I will miss Joan Rivers. Joan Rivers the person was even more impressive than Joan Rivers the performer. I wanted to post something about Robin Williams after his death but there were too many facets to that story. Ultimately, his life's memory will be eclipsed by his suicide. I am a moral relativist and I believe that if a person has to endure chronic, incurable pain, maybe Dr. Kevorkian had a point. Having said that, Robin Williams just did not win my sympathy.
Joan Rivers could have gone out like Robin Williams. Her life was a roller coaster. She scraped and scratched and clawed her way to the top. Bob Dylan wrote a memoir of the magic days of Greenwich Village. Imagine a place where Bob and Joan and Richard Pryor and Tiny Tim shared table scraps. Joan believed that no gig was too small. She simply would not turn down work. This ethic, this energy, would stay with her to the very end.
Joan Rivers found herself on top of the world in the third decade of her career. She had her own talk show and BOOM! Her show got cancelled, Fox stonewalled on the money they owed her and her husband committed suicide. Logically, Rivers should have been crushed. Her spirit never wavered.
From the abyss, Rivers launched perhaps the biggest comeback in entertainment history. If you could reduce Joan Rivers to one word, that word would be "work!" No gig was too small. When no one returned her calls, Rivers starting hawking jewelry on a home shopping network. That paid the bills until she got a guest shot here, a guest shot there, and soon the foundation was rebuilt.
The Grim Reaper was the only force to slow Rivers down. Her resume is just too much to rehash here. She reinvented herself as a catty celebrity watcher. I have to admit she lost me at some point. I don't even know these red carpet people much less do I know of fashion faux pas. But Rivers found her audience and I respect that.
I do have good memories of Rivers, especially in her exchanges with Johnny Carson, Betty White and Howard Stern. I have a soft spot for people who make me laugh and Joan would be at the top of that list. To reiterate, her secret of success was pretty damn simple. Just work ten times harder than everyone else and perhaps luck will find you. Rest in peace, Joan.
1 comment:
Usually I am unfazed by celebrity deaths and comings and goings. I really don't care what they do with their lives. Ugh. But something about Joan Rivers' death kinda got to me. She was bitingly hilarious on Fashion Police, unafraid to say just about anything and one of the funniest people ever to hit the circuit. Of course, people took offense, especially at the "Obama's gay and Michelle's a tranny" crack, but they don't know what they lost because they're idiots. Joan was an equal opportunity offender.
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