Comedienne Pudgy! died suddenly in her Las Vegas home, on Christmas Eve day, 2007. The cause of death was an apparent heart attack, suffered while she was watching television in her living room.
Born Beverly Wines in Chicago, to German-Polish parents, she was nicknamed "Pudgy" as a little girl because of her chubby cheeks. The future "Queen of Tease" was voted high school “Class Clown,” which she claimed forced her to rethink her dream of becoming a mortician.
Her talent for witty wise-cracking led to her becoming a legend at the "Basket of Curls" beauty salon, where she worked. Unfortunately, Pudgy developed an allergy to hair chemicals & had to look elsewhere for a career. She then joined a small theatre group called Encore &took a job as a waitress at a downtown Chicago restaurant called Toffinetti's. She traded wisecracks with the local & national politicos who populated the lunch time booths, all vying to be seated at her station.
A singer-pianist named Les Tucker persuaded Pudgy to become a singing waitress at his 20 East Delaware Club & the place began to draw a celebrity clientele (from Count Basie to Barry Manilow), as word spread of Pudgy's comedy & her strong singing voice.
Chicago singer & good friend Nan Mason, convinced Pudgy to drop her waiting job & take a gig as a performer at Punchinello's. There she met future husband & manager Mike Cardella, who, in the early 1980s, booked her at the famed Freddy's Supper Club, in New York City.
Pudgy was so unique, that within 3 weeks, a bidding war began between the William Morris Agency & ICM, to sign her. She eventually signed with Lee Soloman at William Morris.
Pudgy duplicated her New York success in Los Angeles, becoming the longest running act in the history of Studio One's Back-lot in Hollywood. Her SRO audiences were constantly star-studded; Phyllis Diller, Milton Berle, Richard Deacon, Rose Marie, Sammy Davis Jr, Suzanne Somers, Donna Pescow, Robin Williams & Barry Manilow were just some of the names who went to see her time & again. In addition to being a recurring guest on “The Mike Douglas Show,” “The Merv Griffin Show” & “Hollywood Squares,” she starred in her own television specials "Pudgy! With The Chippendales" & "Pudgy! On The Queen Mary." In between major engagements, she continued working as a headliner in night clubs & casinos across America, winning many awards, including an A.F.T.R.A. Award, presented to her in Los Angeles by Dionne Warwick.
At the time of her death, Pudgy was starring in X-Burlesque at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. She is survived by her husband, Mike Cardella & their three children, Michael Jr, Melissa & Anthony. Pudgy’s funeral will be held in her native Chicago.
- Dec. 26th, 2007 at 11:12 PM
“What? Who?” I asked.
“Pudgy. She’s this brilliant ass comedian who’s the funniest woman on the planet.” My pal said to me firmly.
“Funny” isn’t a word I throw around carelessly. And neither do any of my friends. So, how could I resist anyone who’s not only the funniest woman on the planet, but a “brilliant ass comedian”?
I ask you.
And this better be good. After all, it was the early eighties, and I had cocaine to snort.
So, we trotted down to the Pump Room on State Street in Chicago in the middle of February (which was horrible in and of itself) and waited in line for this brilliant ass comedian.
When we finally got seated, after her overture played on a small electric piano by a guy older than Charleton Heston’s grandmother, out came this over sized, black haired plump little housewife from the suburbs. I was livid. I turned to my friend:
“You owe me a gram after this.”
But as the show went on, this woman in her strangely fabulous sequined black mini, and her Liza spike hair do, killed the audience one by one. She didn’t really have an act. That is, she wasn’t a stand up. She didn’t grab the mike and tell us all how great it was to be there. Rather, she spit venom at us in every disgusting, awful, mind blowing way she could think of. She called the Asians “too smart for their own good”, she told a gay couple in the front that she couldn’t shake hands with them because she had two children, and to the lone guy in the third row, shaking and convulsing from laughter (and I’ll bet…..fear), who’s name happened to have been Kapinsky, she said:
“Do me a favor. Do us all a favor. Leave a tip on the table. Go ahead. Leave it.”
He took a rolled up dollar and placed it on the top of the table where he was sitting alone, wiping tears from his face.
“Okay…this is a test.” She said smiling her luscious smile, “....not only for me, but for you as well. For the world, really. Throw your hands up in the air…..go ahead….”
He did,
“…and now……RUN! Run like Hell out of this room!!!! See if you can make it Kapinsky!!!!”
