Rhonda Shear

The Goddess Of Late Night

The Mondo Film & Video Guide Interview with Rhonda Shear

Conducted By: Mondo Justin
Mondo Film & Video Guide Editor

OK, I’ll just come clean.  I’ve been in love with Rhonda Shear ever since I saw her on late night television as a teenager.   During 1991 to 1997 Rhonda hosted bad B movies on the USA Network through her show, USA Up All Night!    The caliber of bad films shown on television during this era was astoundingly prolific, and hasn’t been duplicated since.   Films like, HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN, THE TOXIC AVENGER, BASIC TRAINING, ROLLERBLADE WARRIORS, BARBARIAN QUEEN, and CHOPPING MALL all maintain a  major cult following today.  However, a certain percentage of the films shown on the network back then, STILL haven’t seen a proper DVD release to date.  To experience USA Network back in the early 90′s proved to be an essential B movie education for anyone, and Rhonda Shear was your very sexy teacher.

Rhonda, cutting her chops on stand up comedy in Los Angeles during the late 80′s was cast by the network to replace unwanted hostess Caroline Schlitt in 1991.   Rhonda was the essence of what the network was aspiring the highly watched show to become.    Rhonda provided her own  brand of  goofy blonde slapstick, based around fun sexual innuendo.  As hostess, viewer’s were treated to zany misadventures recessing the nightlife deep inside the cities of Los Angeles and New York.    Rhonda took us to dance clubs, monster truck rally’s, restaurants, coffee shops, cigar bars, even to a female impersonator cabaret, called LA CAGE AUX FOLLIES.   Each week, you looked forward to experiencing the hi-jinks of Rhonda Shear.

[Here's an 3 minute clip of Rhonda Shear and the first ever USA Up All Night! from 1991]

Not only was Rhonda quintessentially beautiful,  she was also really fun.   Watching USA Up All Night! gave you the feeling that it must have been a television show that was fun to create.  It was zany, mad, and uber original.  Rhonda was the equivalent of,  Lucille Ball and Jayne Mansfield getting drunk, having sex with each other, and through a impossible miracle shot down from the hand of god himself – 9 months later – witnessing on television their love-child at work.   She was the USA Up All Night show!   Looking back over the history of television there hasn’t been another host on the national level to reach and effect as many as Rhonda Shear did.  Anyone who came of age during the early 90′s remembers Rhonda Shear and USA Up All Night!  In fact this website, www.mondo-video.com, would NOT even exist had it not been for Rhonda’s influence.   You watched  USA Up ALL Night! for the wonderfully weird  hodge-podge of random indie movies just as much as you wanted to see Rhonda Shear at play, alongside her two enormously amazing  ‘talents’.

With the glorious days of USA Up All Night! gone, Rhonda has been very busy.   She continued to do stand up comedy.  She created a critically hailed traveling stage show, called “RHONDA SHEAR’S COMEDY PAJAMA PARTY SHOW’.    She’s appeared on television shows like, TNT MONSTERVISION, MTV’s ODDVILLE, and UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER.  A few years ago, Rhonda packed up and moved to Florida to start her own lingerie line and boutique.   Her lingerie line is a best seller across the US, and Rhonda is committed, even spending massive amounts of time appearing and selling on the  ever so addicting Home Shopping Network.   With the resurgence of television movie hosting in full effect today, Rhonda is looking to bring back the USA Up All Night!  franchise. USA Network gave up the rights to the show  years back to Rhonda directly.   Currently, she’s promoting her lingerie line, she’s shooting a reality television series based on her boutique, she’s appearing at movie conventions, and she’s preparing for a new comedy album.   It’s amazing Rhonda Shear even has the time to speak with us.. Here’s how it went.

What was your childhood like growing up in New Orleans?

Growing up in New Orleans, set the pace for my entire life.  New Orleans was sexy.  You had all the strip clubs, the old time burlesque clubs, strippers walking the strip.  You could stay up and out  all night long and drink coffee and eat beignets.  When I moved to Los Angeles, I was out one of the first nights after I arrived, and we’re out on the town and people are starting to shut down the bars at 130am, and I was asking myself, what is going on here, you can’t stay out all night long like back home?   But yeah, it set the pace, and it was cool growing up in New Orleans.  The city has all that cool stuff like, to go cups (beer on the public streets), voodoo, great food, graves above ground, and great music, the place is who I am. It’s where my heart is.

Did you parents every give you the reasoning behind giving you your middle name, Honey?

