Interview: Comedy Legend Rita Rudner Returns to 54 Below

On Friday October 10 and Saturday October 11, comedy legend Rita Rudner returns to Midtown Manhattan hotspot 54 Below. Rita’s first solo HBO special, Rita Rudner’s One Night Stand, was nominated for several awards, as was her eponymous English BBC television show that later appeared in the USA on A&E. Rudner’s two one-hour specials for HBO, Born to Be Mild and Married Without Children, were ratings standouts and she performed all over the country, filling Carnegie Hall in New York three times. In 2008 Rita Rudner: Live From Las Vegas was PBS’s first ever stand-up comedy special.

Now, audiences will have the opportunity to experience her icepick-sharp timing and trademark clever observations up close and personal at Broadway’s Living Room. Rudner’s unmatched humor and enduring charm will leave you in stitches.

A house-filling favorite in Las Vegas since she opened as one of the hottest tickets in town in June 2000, Rudner is known for her epigrammatic one-liners. Over the course of a multi-year run she sold almost two million tickets, grossed over a hundred million dollars and become the longest-running solo female comedy show in the history of Las Vegas. She was named Las Vegas’s Comedian of The Year nine years in a row and in 2006 received The Nevada Ballet’s Woman of The Year Award. In October 2017 she was given the Casino Entertainment Legend Award.

Read a conversation below with Rudner about her upcoming show at 54 Below.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

What are you looking forward to about being back at 54 Below? 

I love New York. It's one of my very, very, very favorite places to go, and I get to see all my friends and I get to revisit all the places where all of a sudden I was sitting there in Annie on Broadway, and I said, “let's do comedy.”

You have a background dancing in musical theater. Do you feel any particular sense of connection to that part of your past performing at 54, Below? 

Yeah, because it's right in the theater district, near the Alvin Theater on 52nd. pIt’s not] the Alvin anymore, but that's where Annie was. So that's where it all happened. And then I used to walk to the Improv after Annie, and then I would take two buses because you could get a transfer, and I had to go to Catch a Rising Star after that. And, I could save a dollar and a half. So it was very exciting. [laughs]

How does it feel to be back in that area at this stage in your life? 

It's good because at this stage in my life, I only do jobs that I want to do because, as I said, I had my own theater in Las Vegas. I worked in Las Vegas on and off for like 30 years, and I didn't gamble so I didn't give any of the money back to the casino, so now I can work when I want to work where I want to work.

From a standup perspective, what do you like the most about being in a smaller, intimate venue, like 54? 

I like doing any venue where I feel a connection. I just did a big theater last week in Sacramento, and before that, I did a benefit in a convention center for women's reproductive rights. So, I like working in all kinds of venues where there are friendly, smart people who want to come to laugh.

What have you been filling your time with lately? 

I've been doing what I want to do, when I want to do it. Martin and I have a project that we’ve kind of had in the works for a while, and every once in a while, we get a little steam behind it and we'll see what happens. It's a TV show with me and a wonderful, wonderful drag queen called Bianca Del Rio, who's actually doing a workshop on Broadway of her piece now.

So we've been working on that and getting that going and [seeing] how we can do it. [And] also, I have a daughter who's a singer-songwriter. I love going to places where she's singing. 

And the dreaded has happened, which I never thought would happen, but it's happened to me and Martin. We've started playing golf. I'm sorry; it happened. I didn't want it to happen. I still play tennis in a group twice a week, too. He just wanted to, and we did it. It all started in Las Vegas a long time ago when I used to look at those people in the desert golf course and go, “what the hell do they think they're doing?” And I wondered about it for 20 years, and I tried it, and I don't really like it, but... it's a challenge.

Do you have any new material that you're working on? 

I always have new material! I wrote a new one this morning. And I get very excited [trying new material]. When I did it at my show in Sacramento, the people were so nice. I did an hour and a half, and I said, now, you already know I've been funny, so I'm going to try some of my new ideas on you. Three of them worked and one of them didn't. That's a good number for me, that three work and one doesn’t, because it used to be like 4,000 didn't work and one did when I started writing jokes.

I’ve got loads and loads of new material!

Do you feel any different kind of pressure with your reputation and status, trying new material than you used to?

Yeah. That's why I don't do it until after my show is over and I've already been funny for an hour and a half. And then I talk to the audience and then I can try things. It's very... it's got to work 100% of the time. Unless it works 100% of the time, I don't do it in my act. If you have one that doesn't work, it's very noticeable. 

So if I can clump them together and do them after I've done a real show and then go back and say goodnight to the audience. And also, it gives the audience an experience that they're never going to get with another show if somebody comes again next time, because it's never going to be exactly the same.

How do you feel like your craft has evolved over the course of your career?

I always try to be a more organic performer, because coming from a ballet background where I started ballet when I was four, I'm a very, very structured person. In fact, I [could] never go to a club and dance because I was always doing it to a count. You know, you have to do it for a count of eight, and this is when you move this foot, and this is when you jump. So I'm a very, very structured person, and I've always envied people who could riff, because I'm not a riffer.

So I'm always trying to put together things that are longer than a punchline joke. I'm trying to get more emotional, and I'm trying to get to a better story, about how to include jokes in the... And it's always a constant process. It's never, oh my gosh, I did it and now it’s done.

Is there anything else that you'd like to add?

I'm very excited to come to New York. I'm very excited to play 54 Below, or Below 54. I can never remember which one it is, but I know where it is, so that's the most important thing.

And I like to... I still wear a gown. I still get dressed up. I kind of think that's my style. Once I was playing a gig in Atlantic City, and I wore a sparkly pantsuit, and there was an inquisition. Why did you do that? Why didn't you wear a gown? What's wrong with you?

Are you planning to bring your dog with you? 

No, my doggie stays home. We have a dog sitter. We have a new little girl. I say she's had a very, very, tragic past. She was found on the streets of Hollywood with a broken leg and an unproduced screenplay. But she's better now. She weighed 7 pounds when we got her. She's a 12-pound ball of energy now, and we have a very nice house sitter that comes because I don't want to just come out here and put her in a place she doesn't know. We have to be very, very kind to our animals. They're special.

Thanks so much for taking the time to talk.

Thank you very much for talking to me. And I'm looking forward to coming to New York. October is the best time of year, that's why we picked it. And I'm going to look at all the fall trees, because in California we don't get a lot of that.

Find more about Rita Rudner including all of her upcoming tour dates and where to follow her on social media on her website at www.ritarudner.com