Rita Rudner

When comedian Rita Rudner returns, you will be seeing the talent that has had her named Las Vegas’s “Comedian of the Year” nine years in a row. What you may not know that she was nearly not a comedian at all. At 15, she came to New York to dance and appeared in several Broadway shows. She danced for a few years and then she just stopped. In an interview, she explained why. “I noticed there weren’t too many female comedians and loads of dancers,” she said. “You gotta pioneer it. It’s a position of power. You’re controlling people’s emotions, making people laugh.”

Rudner has said that she writes on torn pieces of paper with coffee stains, but she is actually very organized when she performs. “I have to know exactly what I’m going to do,” she said. “You don’t go into a heart operation unprepared. If something happens, I have to respond. In a show, I was attacked by a moth. I had to do something. I always leave space at the end for questions and answers for spontaneity.”

“Everyone will have a good time and I’ll be wearing a pretty dress,” she said.