Sam Pepper talks to ... Rita Rudner
If I were to mention the name Rita Rudner to you, the chances are you’d say ‘that name rings a bell but I can’t quite place it’. Or even “Rita who?”
Maybe, if you are into early 90’s films, then you’d know she co-wrote (with her British husband Martin Bergman) the film Peter’s Friends. A film which she saw her star alongside some of UK’s acting intelligentsia including Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Kenneth Branagh and Hugh Laurie.
Yet, this is just a slither off her CV. Back in her native America, Rita is a big name. With a show business career spanning 40 years, Rita has sold over one million tickets and grossed over $70 million dollars during the past decade, making her the top-selling and most successful female comedian in Las Vegas history. In 2009 she performed in front of President Obama. One newspaper even described as her as the ‘funniest female performer on earth’. On top of that she is the author of five best-selling books.
In a world where many have made their name and fortune with far fewer achievements and considerably less talent in tow, I wonder if Rita’s been hiding herself under a bushel? Well, certainly this side of the pond.
Rita is going to be performing in London at the end of June and beginning of July at the Leicester Square theatre, after a 15 year absence from the UK stage.
“How come so long?” I ask her over the phone. Rita’s currently performing in Las Vegas.
“For the past 10 years we’ve been in Las Vegas, so Martin and I could be stay-at-home parents raising our daughter Molly who’s nine. I can go down the road to my venue and perform and I’ll be home by 10. I feel so lucky to have had this opportunity. I went on the road for 10 years, on Broadway for 10 years and everything seems to change for me every 10 years.”
If the return to the UK is part of the next 10 years, how is she hoping to pitch the jokes when she comes to London? After all whilst some subjects may translate (her witty observations include relationships, family and the importance of cleaning ladies), don’t us Brits have a different sense of humour?
Rita seems un-phased, “You know because I’m married to someone British, I have that kind of wavelength. Funnily enough when I was growing up my very best friend Julie was from England, my father’s favourite actors were always Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness, so we always watched British movies and then we went from that to Benny Hill. Quite a spectrum. I might be even more in tune with Britain than America.”
She says that whilst she has an “itinerary” of jokes, it’s not until she gets to the theatre, an hour or so before she can get into “the geist” and know how she’s going to pitch it . “A lot depends on the audience and if the jokes aren’t working, then I’ll switch”. Switch, just like that? The thought might make you or me go into a cold sweat, but then clearly this is the psyche of a successful stand-up comedienne.
Yet for all this improvisational gusto, Rita seems to have a more reticent approach to acting. We talk about Peter’s Friends and her latest film Thanks (written and directed by her husband and likely to be distributed in Europe later this year) and she tells me that she likes the smallest part and not having too much responsibility. “That way I don’t get too worried’.
But then the self-deprecation and the humour which ensues is very much Rita Rudner. We talk about whether there are any parallels between her and Carol in Peter’s Friends. Would she ever go on bizarre diet like Carol who ate water-soup?
She adds, “I’ve just tried on all my summer trousers and admitted defeat. I still fit into enough of my gowns. I do ask people to gather up some strength when they go at the zipper because you never know what’s going to happen. My husband says keep the emphasis above the waist.”
This may be true, and given this is a phone call (not a face to face interview) who am I to judge whether she’s been on a cookie binge? However if I can judge recent performances of her on YouTube, I ‘m thinking she’d give women half her age a run for their money on the figure stakes. Besides, this is a women who can still do the splits, years after she gave up ballet.
When she talks about her daughter Molly, she recounts a story about how she recently helped her on some homework and got some of the facts wrong when it came to full moon cycles. It’s something a lot of parents could identify with, but here is Rita the parent giving it straight, rather than keeping this one quiet. “I really wanted her to get an A but she got a B” and my daughter said “Don’t worry you tried your best”.
When we talk about forthcoming projects, she’s refreshingly honest. She tells how Martin and her have been approached to write a 25 years-on sequel to Peter’s Friends but all this is currently in the hands of lawyers over who has the rights. There is, no ‘bigging it up’, just telling it as it is. With the couple still very good friends with Emma Thompson, and her husband Martin still keeping in touch with his fellow friends Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie from Footlights at Cambridge University, she really hopes that this project will come off the ground once all the red tape has been untangled.
What comes across is that Rita may be a hugely successful showbiz artist in her own right but she has incredibly tight working unit with her husband who produces her shows and co-write scripts. In the world of showbiz such a longstanding partnership is rare and one of Rita’s great one-liners is “In Hollywood, marriage is success if it outlasts milk’. The couple have outlasted many other high profile relationships and this year they celebrate 23 years of marriage.
Towards the end of the interview, we get talking about London and places Rita and the family are going to visit. For a moment I slip into a pseudo London tour guide; what about this restaurant and that place?
It’s only been a few days since the Royal Wedding, so naturally talk gets on to this topic. Rita mentions she wants to take Molly to St Pauls Cathedral where the William and Kate got married. Prompted by her husband who’s in the same room, she corrects herself immediately “I mean Westminster Abbey”, but at the same time is mortified. Truly mortified.
Anyway the point of that anecdote isn’t to show Rita up, but her response spoke volumes. Her reaction was terribly British. Profusely apologetic about something fairly minor – isn’t that what embodies British behaviour? Wanting to say and do things just right, self-deprecating comments at the plenty, she keeps it real. It’s a far cry from the stereotypes the British (rightly or wrongly) may have of other abrasive and cock-sure US showbiz artists.
At the start of the interview, Rita admitted she was nervous about the forthcoming London tour because it’s a “a new place, a new venue, a different country, all those things make for a few nerves“. It’s understandable, even for a true professional like Rita.
Come her first night on stage in London, she may be doing some things on the hoof, she may even get names muddled up, but I’m pretty certain Rita Rudner will be on our wavelength and pitch it just right.
Rita Rudner will be performing at the Leicester Square Theatre in London on June 30, July 2nd, 6th, 7th and 8th . Box office: 0844 873 3433
Website: www.leicestersquaretheatre.com or www.ticketzone.co.uk
Ticket Prices:
Weekdays - £27.50 & £45
Friday and Saturday - £35 & £55
All shows at 7.30pm
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