Well, I think my mother thought I was gonna be a stripper when I grew up.  It’s very southern actually.  My mother was very sweet, very girly.  I grew up doing beauty pageants.  My mother was very much a pageant mom.   So it’s just a very southern thing.

When was the last time you where in New Orleans?  How do you feel about how everything was handled after the hurricane?

My family still lives there.  My mother actually just passed away, and we were very close.  So I try to go back often.  I love it there.   Katrina was just horrible. I wish it was better there now, but it’s making a comeback.  I try to go back often, just to support the city.  I went to the Super Bowl last year. You know I was at one time a New Orleans Saint’s dancer.  And I was Miss Louisiana, so it just makes sense.

I read that during your college days you expressed an interest in studying law?

Well, it’s a long story, so I won’t go into it.  Post college I actually went home and ran for public office.  I lost, but I got accepted to law school.  But underneath that I still had this urge to act, perform and do comedy.  So I took off to Los Angeles and see where things would lead me. I stayed for 26 years.

What was your first big break?

I was cast in a Bob Hope special, and I did an episode of Happy Days.

Bob Hope, really?

Yeah.   I was cast from an open casting call for one of his shows.   I went in to  audition, and I got it.   If you read on the internet, you’ll see something to the effect that Bob Hope discovered me.  While that’s not really true, I will say that he helped me.  He did hand pick me during that first audition. Once I did that first show, he used me in a few other things.  So in the sense, he was good luck for me. I got to work with all my idols too.   This shows you how old I am…laughing…I worked with George Burns and Johnny Carson. The only person that I didn’t get to work with that I wanted to, was my hero Lucille Ball.

What was the catalyst for you starting a career in stand up?

When I moved to Los Angeles I enrolled in Harvey Lembeck’s improvisation class.   So doing that was a lot of fun and inspiring. The people I was in the class with at the time were boosting my confidence, telling me that I should do stand up.  So finally I got up enough courage to go out and do it.  I met male comedians that told me that I was too pretty to do stand up.  That used to make me so mad, cause I’m really competitive, so I just went out and did it.  It was very empowering as a female to be up on stage.  Also, back then female comedians made it a point to not look pretty while on stage, out of fear that they wouldn’t get laughs.  I didn’t like that, so I just decided that I would be the first to go on stage not following that idea and try to get laughs.

Can you remember you very first stand up gig?

laughing…it was at a Holiday Inn.  I was following five guys at an open talent night that were Michael Jackson impersonators.  It was hosted by a guy named Skip E Lowe.  I think he’s still around Los Angeles.  He’s gotta be one hundred by now.

Then my first paying gig, was in Atlanta, Georgia.  I opened up for Wayland Flowers and Madame.  The puppet.   Shortly after that, I opened up once in San Francisco for Robin Williams. It was a fluke, but it was really cool.   In those days, you didn’t get paid much, so it was a struggle.  Some times you’d get stuck staying in a hotel room, what we called “comedy condos” where a bunch of comedians would all share a single hotel room.  So that meant, that I always had to get my money cause I wasn’t gonna be the only girl in a room with 4 male comedians.

How difficult were the 80′s for you, career wise?    You had a bunch of walk on roles in films and television did the work come fast enough for you, to the effect that you didn’t have to struggle very much?

Yeah, work came fast.  I had a lot of doors open up, cause I did alot of television. I did the A-TEAM, THREE’S COMPANY, CHEERS. But I got type-casted somewhat, as being a character that came across as overly sexy, an over the top bimbo.   Even during USA Up All Night, I had the same problem, I was being type-casted for films I went out for during the show’s run.   Luckily though after Up All Night was over my hosting career really took off, and it became more about hosting than acting for me.  I was really really close to having my own daytime talk show on CBS, but it didn’t work out.

You remember your first film role?  It’s listed as one of the Top 50 worst films of all time!

JD’S REVENGE In New Orleans!  See, I’m so proud. Even before USA Up All Night, I was doing bad films!  Let me set the record straight here.  Even though JD’S REVENGE is listed as my first film, it’s not actually my first film role. It’s listed first, cause I think I got my SAG card on it.  I did a film prior, and I dare you to find it.  It’s called QUADRUNE.  It was shot in New Orleans. I had a non speaking but bigger than life role.  A Quadrune is a 1/4th African American woman.  It’s historic, and true. Frenchmen used to married Quadrunes and have babies with them cause they were so beautiful.  They’d take them as lifetime mistresses.  It’s the basis of Napoleonic law, which still holds true in Louisiana.

What about GALAXINA (1980)?  Did you meet, or know Dorothy Stratten prior to your walk on role as the Mime-bot?  Did you meet her through Playboy?

