A Las Vegas comedy legend... Rita Rudner is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-...We're looking for the opinion of women of all ages.

I said, Well, well all ages.

I'm in that demographic.

They said, Are you 18 to 29?

I said no.

29 to 39?

I said no.

39 to 49?

I said no.

They hung up.

[laughter] -But that's only in America.

There are some countries where older women are worshipped.

Only kidding.

[laughter] -Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon joining you from the South Point Hotel and Casino where comedian, actress, and author Rita Rudner is performing.

Rita Rudner, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

(Rita Rudner) Thank you for having me.

You forgot to add dog walker and cleaner-- -Cleaner.

- --and cooker.

-Okay.

[laughter] -I do.

I'm multitasking.

-"Dog walker" I think is a reference to your new memoir.

-Yes.

I'm-- let's talk about that.

-Yeah.

-"My Life in Dog Years," that's my new memoir that's out now.

And so I divided my life up into my dogs.

So every 15 years I have a wonderful dog, because dogs are the best dogs you can count on.

They always love you.

You always-- you're never gonna hear them say, I've been seeing another owner on the side.

[laughter] -The dog's always gonna love you.

-Your current dog is?

-Betsy.

-Betsy.

-Yes.

-And where is she?

-She's at home now.

We have a dog sitter because she can't-- I can't disturb her domain.

She's very comfortable, because she was a rescue.

And she was found on the streets of Hollywood with a broken leg and an unproduced screenplay.

It was very sad.

[laughter] -Okay, back to Las Vegas.

-Yes, here I am.

I'm back.

I love it.

I've been around the country.

This is the best climate for my hair.

And might I say your hair looks beautiful too.

It's the no-- they don't advertise enough there's no frizz in Las Vegas.

That's my new catchphrase, There's no frizz in Las Vegas.

-Also though, on your Twitter you said Las Vegas is giving you even more hot flashes than you already have.

-It's increasing my-- it's making my hot flashes even hotter.

-Even hotter.

-Yeah, that's what I want in my life.

[laughter] There's some downside to this heat despite the frizz you're talking about.

-That's okay.

I lived here a long time.

You go in the pool, you get out, it cools you off.

You have a drink, go back in the pool.

What's wrong with that?

-Okay.

Now, according to your bio, you for a stretch of time, about nine years, were Las Vegas Comedian of the Year.

-Yes.

-Obviously provided this city a lot of laughs.

What has the city provided you?

-Well, this city provided me something that I am eternally grateful for.

I was allowed to have my career and be a mother.

-Hmm.

-Because I didn't have to travel anymore, and I had to take a car to work.

The audience took a plane.

I was well rested.

The audience had jetlag.

So it really-- that's one of the reasons we decided to move here was we decided to adopt our baby.

And I could take her to school every morning, and I could cook dinner and put her to sleep every night and come do my show.

So it's something that I can't thank Las Vegas for enough.

Thank you, Las Vegas.

-Wow!

The decision to adopt, that was made when-- I think later in life you or your husband wanted children and said, It's a little too late.

Perhaps we adopt.

-Well, he could have mentioned it before I was 49.

-Yeah.

[laugher] -Because that would have been a good trick.

-How significant has that been in your life, to adopt a child?

-It's been fantastic.

It's opened up a whole new world.

And I just always was afraid to do it because if you-- you know, my childhood was very complicated.

And we just decided to say, let's change our lives.

We sold our house in Las Vegas-- in California.

This is in my act.

It was a tricky house to sell, because we were renting.

We weren't really renting.

We owned it.

But anyway, that's in my act.

And we decided to-- we sold our silverware, our china, our furniture, and we started a whole new life here.

And it's just been alarmingly beneficial to have somebody that you care about more than yourself.

And I think that's what it, motherhood and fatherhood, gives you.

-"A complicated childhood" in that your mother died from cancer when you were young?

-Yes.

It was bad.

-Yeah.

And a difficult relationship with your father.

I think a lot of viewers can relate to some aspects.

-Well, he was crazy.

