Rodney Rude is an Australian 'blue' stand-up comedian, poet and writer. He is best known for his bawdy humour over a long career, with 12 albums and five videos all distributed by EMI Music Australia. He has been nominated nine times for the ARIA Award for Best Comedy Release, and has sold in excess of 3 million CDs videos and DVDs.
Early career
Rude began his career performing with traveling tent shows on the showground circuit in the early 1960s, singing and playing guitar. His habit of altering the lyrics of songs to amuse himself and his audience prompted him to become a comedian. He left Australia in the mid-1960s to tour the world, and to live and work in the United States, Canada and Europe under various stage names. In 1981, he was asked by Barry Wain to return to Australia to set up Sydney's Comedy Store, and started working as the club's compere.
Style
Rude's comedy is energetic and aggressive, peppered with expletives and his trademark rat-tat-tat laugh, and most often suitable for adult audiences only. Recurring stage props often included a small ukulele for short musical pieces, hats too small for his head, oversized clown shoes, and material from his grandfather's joke album. There were several regular characters that appeared in his act; most notably 'Bishop Rude' while wielding a toilet plunger, 'Harry Muff ' - where Rodney would dress in a shirt to below his waist and short pants with belt around his knees - and 'Half Rude', where Rodney would bend himself at the knees into a fabricated set of prosthetic legs with foam around his backside to create a false pair of buttocks. Rodney's interaction with his audiences is a key part of his act, including the famous 'limericks' toward the end of each show. Positive hecklers were frequent at any Rude Concert because his quick-fire responses were an integral part of his act, making it something of a badge of honour to have Rodney heckle you as an audience member. His catch-phrase "You know what I hate?" preceding some of his jokes was always responded to by the audience calling out in unison, "What do you hate Rodney!?"
Personal life
Family
Rude's first marriage was to a Canadian; his son from that marriage continues to live in Canada. He is married to second wife Pat, has two daughters, and lives on a property in the Illawarra region.
He was arrested by Queensland police in the mid-1980s after offending officers during a show. He fought several long and expensive court cases defending his right to perform his show to adult audiences. His legal battle continued after police brought further obscenity charges in Western Australia where the case finally went to the full bench of the supreme court. Rodney won his court cases and all charges were quashed. After the Fitzgerald Inquiry against corruption, set up to investigate police corruption in the state of Queensland, the police officer leading the case of obscenity against Rodney was jailed for corruption in an unrelated matter. Since that time Rodney performed without incident in all states of Australia.
Motorcycle accident
According to his website, his absence from the comedy circuit in 2004 was due to his recovery from a motorcycle accident on his property, which required him to undergo a knee reconstruction.
Return to touring and retirement
Rude toured Australia in 2006. A CD and DVD accompanied the tour, the CD Frog Sack was released on 11 November 2006 and the DVD Rodney Rude Goes the Growl was released 11 October 2008. In late 2009, Rude announced he was coming out of retirement and returning to stand-up comedy in 2010. He undertook a farewell tour in 2016 before retiring in 2017.
