2 The Journal
Better After 50 • February 7, 2012
Joan Rivers comes to Seattle
By Katherine Luck
Over the phone, the unmistakable New York bray is undiminished, even at age 78. “The people in Paris ... they’re so rude, so nasty. All the jokes you hear — ‘They should take Paris and fill it with English people’ — they’re absolutely right!” This is Joan Rivers: comedian, actress, plastic surgery consumer bar none and cultural icon. After nearly half a century in the spotlight, her pullno-punches brand of snark is unblunted. Growing up in Brooklyn, being funny was a family affair for Rivers. “My father was a doctor, but so funny. The joke in the family was, ‘His patients die laughing,’” she said. Her parents, Jewish immigrants from Russia, discouraged Rivers from becoming an entertainer, however. They felt her older sister was on the right career track when she wound up the youngest female at the time to graduate from Columbia Law School. “When I said, ‘I want to go into show business,’ my father and mother both fainted and they didn’t wake up for five years,” Rivers said. After appearing on stage in school productions at Barnard College in the 1950s, she took a retail job, married the boss’ son, and got divorced six months later. Then came seven years spent struggling to make it in New York City as a comedian and actress. Following a stint on “Candid Camera,” her big break came when she appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson in 1965. Before long, she was appearing in a range of light TV fare, including “The Carol Burnett Show,” “Hollywood Squares” and “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Today Rivers counts herself fortunate that both of her parents lived to see her succeed. “They got to come to the Carson show and saw that it was OK. I was OK,” she said. Unlike her parents, she encouraged her daughter, Melissa, to pursue her show biz dreams, frequently telling her, “Run your own race. Don’t worry about what others are doing.” Mother and daughter are running an entertaining relay race nowadays, starring in a reality TV show on WE, “Joan & Me-
Photo courtesy of Northwest Associated Arts
lissa: Joan Knows Best?” Now in its second season, the show is filmed in Melissa’s Los Angeles home, where Rivers takes up “temporary” residence. “It’s seven months of work for 10 episodes,” Rivers said, adding that there are plenty of shockers this season, which premiered on Jan. 24. “I smoke medical marijuana, Melissa breaks up with her boyfriend on camera — my God, we caught it on camera! A friend of ours who is uberblond and looks like a member of Hitler Youth finds out he’s Jewish. He has a bar mitzvah and a circumcision. Who knew these things happen? And everybody gets plastic surgery in the house!” On the reality TV show, Rivers’ guest status at her daughter’s house is ostensibly to accommodate the shooting schedule for “Fashion Police” on E!, an outgrowth of Rivers’ famous red carpet confrontations of celebrities over their awards show fashion faux pas. “Melissa and I started the red carpet [commentary]. It’s just grown and grown and grown. ... It’s gotten so you can’t say anything. It became big business,” she said. Rivers’ stinging celebrity critiques started in 1994 with the Golden Globes and expanded the next year to include the Academy Awards. Though her often brutal jibes kept her in the limelight, Rivers
decided to stop doing in-your-face celebrity mockery when the agents of big stars began blacklisting her from speaking to anyone on their client list. She became acutely aware that she was becoming unpopular in the entertainment industry. “The nice thing is, I’ve never been invited to the good parties. So it’s not like I’m off the list,” Rivers said. It was also very hard for her to be harsh when she was confronting one of her friends on the red carpet. “The minute you become a reviewer, then your allegiance has to be to the people who are reading you,” she said. “They’re not tuning in to hear pap.” When not filming “Joan & Melissa” or “Fashion Police,” Rivers’ life is all about New York City, where she maintains an apartment on Manhattan’s East Side. Her days there are consumed by QVC and, “If I’m free, I’ll go to the theater. I’ll see anything. Broadway, off-Broadway, off-offBroadway, under Broadway — anything,” she said. Even after decades as a TV star, Rivers still regularly returns to her stand-up comedy roots with her live show, An Evening With Joan Rivers. “My act changes so much because it’s
about what’s annoying me,” Rivers said. Nothing is off limits, her ire being raised on the rainy day of this telephone interview by “anything that happens at an airport now, people who think their children are beautiful.” And most of all, “that stupid California culture. They’re all bone thin. And they have no humor. No humor!” She will bring her stand-up show to Seattle just three days after the 84th Academy Awards. Naturally, “It’ll be filled with Oscar stuff. Let’s hope somebody gets very drunk at the Oscars,” she said. “Then we can talk about it.” Rivers also has a new book that is due to be on shelves this summer — though she cautions that her publisher may be in for a surprise, because she’s still writing it. It will be an extension of her act, filled with zingers about all the things she doesn’t like, including entire cities. Given her opinion of Paris, which has netted five pages and counting, one is almost scared to ask what she thinks of Seattle. “Beautiful city! That Northwest corridor is gorgeous. So stop bitching!” An Evening With Joan Rivers takes place at 8 p.m. on Feb. 29 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle.
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