It was insult humor at its best. She was a combination Joan Rivers, Norm Crosby, and Don Rickles all bottled up in one little housewife. I was in hysterics.
But she also had something else. When she sang, the room got quiet. She sang “My Man”; she sang “My Funny Valentine”, all the torch songs. There was something else going on there. Something else besides cheap laughs and random fart jokes. Something deeper and kinder and a little bit lost in her that came through when she sang. It was almost unnerving.
There’s also a real art to this kind of humor. I know it’s not for everyone, and if it’s done wrong it can be really uncomfortable. You have to walk a very thin line. You have to NOT believe what you’re saying is the truth. It’s more about pointing out how ridiculous stereotypes are, not that they’re to be laughed at; it’s more that the people who *believe* them are to be laughed at.
And Pudgy did it.
She did it with style, wit, and a heck of a voice.
Off stage she was just as bright, just as vivacious, just as raucous as she was on. Se didn’t really have an off stage voice. She was the exact same in both places. But as with all great comics, there was tenderness about her. And that really showed when she with her kids. Her kids brought out the Mom in her. The Good Witch. Although…her kids have a terrific sense of humor on their own and that’s due to the laughter that was always in that house.
We got be friends after that night. I insisted on meeting her, and she and I hit it off right away. Through the years, I heard from her occasionally. She played Vegas often, almost got a stab at a TV show of her own, and did some Off Broadway. But really, she settled down with her 3 kids and her husband in the middle of the desert and performed when she wanted to.
Pudgy also gave me great advice every now and then.
“Tell everyone in this business you love them, and then go home and forget what you just said.”
I loved it. And it’s really the truth in a way. There’s times when relationships form. I’ve made some of the best friends in my life working in showbiz. But most of the time, you don’t. There simply isn’t enough time. And I spent enough of the first half of my career thinking everyone was my friend and eventually getting screwed to last me a lifetime.
So……..she was right.
Pudgy (born Beverly Wines) passed away on Christmas Eve.
I got an e mail from my pal Ralph (who was much closer to her than I was) and we’re both in a state of shock. It happened so fast and she really wasn’t that old.
I know not a lot of people know who she was, or remember her in any way, but for me, she was one of the entertainers when I was first starting in Chicago that gave me courage. She believed I could do something. That I was special. That I was headed somewhere. And she was one of the few that when I told her I was marrying Chrisanne, didn’t laugh.
“You two belong together.” She said to me the year before our wedding.
Here’s a little more about her.
There was a lot of stuff underneath that wicked tongue. And even though she may not have had the success she dreamed of, she produced something much bigger, I think. Her kids, her husband, and the people left behind who’ll never forget her. Not ever.
I’ll never forget her tag line: (a line I still steal from time to time):
“If I’ve said anything this evening that has caused any kind of hard feelings, or was taken the wrong way, please believe me, from the bottom of my heart….I couldn’t care less.”
I’ll miss you, Pudge. I know you’re up there insulting Gabriel like there’s no tomorrow. I just hope for his sake, he’s not Jewish.
Time runs out for comedian Pudgy
Posted: Dec. 28, 2007 | 10:00 p.m.
Updated: Sep. 26, 2008 | 4:51 p.m.
One day Beverly "Pudgy!" Wines was a wisecracking waitress who hopped tables near Chicago's City Hall. Almost overnight, she was the toast of Rush Street.
"She never dreamed of being of a comedian. She just was," said her son, Mike Cardella.
Wines, who had emceed X Burlesque at the Flamingo since last year, was found dead of natural causes at her home early Monday, Cardella said.
Often referred to as "the female Don Rickles" for her roasting style, Wines and her family had lived here since 1993, when she arrived for a comedy gig with the "Crazy Girls" at the Riviera.
A regular at Chicago's legendary Pump Room, her career "started steamrolling when she was 30," said Cardella, who works for N9NE Group as a nightclub door host. His mother worked for Chicago restaurateur Arnie Morton, whose son, Michael, is co-owner of N9NE Group.
"She was 'the next big thing,'" said Cardella, 28, "but because she had us (her three children), that was her main focus. She didn't want to do the Hollywood parties or whatever it took. We were her priority."
One of Wines' biggest breaks came when she landed a 1983 Showtime special on the Queen Mary in front of an all-celebrity audience. They took a royal ribbing.
Funeral arrangements are pending. Wines will be buried in Chicago.