Joan Rivers
If you didn’t watch veteran comedian Joan Rivers on last Friday’s The Graham Norton Show you missed out on a masterclass. One we all could probably learn from.
She was on to promote a documentary being aired on TV tonight, which follows a year in her surreal and rather relentless life.
Never one to miss an opportunity for self-promotion, Rivers’s appearance completely eclipsed those of her fellow guests: prankster Johnny Knoxville and catchphrase queen Catherine Tate.
In fact, the highlight for me was Knoxville and Tate’s reactions – largely shock and hysterical laughter – to the smut emanating from the septuagenarian’s mouth.
Pensioners in showbusiness
At 77, Rivers has maintained her media profile and sharp wit. But what about all her contemporaries?
In the UK, aside from Bruce Forsyth, our older entertainers are either surviving as exhibits of nostalgic whimsicality in end-of-the-pier shows, or reminiscing about the ‘good old days’ at events organised by the freemason-esque Grand Order of Water Rats.
Rivers’s longevity is astounding and admirable. Comedian Shazia Mirza explained it well when we met earlier this year. I asked Mirza who she admired in the entertainment industry:
What we can learn
The lessons we can learn from Rivers and her experiences are pretty obvious:
- Grasp every opportunity even if it’s out of your comfort zone.
- Never turn down a job, no matter how unglamorous.
- Work relentlessly hard.
- Confound others’ expectations of what they think you should be doing.
- Say to people’s faces what you’d say behind their backs.
I had a mini discussion about Rivers’s career on Twitter over the weekend with the Sunday Mirror’s Kevin O’Sullivan. I was arguing that she had remained successful by reinventing herself. O’Sullivan believes that while clearly some of her material is updated, her delivery is the same and she’s never needed to change.
He’s probably right. But it is also her canny business sense and willingness to add more to her repertoire of skills – selling jewellery and writing books – that has secured her survival.
Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work is on More4 at 10pm tonight. The trailer is here. Also worth a read is this great interview by The Independent‘s Guy Adams.
Gerard
November 9, 2010
Hello, very interesting article and although I agree with your tips for success gleaned from Rivers life I must disagree on a few points. First I disagree with Bruce Forsyth being set up as an exception to nostalgic whimsicality. Personally I see him as an antiquated embarrassment. Secondly, please correct me if I am wrong but didn’t Joan Rivers suffer some form of financial difficulty at some point that surely acted as an impetus to work, work, work. Finally her life has not been plain sailing with the suicide of the her husband, falling out with her mentor Johnny Carson, contemplating suicide and developing an eating disorder. These experiences have probably toughened her up as well, which has lead to her surviving so long in a tough industry.
Joseph Pike
November 9, 2010
Yep: I agree with most of those points! However I didn’t mean Forsyth was an exception to whimsicality, but that he’s still in high-profile big-budget work.
Although I didn’t want to focus on Rivers’s troubles, it’s perhaps unbalanced of me to not mention them at all. The link to the Guy Adams interview should give some background on that period of her life.
Vanessa Rima
December 3, 2010
Thank you for the reference link.
What I most admire about Joan Rivers is her faith that things will get better, never giving up.
Vanessa Rima
http://www.fashionissima.com
susan
May 19, 2011
hello
D J Z
November 27, 2011
I think part of Joan River’s delivery has never changed because as a ground-breaking, in-your-face, female comedian, she was so ahead of her time that it’s only now that the world is catching up.
Dcn. Oyibo Ejuile Chidi
April 13, 2012
Am inspired by this.
Atsa
May 22, 2012
I love joan rivers link,it thougt me how to be determine,believing that things will get better.
Sally
June 29, 2012
Stop with the ageist comments! Shouldn’t people just be judged on who they are and what they do rather than whether or not they are too old (in some people’s opinion) to be doing it in the first place! Pensioners – the elderly – these descriptions conjure up a picture in the mind of people who are decrepit, just about managing to hang on to life, with the half a brain (or less) that they have left. Would you say a ten year old has much in common with a thirty-five year old? So what about a sixty year old and an eighty-five year old (the latter being the age of the wonderful, and full of life, David Attenborough). The answer is – they might have something in common, but not age perhaps.
This country is appalling in its attitude to age – and to lump everyone together as “past it” (especially the women!) is a discriminatory and rather unintelligent! The BBC should outlaw the use of “pensioners” to describe anyone over 60 (I cringe every time I hear a newscaster use such an expression) as if that is all they are (ie, their whole identity) and use of homogeneous descriptions such as “THE elderly” (again – that’s all anyone over a certain age is – they cannot, apparently, be defined as dancers, or singers, or writers etc). Perhaps Grandma or Grandpa is allowed, but that’s about it!