Comedy Salad with Buddah #5 Bari Alyse Rudin

Bari Rudin in action.

"Comedy Salad with Buddah" is a blog about standup comedy, comedians and their world of comedy. Buddah will conduct short interviews with various comedians on a weekly basis. This week I visited with Bari Alyse Rudin from New York and currently living in Connecticut (tip for you stalkers out there). I found Bari to be very interesting, given her Jane of all trades background as a writer, producer, performer etc... on the east coast as well as the west coast. Bari started working as a TV news intern at TVJ Miami at age 19, CNN in LA at the age of 20 and began performing standup at ripe old age of 21. I asked her six questions. Here we go...



BUDDAH: How many years have you been in the entertainment business and what was one your favorite projects you worked on?



BARI: It's been 20 plus years, 23 something like that. A favorite project was Kennen Ivory Wyans Show. I tried and couldn't get hired as a writer/producer on the late night talk shows in NY for years. That was my goal. I was thrilled when Keenen show hired me to be comedy producer and moved me to LA. It was a fun show to work on, fun band and great musical guests and celebrity interviews and I was happy to give a lot of comics their late night debut.



BUDDAH: Would you rather be a standup performer or a comedy writer?



BARI: I can't say that I would rather be on one or another, I love both. I think you are cursed with the feeling that when you are doing standup you should be writing for a show you should be doing more standup. I do love the family (even dysfunctional) vibe you build when you work on a show. The long hours and total devotion to one place and project build comraderie. And I like the stability of the having the same place for 6 weeks, 3 months or a year that working on a show brings.



BUDDAH: Do you like to emcee a show or do a standup set?



BARI: I would rather do a spot lately because I haven't done much MC work in the past few years, however I do like hosting because you can be more conversational with the audience and I like that familiarity. I like relating to people and feel like you are getting to know each other. When you're hosting that's a little different from doing a spot.



BUDDAH: Who is your favorite late night talk show host, past or present?



BARI: That is a hard one for me to answer in that I spent years being rejected to write for all male late night talk shows. So I have strong feelings about how those shows are run and staffed that I have to put aside to answer that question strictly as a viewer. I suppose I liked Johnny Carson the best and David Letterman, especially back in the day when he was breaking new ground. I do think Conan has some clever things and has grown into a good interviwer. I love Jimmy Fallon's sketches and I do enjoy some of the funny bits Jimmy Kimmel does. As far as hosts, or one over the other, there is a sameness to all of the shows now.



BUDDAH: You have your very own talk show. Who would be the three guests (living or deceased) you will interview on the first show?



BARI: Marilyn Monroe, Liberace and John Lennon.



BUDDAH: I am buying you a steak dinner, (not true, I am too cheap, hypothetical) what will you order as your side dish?



BARI: Hmmmm side dish...creamed spinach or truffle mac n cheese or potato skins all the fixings, why I will never be skinny.



Bari was supposed to send one question back to me and forgot, so I will make one up on her behalf.

What is the oddest way you ever got stage time at a club?



BUDDAH: The night I was just hanging out to watch friends perform. My buddy Andrew had an anxiety attack and passed out in the bathroom 5 minutes before he was to take the stage and I was asked by the headliner to do the time which I did and it went pretty well. After the show we finally talked him into going to the hospial and it turned out he had an aneurysm and could have died. He is fine now and still performs and often kills...on stage.
Bari Alyse Rudin

Bari hits the stage often on the east coast. So catch her if you can. Peace.