Her Road to Stardom

Story: Cheryl Solimini  

I never thought I would grow up to be a slot machine, but now there’s a whole bank of me at New York-New York Hotel & Casino.

Better a slot than a slut!

Actually, I never thought I’d be doing any of the things I’m doing at this point in my life: stand-up comedy, screenplays and novels, the Academy Awards with Steve Martin, and hosting my own syndicated TV talk show, “Ask Rita.” I wanted to be a dancer and started with ballet at age four and by 16, was in the national touring company of “Zorba.” But in the 1980s after 10 years of blisters and six Broadway shows, I noticed that there were millions of dancers and millions of singers—too much competition—so I tried stand-up.

That first night on stage, I was very nervous—everything shook, but when people laughed, I realized I had a knack for it. I liked the freedom of saying whatever I wanted instead of memorizing someone else’s words. This way, no one else could take credit if I happened to be good. I’m an only child, so maybe that was appropriate training.

I started performing in Las Vegas 15 years ago in the comedy clubs and moved up to opening for celebrities like The Everly Brothers, Julio Iglesias and Tony Bennett. Eventually I got on a double bill co-headlining with Louie Anderson and Dennis Miller. From there I got my own show and now I have my own show room!

You can catch me at The Cabaret Theatre at New York-New York. I’m appearing indefinitely, which is a good thing because I sold my house in Los Angeles and have nowhere else to go. Hopefully it will be a long marriage. I’ve gone completely Vegas now and won’t buy anything that doesn’t sparkle!