The Sad Passing of Joan Rivers

In the words of a columnist in one of today's newspapers talking about Ms Rivers.
"Bad taste only works with good jokes."

Since her death I've watched the 2010 documentary on her, "Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work" appeared to follower her from her writing her 2008 play Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress until after she won the 2009 season of Celebrity Apprentice. It looked at the up and downs of her career, from her first appearance on the Tonight Show to how Johny Carson never spoke to her after she left his network to host a talk show on Fox. That show, and its failure, drove her husband to suicide.

Her play (which was to relaunch her career - she was planning the London shows with the Tony schedule in mind as she planned to bring it to Broadway) wasn't the success that she needed it to be, and it took appearing on Celebrity Apprentice to get her career going again. But the documentary showed her life with an honestly that took it from the realm of fluff to a serious work. For example, when she was getting ready to be on The Apprentice with her daughter she told the film makers that her daughter needed this more than she did and she would hold back and help her daughter shine. When her daughter was asked about those words, she laughed. Melissa was sure that her mother had said those words and at the time her mother probably even meant them, but once the cameras were rolling Joan wouldn't hold a thing back. That either consciously or subconsciously, Joan Rivers would give it her all, grab the spotlight, try to make it The Joan Rivers show because that's who her mother was.

Seeing that honesty from her daughter, that was one of the strong point of the documentary and went a long ways to showing who Joan Rivers was. She was woman who needed to be on stage (or otherwise acting), who craved the audience, and who couldn't not grab the spotlight away from her own daughter.

As for her jokes, she made her way when women "didn't say such things". She was a female Don Rickles. Perhaps more importantly, she didn't care if you were laughing with her or at her, just as long as she was on the stage and you were laughing.

If you get the chance to watch "Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work" then you'll see sides of the woman that she kept private from the world. Since it is from 2010, it covers virtually all of her life, and makes a wonderful epitaph for this groundbreaking comedian.

Goodgulf

She was incredibly funny. In view of my posting on this site, I have few if any inhibitions. Indeed, all I will pass on are stories dealing with heavy metal, pain, cruelty, animals, or children. Joan dealt with most everything but not those things. I'd wake up late and turn on cable and there she was, at her age and easily the dirtiest comic ever. And hysterically funny most of the time. It's true that you need to be a woman comic to make vagina or period jokes. Tasteless? Perhaps. But she had me laughing along for her whole routine.