Rappin’ with Rudner

Shane Gammon

Friday, Dec. 26, 1997 | 9:14 a.m.

Looking for a stress reliever to finish off the holiday season?

Well your holiday wish is here: That "Born to be Mild" comedian, Rita Rudner, will perform in the Sahara hotel-casino's Congo Showroom at 8:30 p.m. today through Jan. 2.

Beginning an interview, Rudner pleaded not to have anything bad written about her. "I don't want to be on 'Cops,' Las Vegas version," she joked, adding that she's been to Las Vegas "hundreds and hundreds of times. I love Vegas. The car drives itself now. (Las Vegas) is the best place. ... You can get breakfast any time you want, which is a very liberating feeling and everybody's happy and there is always stuff to do."

Warming to her subject, Rudner notes that she has "written loads of jokes (about Las Vegas). My first 20 minutes are exclusively about Las Vegas. People who come to Vegas, it's a very specific experience. I have lots of gambling material and things that you notice when you're walking up and down the Strip and ... there is so much there to draw from. There are volcanoes in the middle of the desert, ships fight in the middle of the night as you sit in a quiet hotel room. It's just everything is happening all the time, and people who come to Vegas want to hear about something they are experiencing."

Another unique Las Vegas angle? Audiences. "You stay in one place and the audience changes," she said. "Usually we have to go all around the country and we get different audiences. We have to get on a plane and experience turbulence. Here we just have to go up to the room and then when we come back down, there is a new audience, because there is a huge influx every day in to Las Vegas."

But the make-up of the audiences, she said, has changed. "I think the crowd used to be an older crowd, kind of looking for a different type of entertainment than the crowd is looking for today. It's more of a family town now, and people bring their kids. They are just very good audiences.

"People can bring their children because I don't swear ... well I do, but no, not really," Rudner said. "But (children) under 12 is never a good thing because under 12, they scream for no reason. At least after 12, they scream for a reason. If you're going to bring a kid, they should be 12, because I want them screaming for a reason."

Tickets for Rudner's performances are $29.95, plus tax, and can be purchased at the Sahara's box office. Tickets for the 10:30 p.m. show on New Year's Eve are $54.50. For more information, call 737-2111 or 737-2515.