I did know her prior.  She was very nice, but very quiet.  We actually had the same agent at the time.   I’ll never forget the day she was killed.  It freaked everyone out. It was devastating.  It really destroyed Hugh Hefner.  It was horrible.  Dorothy was so beautiful, she had such unique looks.

When you do something like Playboy… As a woman, do you worry about people seeing it, or what your parents would think?

Back then, somewhat. Now, who cares right?  But back then,  I asked my parents prior, and they were cool with it.  When I did the film, BASIC TRAINING, which I had that topless scene in, I had my dad’s blessing. My dad came to the film’s premiere and I was freaking out, let me just tell you…laughing

Doing Playboy I’ve always considered to be a good experience.  But it took some getting used to it of course.  Being in the magazine with or without clothes on certainly didn’t hurt my career. In fact it really opened up a few doors for me hosting wise.

What was it like auditioning for Mel Brooks for your role in SPACEBALLS(1985)?

I went in to audition looking to get the part of the waitress.  Mel Brooks auditioned every one himself. At the time I didn’t have blonde hair, and he was looking for a blonde.  So I told him that I would wear a wig, and he said, “No, just show up and we’ll figure it out. I like you and I want you in the movie, but I’m not gonna cast you in the part of the waitress.”   So that was that.  So up until the day of shooting all I knew was that I was gonna be in the film, but I didn’t know what I was gonna be doing or saying.  Of course, I just had that one line, and Mel Brooks threw me that line while we were on set shooting!

How did you get hired for USA Up All Night?

The network wasn’t happy with the current host. They were re-structuring, and they wanted hot, over the top and sexy.  So at the time I was doing stand up comedy, so I went in an auditioned. I actually took a hair-dryer in there with me, and started blow drying my hair, as I’m auditioning, and while all these other girls were waiting outside for their audition.

Rhonda In Basic Training

Do you remember the very first movie you played on USA Up All Night in 1991?

No, but I’m sure you do…laughing

Your movie BASIC TRAINING was followed by Linnea Quigley’s THE GIRL I WANT.

Shut up, really?

Did you actually watch any of the movies you guys were playing on Up All Night?

Yes actually.  I watched as many as I had the time for. If I didn’t have time, I would at least fast forward through them.  I always felt bad for my mom, cause she would watch the show every week, and she’d sit through all of those really bad movies.

Do you think the show has held up over time?

Yeah.  The show was really smart. It was ahead of it’s time to an extent, cause USA didn’t care.  It was a smart show. I’ve had parties and I’ve shown clips and people still laugh out loud.  We made fun of the O.J. Simpson trial. We would parody USA Network execs. We had special guests on.  We had all the ‘scream queens’ on the show.  We promoted them shamelessly. We’d show all their movies.  Those girls were a very big part of my life.  We had Lloyd Kaufman from Troma on there with Toxie. We hit on things going on at that time. And if you look back at those shows now you can see that what we were doing was a little forward.  The comedy is still quite funny.

What about the baby-faced bra?

???? I’m drawing a blank on that one. 

One thing that I find interesting about the progression of the show is how upon starting the show the Rhonda character was overtly sexual, then as the season’s progressed that was toned down quite a bit. Why was that?

Well, USA Network decided that it wasn’t cost efficient for them to produce the show in Los Angeles anymore.  USA was and is, a New York City based company.  So basically they told me I had to move to New York City otherwise the show was gonna either go off the air, or I would be replaced.  So I did it.  I moved to New York.  I wanted to keep my job, and I wanted to be on the air.  So when I got to New York I got Gilbert’s producer.  And he changed the show.   He wanted to make it more darker, and that’s just not me, and wasn’t that character.   And besides, I think he just didn’t like me anyhow.   So that’s were you start to see the sexuality tone down, and me doing stupid things, like hanging out in a men’s cigar bar, or being dressed up as a giant ice cream cone on the streets of New York City. I really hated doing that stuff.  I had to put up with him for a couple years, then after that, this sweet girl came in as producer, and she was very nice.  We had a lot of fun, but the character still stayed the same as when I first came to New York.

[To read the full article about Rhonda  & USA Up All Night! From Femme Fatale Magazine - Click Here]

Once the show started to take off, did you have any thoughts pop into your head, about the character being too sexual, I mean, did you ever say to yourself, there’s probably guys at home pleasuring themselves to me, yuck?

