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Dig A Hole: Insult Comedienne Beverly Wines Cardella aka PUDGY!

December 30th, 2007 by Scott Marks

pudgy.jpg

Kup’s Column How do you do, ladies and gentlemen, Kup’s Column begins tonight with the report of a tragic end to 2007. The entertainment world is mourning the loss of Beverly Wines Cardella, better known to…as, I should say, the great Pudgy! I can hear her now grazing at that giant Vegas buffet in the sky.

Pudgy’s pudgy body was found in her Las Vegas home the day before Christmas. Best known as the female Don Rickles, or as Essie used to call her, “Totie Fields with a vagina,” Pudgy! died of natural causes while watching television in her living room. Hopefully it wasn’t a video tape of one of the many Kup’s Shows that she guested on.

Lone before Roseanne Barrnold hit it big, Pudgy! started out as a wisecracking waitress working the tables in a restaurant near City Hall. Sadly, Essie and I never witnessed her skill as a waitstaff personnel because she worked in low grade Greek truck stops compared to the class joints the Kup’s dined at. Many of her regular patrons suggested that the corpulent cutie belonged on the stage. She agreed, and her first performing job came at Punchinello’s on trendy Rush Street. After years of hard work she became a fixture on the Chicago nite club circuit where she lived up to her nickname, “The Queen of Tease.”

Pudgy! always put her family before her career…something that this reporter was a miserable failure at…and worked her performing gigs round her home life. I can’ tell you how much pleasure her performances at the legendary Pump Room brought Essie and myself, particularly since all the meals were on the arm.

In 1993, with her three children old enough to make the trip, Pudgy! moved her family to Las Vegas where she began a longstanding series of engagements in local hot spots. I tell ya’ nobody knew how to host a tit show revue better than our girl Pudgy! Whenever Essie and I were in Vegas two spots were a constant: Sig Sackowicz’s home and The Riviera Hotel to check out Pudgy! in the Crazy Girls revue. Pudgy! frequently joked about how hard it was to win over an audience who didn’t pay to see a fully-clothed fat broad hurl insults at them.

I’d like to publicly point out that Pudgy! did all of this without once resorting to blue material or uttering smutty four-letter words. Not like those filthy scum-idians Howard Sterns or Sam Kingston. No sir, that Pudgy! was one classy broad, I should say.

Up until last year Pudgy! was working the X-Burlesque show at the Flamingo. Although I was unable to track down Pudgy’s age, I can report that she will be buried in Chicago.

Requiescat In Punchinello’s, dear funny lady!

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Comments

6 Responses to “Dig A Hole: Insult Comedienne Beverly Wines Cardella aka PUDGY!”

  1. Rob on December 31st, 2007 11:38 am

    The one and only time I saw her perform was on the ‘Kup’s Show 25th Anniversary’ fiasco on WTTW (Kup to Essee - “PUDGY!”).
    She roamed the audience, she cracked wise, she got laughs, she sat down, and she left.
    This performance probably got two years’ worth of mentions on “Kup’s Column”. There were no doubtedly other performances on Kup’s column that we were not privy to!

  2. Bill Williams on January 5th, 2008 5:59 pm

    Nice obit on Pudgy — cleverly framed as a “Kup’s Column” (which hasn’t run in the Chicago Sun-Times for years, since Kup’s death).
    I recall the time Pudgy was a guest on “Kup’s Show,” a Chicago TV talk show. The other guests were Mr. T and Quentin Crisp — talk about a strange lineup!
    Condolences to Mike Cardella and the family.
    Bill Williams

  3. Scott Marks on January 6th, 2008 12:22 am

    Oh, how I remember that show. I may actually have a VHS dub of it in my archives. I used to work for a long defunct video duplication company in Chicago. While on the graveyard shift I stumbled across around a dozen boxes with 2-inch masters of “Kup’s Show.” They were holding them to be remastered or some such nonsense. All I know is that while no one was looking I ran off dubs of all of them. I was…am a big Kup Fan, yes sir! I met the Man on a couple of occasions. Each time he would shake my hand and look over my head to see if there was anyone more important in the room like Margie Korshak or the grate Ivan Bunny. A bunch of us went to the dedication of the Kup bridge. We were the youngest ones there. To see Wally Phillips rug up close…, but that’s another story. When it was over and everyone was leaving, Kup came over to us and said, “Thanks so much for coming, boys.” Some outstanding Kupisms: “The Color of Purple…” “Mt. T, star of ‘The A Train’…”"Jessie Jackson, a Reverend running for Minister…” And of course, calling the great Lew ALcindor “Kareem Abdul Jabber” as in “blabber.” He was a big, inarticulate lug and I loved him all the more for it! Thanks for checking in #26, and give my best to Ernie Banks. Heh! Heh!

  4. Rob on January 6th, 2008 1:00 am

    “Thanks for checking in #26, and give my best to Ernie Banks. Heh! Heh!”
    Shouldn’t that read “Hey! Hey!”???

  5. Scott Marks on January 6th, 2008 2:09 am

    Kupcinet wasn’t a big drinker. Irv, that is…

  6. jolinda on September 1st, 2008 3:59 pm

    I will truly miss her I have the tape on her Showtime special that I have watched a hundred times……..such a fabulous comedian. Its making me funny all over to be without her Pudgy you don’t know me but I know you and will always miss you…..you are the best of all

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