Fame & Fortune: Rita Rudner Comedian-writer lives in her money Sponsored by
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Bankrate: The phrase "starving writer" is such a familiar one. Is your novel writing a profitable venture for you?

Rita Rudner: I did not do it for the money. I do very, very well in stand-up comedy, especially here in Las Vegas, so it's the creative fulfillment I'm after. Luckily I'm OK in the other departments, so I can afford to do something that just makes me feel like I've accomplished something. If it is profitable it's not the primary way I make my living. I did it because I wanted to do it.

Bankrate: You've been in Vegas a while now ...

Rita Rudner: Five and a half years.

Bankrate: When you were at New York-New York, they built a theater just for you, didn't they?

Rita Rudner: Yes. It wasn't just because they were taking a chance. I had taken over a theater that was in transition at MGM, their sister property across the bridge, and I was supposed to be there for four weeks. But I was a big success and sold it out for seven months. When they finally negotiated the contract with the naked ladies from France who were coming over to occupy that room, the MGM is a rather big company, and they started looking at their other properties to see where they could build a theater for me. They found one right across the bridge at New York-New York, and they built a theater for me. I was there for five and a half years. I just closed there and opened at Harrah's.

Bankrate: It's a wild concept that they would build a theater for you. What does that mean, exactly? Did you have input in the actual design of the theater?

Rita Rudner: I don't know anything about designing a theater. I think my husband, who produces the show, had meetings, and said, "This should go here, and this is how much stage we need," and then they pay for the theater. We did have input after about two years, when it was apparent that the show was going to do very well for them. We got raked seating and theater-style seats, because people looked uncomfortable. As much as they were laughing, they were too close together.

Bankrate: Why did you leave New York-New York for Harrah's?

Rita Rudner: I think change is good sometimes. We had new management come in to New York-New York, and all the people I'd started with had left. So it really wasn't the same, and my contract was up, and I got a really good offer from Harrah's. Since I've been working for five and a half years straight and I really only took two weeks off a year, Harrah's was a new situation where I'm only there for six months a year and another entertainer's there for six months. So I get more time to do my book. I have a beach house now, so I get more time to be at the beach house.

Bankrate: Where's your beach house?

Rita Rudner: In Laguna. My husband and I change things up every five years, add a new element or do something different. It revitalizes us. That's the whole thing with trying to write a novel instead of an essay book, going to a new casino, adopting a child, getting a beach house. We're always changing something.

Bankrate: Do you still work the road?