on a trip and be able to switch quickly from one character to another."

Which characters she does, and in what order, will be partly determined by what the audience responds to. And partly by what Tomlin feels like doing.

"It is all pretty intimate and pretty interactive," she says. And you can only get that intimacy and spontaneity in a live performance.

Lily Tomlin will appear for one performance only, 8 p.m. Nov. 1 at the Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N. River Rd., Rosemont. For tickets call (312) 559-1212, visit any Ticketmaster outlet, or see Ticketmaster.com