AllMovie

Lily Tomlin is more than a filmed record of the comedienne's stage show The Search for Signs of Life in the Intelligent Universe. The film follows Tomlin and her collaborator Jane Wagner as they put together their production, wandering up hill and down alley in search of comic inspiration. Seldom has there been a more thorough or perceptive cinematic document of the creative process in action. It isn't always funny, but the birth pangs of comedy seldom are. The end result of Tomlin and Wagner's efforts can be seen in the 1991 feature-film adaptation of The Search for Signs of Life in the Intelligent Universe.