HILO — Early Friday morning, Dorothy Williams went to Safeway to buy groceries for her empty fridge — she’d been away 10 days in Hollywood.
“Hey, Yummy!” someone yelled as she walked inside.
Minutes later, as the 90-year-old cruised the food store’s aisles, several more shoppers approached her. Even a checker Williams has known for years couldn’t help but ask.
“Were you on America’s Got Talent on Tuesday?”
By now, Williams is used to it. She’s been approached countless times around town since early this month when she first shocked viewers by performing a comedic, burlesque striptease on NBC reality show’s “audition” episode.
That initial performance — in which she brazenly strips down to red pantaloons and a nude-colored shirt — has also made her a YouTube star. A July 5 video of the appearance has racked up nearly 4 million views.
On Tuesday night, Williams stripped on the show a second time as one of 12 “live performance” acts vying for online votes to advance to the show’s “semi finals” round.
Williams was eliminated Wednesday. But her appearances have garnered her praise from folks around the country admiring her can-do attitude and confidence.
“It was a wonderful experience,” Williams said Friday, as she sank into the couch of her Hilo home for the first time in weeks, gearing up for a day of catching up on her favorite soap operas. “At the age of 90, to be on the stage where all the actors, actors and actresses have been on, where the Academy Awards have been, I could not believe it. It was the most wonderful experience and I will treasure it for the rest of my life.”
Many Big Island residents know Williams as the longtime “Yummy the Clown.” But she didn’t perform a clown act Tuesday in part, because judge “Simon (Cowell) hates clowns,” she said.
Instead, the lifelong entertainer stripped a second time at the request of show producers. She performed alongside a troupe of professional dancers to a song titled “Sing, Sing, Sing, Sing.” The act took days of rehearsals, practice and choreography, she said.
“Just the magnitude of being in the theater with 3,000 people is amazing,” she said. “That was the biggest audience I ever had.”
Williams didn’t get a chance to meet any of the America’s Got Talent judges in person. But she said she met many crew members and one of the show producers plans to visit Hilo in the future.
She said she also enjoyed meeting host Nick Cannon. Cannon was so impressed with her initial audition striptease that he gave her a “golden buzzer” allowing her to advance on the show.
As a ‘Thank you,’ Williams gave Cannon a gift package with goodies including mac nuts and a cup imprinted with the Hawaiian word for “Dad.”
“He loved it,” Williams said. “He loved the cup that said ‘Dad’ on it because he has two children. He’s such a nice, sweet man. You couldn’t ask for a nicer host for America’s Got Talent. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have been there — it was thanks to him that I made it on the (live performance) show.”
The 90-year-old doesn’t have any more television appearances planned just yet. She plans to return to life-as-normal in Hilo where she serves as the longtime president of the Pomaikai Senior Center.
She’s also a breast cancer survivor who has undergone two knee replacement surgeries. She said she hopes her appearances on the show helped to “put Hilo on the map” and inspire other seniors to pursue dreams of their own.
“No matter how old you are or how old you get, you should do whatever you want in life,” she said. “Don’t let anyone say you can’t do this because of your age. Because at 90 with my two artificial knees and one boobie I’ve accomplished a lot and (others) can too.”