Well, you’re coming into someone’s home late at night, on Friday.  And you know more than likely it’s teenagers at home, when their parents are asleep.  Or it’s single guys coming home from work, and they wanna relax. What’s funny, we’d get fan letters, from doctors, bartenders, all kinds of people.  We even knew that Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac was a fan.  Ultimately, we were well aware of the sex appeal.  I was your ‘bed time buddy’  so it’s understandable, and we played into it.  The thing is, the show is remembered. We did something right.  After all, we’re sitting here twelve years after the show is gone from the air, talking about it.

I need you to help me on something? So looking for stuff online about you, I continue to run into a connection between Rhonda Shear and foot fetishism.  Are you aware?  Can you please tell me what the hell that’s all about please?

Wait a minute?  You’re not a foot fetishist?

No!..laughing

laughing…During USA Up All Night, it was really major. We weren’t really paying attention then. During production we used to pan the camera across my body ending on my feet.  Then all of a sudden we started getting letters from foot fetishist’s about it.  They’d write in saying, we love her shoes, or we love her ankles, her stockings. And the more letters that came in the more we would play it up.  They’d write in asking me to dangle my shoes off my feet, and we would do this all on the air.  The best part is, USA Network never had a clue.  They had no idea we were doing it! It got crazy, we started pushing it further, one episode for Thanksgiving, I got up on a counter-top and started stomping food and the camera was zooming in on my feet.

After a while, I actually started to get approached by foot fetish magazines, and they’d ask me to do a layout. I did a couple of them.  It’s the number one fetish in the world.  It’s sweet and harmless.  It was crazy though,  I’d get sent gifts every week, like toe rings, and pairs of shoes. Guys would cut off their pubic hair and mail it to me.

One thing I’ve always wanted to know, and I’m hoping you can shed some light on this subject in regards to the secret society of the Scream Queen’s you were involved in.  I can remember back as a teenager reading magazine’s like Femme Fatales and Fangoria and seeing ads in the classified for video tapes advertising ‘your favorite scream queens’ all nude.  And they always listed yourself, Linnea Quigley,  and Monique Gabrielle ect..

This whole thing was a thing that went very bad.  So Monique Gabrielle was married to this guy.  He was a nice and charming guy, his dad was a porn producer.  So he got involved with Monique and got on our Up All Night set.  We of course, were all good friends. It was myself, Monique, Linnea and Julie Strain.  So he talked us all into doing a  book called A SEX SYMBOL DYNASTY. Anyhow, so Monique and I did some photo shoots together, and I got topless during the shoot.  But what we didn’t know at the time was that this guy was shooting behind the scenes video of us nude or semi nude and selling them via magazines and the web!

We tried to shut him down actually.  But then we figured,  what’s out there is out there. And there isn’t anything that he filmed of me,  that’s really outrageous, maybe a couple boobie shots. This guy was selling these video’s illegally.  He’s since gone out of business, but we know he’s down in southern Florida somewhere.  And to my knowledge he’s no longer with Monique, even though the last one of us to see Monique was Linnea, and that was a couple years ago.  I am looking to get in touch with her. She is such a sweetheart.

How did your comedy CD, YOUR BEDTIME BUDDY come about?

I was just doing my stand-up, and a producer approached me.  And I did it, got paid for it.  It was fun. It’s still selling out there, and I was just asked to do another recently.  I’d like too, but I just don’t have time to update my act right now.  I’ve got a bunch of new material, that’s a lot of fun.  When I go on the road I now talk about being married, and being a sexy step-mom, and it’s fun to play that role.  I like playing the cougar.

How do you feel about getting older?

Well, I like it.  I love my life.  I’ve had a wonderful full life.  I was Miss Louisiana.  I was in Playboy. I did sexy stuff.  I still think I look really good for my age. I have a youthful attitude. I love my husband, I love my dogs. I don’t feel old.  My mind is young.  I like being seasoned..laughing

On behalf of every Gen-X male now in their 30′s, I have to ask the universal question, How does one become ‘your bedtime buddy?’

Well, there is really only two ways.  1. You can be my bedtime buddy on Facebook or Twitter anytime you want 24 hours a day.  2. If you wanna be my real bedtime buddy, you would have to be my junior high school sweetheart that I’m married to now, and there’s only one of him.  So sorry guys, I’m taken.

To find out what Rhonda’s up to, please visit any of the following links for information on Rhonda, or to purchase her CD YOUR BEDTIME BUDDY or her best selling line of lingerie please visit:
www.rhondashear.com
www.MaisonRouge.com
www.AhhBra.com
www.ShearEnterprises.com
www.HSN.com
www.TheShoppingChannel.com

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