Comedian Rita Rudner, whose quick wit and snappy one-liners have made her a favorite in Vegas over the past decade, returns to Tucson for her first stand-up show in a few years.
We caught up with her last week by phone at her California beach house, where she lives with her 9-year-old daughter, Molly, and writer-producer husband Martin Bergman.
"It's beautiful. I saw dolphins this morning. They were playing in the ocean. Isn't that nice?" she said.
Do you still live in Vegas, too?
"I go back and forth. I have a lot of frequent-flier miles."
So how does that work - weekends in Vegas, home during the week?
"You'd have to look at my schedule. Whenever Martin tells me to go to Vegas, I go. I don't do weekends, though. I do days of the week.
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"I don't have a normal routine, which is really good. . . . (Martin) made me buy a calendar this year because I was getting too mixed up. It was driving him crazy. But I did lose the calendar on Jan. 3. And then I bought a new calendar on Jan. 4. I filled it in. My daughter and I were cleaning out her bookshelf about a week ago, and I found my old calendar that I had lost on Jan. 3. So now I have to transfer everything back."
Ever heard of a smartphone?
"I'm too stupid to have a smartphone. I don't want one; I don't want to know about it."
No iPad?
"Martin has an iPad, and I clean it once in a while. I get the fingerprints off it, and then I hand it over to him. I don't care about it. I like magazines. I like books.."
But you are out there on Facebook and Twitter.
"I am a tweeter. I tweeted this morning about Paula Deen. 'Newsflash . . . Paula Deen introduces the first diabetes medicine that contains butter!' "
Did you post it on the computer or an iPad?
"I don't even have my own email. Martin tells me how to tweet, and he has a computer. I push him out of the way and I do my tweet, I type it in."
On stage you chat about the economy. How has it affected you directly?
"We're not immune to it. It took us 18 years and we saved up for a beach house. And proudly today it's worth almost half of what we paid for it. ... I have a 401-Not-OK."
Are you still having fun in Vegas?
"I love doing Vegas. ... The audience travels and I stay in one place. They have jetlag and I'm wide awake."
What else are your working on?
"Right now I just want to learn a Hungarian accent" (for a play she's doing in California adapted by her husband from her novel "Tickled Pink"). "I have to channel Ivana Trump and Zsa Zsa Gabor."
This is your first Tucson show in a couple years.
"I remember it was pretty and you have the big cactuses."
If you go
• What: Rita Rudner in concert.
• When: 7 p.m. Sunday.
• Where: Desert Diamond Entertainment Center, 1100 W. Pima Mine Road.
• Tickets: $20 to $45 through ticketmaster.com
