[1] Rude began his career performing with travelling tent shows on the showground circuit in the early 1960s, singing and playing guitar.

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.

[2] Rude's comedy is energetic and aggressive, peppered with expletives and his trademark rat-tat-tat laugh, and typically suitable for adult audiences only.

There were several regular characters that appeared in his act; most notably 'Bishop Rude' while wielding a toilet plunger, 'Harry Muff (The Diver)' - 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.