-Okay.

-I left home when I was 15 to become a dancer on Broadway.

And it was great.

And I did, I did ten years on Broadway, and I did six Broadway shows.

Then I was in the dressing room one night-- I was doing Annie on Broadway.

I played Lily St. Regis-- and I said, Hmm, there aren't many female comedians.

Let's do that.

So then I decided.

I went on a course.

And that's the other great thing.

I've done three great things in my life: mary my husband, decided to be a comedian, and adopt a child.

Not exactly in that order.

-I think you are proof that you can have a difficult childhood but still be a good parent?

-I hope so.

-We'd have to ask your daughter, right?

-I have lots of jokes about her in my act about-- it's all about me being a bad mother, like her playing hide and seek and me not looking for her.

[laughter] -Back to when you first became a comedian, it wasn't easy for females at that time.

What was it like?

-It's not easy for anybody, but it was particularly difficult for females at that time.

It was because we were a novelty.

And anything, like becoming a female doctor, female lawyer, everything was a bit more difficult back in the 1920s when I started.

[laughter] -Let's be accurate.

The-- -Yeah, 1980s.

It was the '80s.

I just said, There aren't many females, so I'm going to try to do that.

I learned how to do it.

And I think the most important thing I did in learning how to be a comedian was to stay who I was and not try to be another person and not try to magnify what somebody was already doing just to be-- if you're yourself, you're unique, because everybody's unique.

-You told the local entertainment reporter here, John Katsilometes of the Review-Journal, that back then nobody would book a female headliner.

You had to open for a man.

-Well, also I was quiet.

So a quiet female being a headliner?

I mean, I don't know how I ever did anything at all.

But what I did was I started to get famous on cable television and on late-night television.

So television superseded "female" and "quiet."

And then I started to become a headliner because people recognized me, and they were-- once you sell tickets, it doesn't matter if you're female and quiet, because whoever is promoting it is making money.

And money is, ooh, a little bit important in show business.

-Just a little.

-Just a teensy bit.

-About your standup, an article I read said, quote, the only-- -You've been doing too much homework.

You gotta get out there.

-I hear ya.

-Have a good time.

You know everything!

-Well, I'm-- -Party.

- --a quiet female.

-Oh, see, I can tell.

-Let me read you this quote: The only four-letter words the audience will hear are shop, shoe, and cook.

-Yes.

-So speaking about being true to yourself, you're not going to provide raunchy comedy if that's what someone wants to see?

-No.

I always do relatable comedy.

-Okay.

-I do things that we all go through, feelings that we all have that we don't express, things that I noticed that maybe other people kind of noticed and I point it out to them.

And it's not natural for me.

If it had been natural for me, I would have done it.

And that would-- like Sam Kinison was a wonderful comedian, and he swore a lot and it was hysterical.

And people can do that if it's true to them.

And also once I had a daughter, I was happy I never did that because I tell her not to swear.

And I couldn't be, you know, doing the opposite onstage and on television.

However, you know people.

They always think, oh, comedian, they're raunchy, raunchy.

Molly was in school one day, and she was a kid like around nine, nine years old, I don't know.

I took her to school, and somebody said, I know your mother.

She's a dirty comedian.

And Molly reported him to the principal.

[laughter] -And she went up and she said, I want him to say he's sorry.

My mother is not a dirty comedian.

-And that is a falsehood, and you better not talk about my mom.

-No.

So she always stands up for me.

And it was funny when she was going to school here.

There was a billboard of me at the airport.

And she was playing in the playground, and one of her friends said, I know what your mommy does.

And she said, You do?

And he said, Yes, she works at the airport.

[laughter] -Have you ever felt pressured to tell dirty jokes?

-No, huh-uh.

Oh, wait.

One night at Catch a Rising Star when there was no audience and it was my time to go on.

And I decided to do a dirty act.

-Yeah.

-And swear.

And everybody came in.

It was-- I can't remember what I did.

There was no one in the audience.

I just did it for other comedians.

