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March 12, 1999/24 Adar 5759, Vol. 51, No. 24
Comic learns that comedy, tragedy can go hand-in-hand
TAMI BICKLEY
Staff Writer
It's 8:30 a.m. in Palm Springs, Calif., where comedienne Rita Rudner is baking sweet potatoes for breakfast.
"They get nice and crispy in the oven," she explains, while settling down in her home to talk to Jewish News in a recent phone interview, in advance of her upcoming appearance at the Solomon Schechter Day School's Masked Ball on Sunday, March 28.
"I am so excited to visit Phoenix," she says. "There are no natural disasters in Arizona, and my hair responds well to the lack of humidity. You can bet I'll have good hair when I visit."
It's no surprise that Rudner tells jokes for a living, given her ability to sneak humor into any conversation. What is surprising, though, is how she rebounded from a tragic childhood and found the ability to do so.
At 13, Rudner experienced the death of her mother, who had "been very sick." An only child, she remained in her native Miami, Fla., with her father, Abe Rudner, whom she describes as a "homebody" and a "very nice guy." Soon, Rudner became lonely. She missed the companionship and direction her mother had given her. She found that only dancing - her favorite hobby since she was 4 - could take her mind off her mother's absence.
Rudner graduated from high school when she was only 15. That same year, she decided to leave Miami for a shot on Broadway as a dancer. With her belongings in hand, she said good-bye to her father, and headed to New York City to follow her dream.
"It was very stupid," she confesses. "To leave at such a young age, you either have to be very brave or very stupid, or both. I was the right amount of each ingredient."
While in New York, Rudner lived in the now defunct Barbizon Hotel for women. She spent most of her time dancing on Broadway, where she performed in six shows, including Stephen Sondheim's "Follies" and "Annie." But when she turn-ed 25, she had a moment of realization.
"I noticed that there were not a lot of female comediennes, but there were a lot of female dancers," she says. "So I thought that was an area where there might be some more room to be noticed.
There's also the longevity factor. If you're a comedienne, you don't have to kick (up your legs). You just stand perfectly still, maybe taking a couple steps to the right or left. I figured I could do that until I was 90."
Comedy consumed Rudner's mind, she recalls. She researched her favorite comedians, including Woody Allen and Jack Benny, and spent hours at the Library of Performing Arts and the Museum of Broadcasting in New York. She read every book about comedy she could get. The next 10 years were a comic blur.
Audiences laughed at her from the start. And what surprised Rudner was how it made her feel.
"(Comedy) is very therapeutic," she explains. "When I was in New York, performing at comedy clubs, even when I was having the worst days in the world ... if the audience is laughing at you, you just have a good time."
Rudner, who lives with her husband of 10 years, Hollywood screenplay writer and director Martin Bergman, and her "very hairy dog," describes her on-stage personality as demure, with a focus on aspects of everyday life, such as shopping, traveling and relationships. She tries to be sensitive toward her audiences, she says, and even as a Jew who enjoys Jewish humor, she reserves her Jewish jokes for Jewish audiences.
Valley residents will have the rare opportunity to hear those jokes when Rudner performs at the Masked Ball at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Phoenix.
Aside from doing stand-up, Rudner appeared in the film "Peter's Friends" in 1992, with Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh, which she co-wrote with Bergman. She has performed on cable and local and national television programs, including appearances on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno and "Late Night With David Letterman."
Her two published books are "Naked Beneath My Clothes" (Viking-Penguin Publishing) and "Rita Rudner's Guide to Men: Who Men Are, How They Think and Who They Think They Are" (Viking-Penguin).
One of her current projects is a sitcom to be broadcast on Showtime, in which Rudner plays the part of a fashion designer who has just been released from a mental institution. The other, and the hardest thing she's ever done, she says, is writing the book she's working on now. It's a non-fiction story about the comedy club scene in the early 1980s.
But in the midst of all her career developments, Rudner says she always finds time "to sit back and laugh at her husband and their dog."
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