Making peace with Rita Rudner
February 19, 2008 | 2:50
pm
As I have written before on the Buffet, for ambiguous reasons a headliner had refused to talk to me. That headliner was Rita Rudner. But finally this morning we interviewed on the occasion of her 2000th show as a Las Vegas headliner. The show is being taped by PBS to air on March 17 during a pledge drive.This is actually our second interview during the about eight years she has been a full time headliner on the Strip. The first interview was over a meal shortly after she signed her first long term contract. I thought we got along fine, and the article for a tourist publication generated no complaints. So, I was surprised that between then and now there has been this confusing silence from Rudner to interview requests from me. It had been explained in various ways by her various publicists over the years. Now, I have an explanation directly from her.
Rudner was unhappy about a review I wrote of a comedy production her husband and her put on years ago at New York New York. Rudner was not in the show herself. But she says I went beyond giving a bad review and said something mean about her husband. My Google powers have not been able to find this review to confirm what I wrote. I think a change in Las Vegas Weekly's server since the review appeared is responsible for my difficulties. And, I have only vague memories of the review in question. Thankfully, so does Rita Rudner:
"You were especially mean about my husband who I love. You were mean so I didn't want to play with you. It is the same thing I tell my daughter. If people are mean don't play with them. But now I don't care because I can't remember what you said."
That makes two of us, and thus saved by what the Austin, Texas, philosopher Willie Nelson called "the healing hands of time," we continued with the interview.
Rita Rudner: Let's move on from here in our glorious future.
Richard Abowitz: Okay, so this Friday you are taping your 2000th Vegas performance for a PBS special. That is a considerable tenure for a headliner. Can you look back and tell me when a place to perform became a place to stay and a home? You started at New York New York?
Rudner: Actually, I started at the MGM in 2000. They did not know what to do with a room and they were in negotiations with the naked ladies from France. The negotiations were taking longer than they anticipated. So, they asked if I wanted to come into the room for a couple weeks. And, it was a big kick and I stayed for seven months, because the naked ladies were hard to deal with, I guess. Everything was going so well. But then the naked ladies came. But I was doing so well they built the place for me at New York New York.
Richard Abowitz: Okay, so this Friday you are taping your 2000th Vegas performance for a PBS special. That is a considerable tenure for a headliner. Can you look back and tell me when a place to perform became a place to stay and a home? You started at New York New York?
Rudner: Actually, I started at the MGM in 2000. They did not know what to do with a room and they were in negotiations with the naked ladies from France. The negotiations were taking longer than they anticipated. So, they asked if I wanted to come into the room for a couple weeks. And, it was a big kick and I stayed for seven months, because the naked ladies were hard to deal with, I guess. Everything was going so well. But then the naked ladies came. But I was doing so well they built the place for me at New York New York.
Q: Are you surprised that you and Vegas fit so well?
A: I am amazed and so grateful. That is one of the reasons I love doing this PBS special from Las Vegas. I am going to tell people all of the good things about Las Vegas. Yes, it is a silly town. But it is a great town to live in. It is a small town with the best restaurants, best stores, best nightclubs and best spas. And, I have a great time here. I get to live a normal life. I have been able to raise my daughter. I love that I get to stay home and work in the same place I live. That is a miracle for a performer. I mean, Paul McCartney and Sting are still on the road. This is one place a performer can live a normal life.
A: I am amazed and so grateful. That is one of the reasons I love doing this PBS special from Las Vegas. I am going to tell people all of the good things about Las Vegas. Yes, it is a silly town. But it is a great town to live in. It is a small town with the best restaurants, best stores, best nightclubs and best spas. And, I have a great time here. I get to live a normal life. I have been able to raise my daughter. I love that I get to stay home and work in the same place I live. That is a miracle for a performer. I mean, Paul McCartney and Sting are still on the road. This is one place a performer can live a normal life.
Q: As for your act and material, did you have a strong sense that would go over well with audiences here for so many years?
A: I am surprised that somebody who is understated and soft-spoken has had the attendance that I have had. But Las Vegas is not known for topless entertainment anymore. Las Vegas has become much more sophisticated in its entertainment with Cirque, Celine Dion and now Bette. I am really excited I can find an audience here. But it is also that Vegas entertainment is more sophisticated than it was 10 years ago. The whole town is more sophisticated. When I arrived my husband was very astute in seeing that there was room for an entertainer in Vegas to stay for a long time. I was playing Vegas maybe six weeks a year in a huge showroom. But he suggested a theater with a reduced capacity, and realized there could be a permanent act in Las Vegas.
Q: Is it hard to tell the same jokes over and over?
A: I love it. I get to hone things and do them the best I can do them. Nothing replaces practice. Practice does make perfect. And, I get to introduce new material into my act. You get to experiment when you are in one place for a long time. In fact, for the special for PBS, I've kind of mixed up old material and lots of new material no one has heard before. It has been kind of invigorating for me.
Q: Will the show taping Friday be your regular show as it is now or something special just for PBS?
A: I've been doing the show especially for PBS for about the past month. I always want when people come back to see me to have material in the show that they haven't seen before. Sure they'll see some familiar jokes that are anchors for material I have, but I also want to give them new material. So, I have been mixing it up with the material to do the show for PBS.
Q: You have written books living in Vegas and done a television show here and you even have a theater production upcoming with a local company. Has being in Vegas all these years been good for your creativity? Are you happy with the years you have spent here?
A: Absolutely! We had a big house in Los Angeles and we sold it. We sold everything in it. We sold our dishes. We sold our furniture. We just came here and started from scratch and changed our whole life. That isn't easy to do in your forties but we did it. Above all else, the main thing Vegas has done is allowed us to raise our daughter, and that is fantastic.
(courtesy photo)
Q: Is it hard to tell the same jokes over and over?
A: I love it. I get to hone things and do them the best I can do them. Nothing replaces practice. Practice does make perfect. And, I get to introduce new material into my act. You get to experiment when you are in one place for a long time. In fact, for the special for PBS, I've kind of mixed up old material and lots of new material no one has heard before. It has been kind of invigorating for me.
Q: Will the show taping Friday be your regular show as it is now or something special just for PBS?
A: I've been doing the show especially for PBS for about the past month. I always want when people come back to see me to have material in the show that they haven't seen before. Sure they'll see some familiar jokes that are anchors for material I have, but I also want to give them new material. So, I have been mixing it up with the material to do the show for PBS.
Q: You have written books living in Vegas and done a television show here and you even have a theater production upcoming with a local company. Has being in Vegas all these years been good for your creativity? Are you happy with the years you have spent here?
A: Absolutely! We had a big house in Los Angeles and we sold it. We sold everything in it. We sold our dishes. We sold our furniture. We just came here and started from scratch and changed our whole life. That isn't easy to do in your forties but we did it. Above all else, the main thing Vegas has done is allowed us to raise our daughter, and that is fantastic.
(courtesy photo)
