State

Tar Heel P ROFILE By Gail Langley A Teacher Of Twain Rockingham County’s Michael Lilly has made a part-time career of playing I luck Finn’s crotchety creator. ceeds in convinc mg them. "Kuril time, Mike's performance has been impeccable, causing me to wonder aloud whether or not rumors of Twain's death were indeed exaggerated,” says Phil Conte, an English instructor at Rock¬ ingham Community College in Went¬ worth, where Lilly went to school and has since performed. But there's nothing exaggerated about Michael I ally. I le was lx>m in Randleman but moved to Mayodan when he was five. I le lives there now with his wife, Dana, and sons Adrian, 19, Derrick, 16, and Nicholas, Michael Lilly shuffles across the stage and. with care¬ fully measured move¬ ments. sinks slowly into a rocking chair. With a thoughtful expression, he lights a fat cigar and. after several satisfying draws, begins to speak. I lis tone is deadpan, his face wrin¬ kled and his white hair disheveled. In a stern, gravely voice that has just a hint of a Southern twang, he builds Once in makeup . Michael Lilly . left, thorouglily becomes his alter ego. his story slowly, pausing frequently to shift in his chair. At first, the audience seems restless, even bored. After a while, however, a few of his jokes begin to sink in. Beneath that monotonous dry wit lurks a humorous story and, as Lilly uses ridiculously under¬ stated expressions like “I felt a mite pecu¬ liar" and “It was a mite troublesome.” gig¬ gles break across the crowd. Eventually, the audience can't contain themselves. They erupt in a roar of laughter. “I've seen people sitting there with tears running down their faces as they strained to keep quiet. “ Lilly says, pleased. “They didn't want to laugh out loud and disturb others from hearing what was going to be said next. I know I've got them then!" For Ully. who Inis been impersonating legendary author Mark Twain for the last 10 years, laughter through tears is the high¬ est compliment. It's no easy task to con¬ vince a skeptical crowd that this 37-year-old North Carolina native is an eccentric humorist from Missouri who died 82 years earlier. But each time Lilly appears before a civic group, art guild, community orga¬ nization. church or school group, he suc¬ four. I le and Dana run a commercial cleaning business from their home, and when they're not busy with that, I illy stages Twain performances and practices writing fiction. "I'm a busy person." he says. "(Impersonating Twain) is really more serious than a hobby, but I don't make enough money at it to make a living doing it." As a child, I ally's primary interests were cowboys, books and just about anything that wouldn't disturb any¬ one. In grammar school, he was always recognized its the quietest, a dubious distinction that he claims his older sister was responsible for. "Problem was, Becky, who is al¬ most two years older than I. made straight A’s," he explains. “It was a pain to follow a smart sister. She was already talking in paragraphs by the time I was born, and she wouldn't allow me to talk. She convinced me that girls were superior, and I was to lx- quiet." Lilly learned better when he joined tin* detailing team in the sev¬ enth grade. "Ever since. I've loved public speaking," he says. "It’s never bothered me to stand and talk Ijefore a crowd." I le became interested in Twain when he was 12. after watching actor Hal Hol¬ brook portray the author on television. “I enjoyed what he did so much with the character that even then 1 thought I'd like to do it." he says. I le acted some in high school but after graduating went to work as a machine operator at the Macfield Texturing compa¬ ny in Mayodan. While there, he worked on his Twain act. |Ъ*о» by lot Linjlcy The Statc/laiiuary 1992 35