- Rita Rudner Stars in First Stand-Up Comedy Special for PBS Airing in June 2008 - One of the country's top comedians, Las Vegas headliner Rita Rudner, stars in her first stand-up comedy special for PBS, RITA RUDNER: LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS, airing as part of the June 2008 pledge drive (check local listings) on PBS. A house-filling favorite in Las Vegas since her residency at the MGM Grand opened as one of the hottest tickets in town in June 2000, Rudner is known for her hilarious wit and clever, quotable one-liners:
* "I think men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage. They've experienced pain and bought jewelry."
* "Most turkeys taste better the day after. My mother's tasted better the day before."
* "I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life."
In 2001, MGM management built Rudner her own 450-seat theatre at its sister Las Vegas property, New York New York Hotel & Casino. In 2006, she moved to an even larger theatre at Harrah's Las Vegas, selling close to a million tickets over the course of her nearly eight-year run. RITA RUDNER: LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS spotlights Rudner's 2,000th show, which took place at Harrah's in February 2008.
An award-winning television personality, comedy writer, Broadway dancer and actress, Rita Rudner also is a New York Times best-selling author whose upcoming collection of essays, I Still Have It ... I Just Can't Remember Where I Put It, will be published by Harmony Books in May 2008. She has written four books, including the novels Tickled Pink and Turning the Tables and her best-selling non-fiction titles, Naked Beneath My Clothes and Rita Rudner's Guide to Men.
Her 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 on A&E. Rudner's two specials for HBO, "Born to Be Mild" and "Married Without Children," were ratings standouts; she has performed all over the country, filling Carnegie Hall in New York three times and the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles twice. She also completed sell-out tours of Australia and England.
In 2003, Rudner launched her first syndicated daily TV show, "Ask Rita," in key markets across the country. "Ask Rita" featured a panel of celebrities lightheartedly attempting to solve personal problems submitted by members of the public; it ran for two years.
For her work on the show, American Women in Radio and Television awarded Rudner a 2004 Gracie Allen Award for Best Program Host-Entertainment. Rita helped write the 2001 and 2003 Oscar telecasts with Steve Martin and the 2002 Oscar broadcast with Whoopi Goldberg. She was seen on HBO's "Comic Relief" in 2006.
Rudner moved to New York at age 15 to become a dancer on Broadway. She appeared in several shows, including the original productions of Follies and Mack and Mabel. It was while in Annie on Broadway that she began exploring the comedy clubs of Manhattan. In the early 80s, Rudner took a full-time leap from chorus lines to punch lines and was soon a frequent guest on both "Late Night With David Letterman" and "The Tonight Show," and entertained often on HBO.
Rudner is a frequent collaborator with her writer/producer husband of 20 years, Martin Bergman. The couple's first produced film script was the Kenneth Branagh movie Peter's Friends. The film, starring Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Branagh, Imelda Staunton, Stephen Fry and Rudner, won the Evening Standard Peter Sellers Award for Comedy.
Rudner lives in Las Vegas and California with her husband and daughter.
Underwriters: Public Television Viewers and PBS.
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