Also once I was doing a roast for Chevy Chase when they used to have the Friars Club thing before it all blew up.

And I had to follow just such dirty older comedians, and it was just awful and I was getting a tremendous headache.

So I knew I had to do something, and I did put dirty words in the wrong place.

That's the way I did my act.

-Did that come off funny?

-They liked it, and I said I'm never doing another one of these again.

That's why all those roasts on Comedy Central, I thought, Oh, I'm so glad I don't do-- No one ever asked me, because I'm not good at it.

But that's not me.

-Did you ever think that your material crossed the line?

Has that ever happened?

-No.

But if any joke upsets either my husband and my daughter, I don't say it.

-Okay.

-So Martin-- I can't remember.

There was one joke he didn't like.

I took it out of my act.

It's easier to write a new joke than get a new husband.

And Molly, she had one exception that she wanted me to change something.

It made her more comfortable, and I said okay, you know?

Because I think that's important that you know your family comes first.

-Speaking of being uncomfortable, you were a little uncomfortable performing in front of former President Barack Obama.

-That was hard.

But I used to do a lot of work for Harry Reid.

-The late Senator from Nevada.

-Yes.

And he was a wonderful guy, and he was a good friend.

And one day he called me up and said would I do this benefit with him and Barack Obama.

And it was me, Sheryl Crow, and Bette Midler.

And I said, Hmm, I think I've heard of those two women.

So it was-- I was the emcee.

And it was excruciating, because I don't do political material.

-So you were asked to?

-I was ask to.

I had to do 5 to 10 minutes of political material.

So Martin helped me, and we wrote some jokes.

Because I don't like to divide an audience.

I think we're all divided up at this point.

But in that situation, it was all one, one group.

So there wasn't really anything I could say that was going to divide people, because we were all together.

So I did it, but it's not what I do.

It's not my specialty.

I don't do any political material in my act here at the South Point Casino.

-So even though there's been plenty of material that you could be inspired by lately.

-I think there is.

But that's something that people should do when they're on television nightly, because it changes from day to day.

I could write-- it takes me a while to get a joke perfect.

By the time I get one of those jokes perfect, it's moved on, you know, the political spectrum has moved on.

So I don't do that.

-You've mentioned your husband several times.

-Yeah.

-The significance of him in your life?

-35 years.

-Wow!

-Yeah.

And I met him because he was a comedy producer.

And he hired me, and I slept with him.

[laughter] -And then we got married.

[laughter] -I said, It used to be a love story, and now it's a lawsuit.

But, so he could sue me at any point and say I sexually harassed him.

-Oh, boy!

-Yeah, no, we knew each other for years before then, but-- -And your most recent project together was at the Laguna Playhouse, right?

-We write plays together.

Yes, we do.

And we have a new television project.

And it's been stalled because of the writer strike.

And we don't know when this writer strike is going to end, but we were just on the verge of pitching it.

It's a really great idea.

And we've written a script, and nothing can happen until writers settle this strike.

We're very true to our union.

-Last question.

I understand you're no longer a Las Vegas resident.

Why is that?

-No.

Well, during the pandemic, I had two contracts that both got cancelled.

-Here in Vegas?

-Here in Vegas.

Because they-- Well, one, they sunk Cleopatra's Barge, so I couldn't be there anymore.

-At Caesars, yes.

-And I just, we just thought it was time to, to do something different in our lives and, you know, change the pace.

So we had always had a beach house in Laguna, and we decided to move there.

And luckily this residency came, came to fruition at the South Point.

And I love doing it.

I'm here three times a year this year, my next one is in November, and three times a year next year.

And I love coming to visit my friends and seeing what's new in Las Vegas and visiting great restaurants.

And I'm, I might do a little shopping.

-So it's not like you've really left.

You're back.

-No, I'm always-- my heart and my gratitude is always in Vegas.

-Rita Rudner, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-And where are we from?

Where are we here?

-We are here from the South Point-- -The South Point.

- --Hotel and Casino.

-Yes.

-To see more interviews like this, go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

♪♪♪