Seeing Rita

We went to see Rita Rudner at NYNY last week. Reports have her leaving there at the end of this month when her five year contract is up. But the gossip column just said she will be moving to the Mirage. Seems like she is one of the last stand-up comics left in Vegas. But I was not too impressed with the show. It was a standard auditorium, with seats angling up the bleachers, probably about 400 or so chairs in the room, with a raised stage up front. For those of you that haven’t been to New York New York, there is a roller coaster that starts out in the lobby then winds to the back parking lot, with a really tall drop out back. You can hear the rumble of the coasters going by from almost anywhere in the casino. It fits the atmosphere, sounding like the old El trains passing overhead. The passing cars were really noticeable while sitting in the quiet theater waiting for the show to start. I could feel the rumbles going by every few minutes during the entire show.

That’s the coaster rails between the parking structure and the casino. Didn’t catch a car on it while we walked.

Rita came out and just started to tell her stories. I like the accent, and the way she enunciates. Here stories were amusing, but for some reason $60 per person seemed like quite a lot of money to hear someone tell little stories for 90 minutes. I don’t know, expected more but I realized it would just be her talking. Just goes to show Vegas prices. No more two drink minimum to listen to somebody good. That was $240 for the four of us – we could have had a pretty good dinner for that, and just enjoyed talking to each other for a couple of hours. Oh well, I’m supporting the economy.

The NYNY casino is made up to look like part of the New York skyline outside, with hotel rooms up in the skyscrapers. And inside the casino is supposed to look like walking around Manhattan.


There is the bridge in central park, and street trees, and a road and sidewalks. When you go to the back there are narrow streets with stores and restaurants lining the roadsides.

The entrance to Rita’s show also is made up like a theatre entrance.


But inside it’s just a black theatre (too dark for my camera). At least they keep up the theme fairly well.

NYNY is across Tropicana Boulevard from the Excalibur. It’s interesting looking over there between the roller coaster supports.


Oh – a final note, on why it’s good to put back those little cabinet hook things we took off after the Swedes left in November.