Being a standup comic usually means a life on the road, but Rita Rudner has managed to maintain a successful career in comedy while also settling down and raising a family.
Rudner is a regular performer at the Venetian hotel and casino in Las Vegas. That allows for days like a recent one, during which she took her 9-year-old daughter to tennis camp, did some work at home, took a post-camp swim with her daughter, enjoyed a family dinner and then headed to work.
Of playing the roles of both working comic and mother, she says, “I say I’m Hannah Montana, only I’m much older and I don’t wear a wig.”
Fans of Ms. Rudner will have a rare chance to see her perform outside of Sin City when she takes the stage at the State Theatre in New Brunswick on June 22. Her Vegas commitment means she doesn’t get to tour anymore, but a trip she’s taking with her husband, producer Martin Bergman, and their daughter is making the local appearance possible.
“I’m on my way to London and stopping off in New York to see some friends and do some shows and do some shopping,” she says. “And then we’re on our way and I’m doing some shows in London after that. We’re doing a little loop. Usually I don’t go anywhere, and of course we don’t go anywhere without our daughter, and she’s out of school now so we can take her.”
She says her act is based on what happens in her life.
“And luckily every time I wake up something new happens,” she says. “I keep writing material about relationships. Martin and I have been married for 23 years now and I have a daughter and I’m getting older and the world is changing, so there’s always something to write about.”
Ms. Rudner started her showbiz career as a dancer and even appeared in some Broadway shows. She turned to comedy when she was in her mid 20s, inspired by her two comedy heroes, Jack Benny and Woody Allen.
"When I started researching Jack Benny… what I loved about him was that he didn’t look funny, he looked like your accountant,” Rudner says. “And he was very, very serious about everything and his comedy character was so complete, you knew what he was going to deliver just by looking at him. What I loved about Woody Allen was the structure of his writing, so I’ve kind of taken the two and done my best.”
Her best has been pretty good. She’s performed her act across the world, appeared on television countless times, acted in movies and written books. A new project for her is a radio show she’s working on for the BBC with her husband. The show isn’t a talk show, but a scripted half-hour comedy. The couple got the idea when they listed to some of Benny’s old radio shows during a drive to California.
“We said, This is so great it’s so funny, after what? 50 years,” she says. “It’s such a great format that no one does anymore so we copied it.”
There is another comedy legend who played an important role in Rudner’s career. She made regular appearances on “The Tonight Show” when it was hosted by Johnny Carson and an appearance on that NBC franchise could help make a comic’s career.
It took three years after her audition to get booked on Carson. Then she was bumped a few times before actually getting on.
“When I finally got on the show, it was called the ‘Bump Show’ and they had comedians that had been bumped over and over again that never got on,” she says. “And they let me on and it was very exciting to actually be looking at Johnny Carson after seeing him (on television) all those years.”
She even got invited to sit and talk with Johnny, the ultimate honor for a comedian back then.
”I was very elegant in what I said to him, I looked at him and said ‘You’re Johnny Carson.’”
Rita Rudner will perform at the State Theatre, 15 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, June 22 at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $35-$65. For tickets and information, call 732-246-7429; www.statetheatrenj.org.
