Joan Rivers, one of our time’s most unconventional comedians, is returning to Montreal for the Just For Laughs comedy festival.
The irreverent Rivers hosts the festival’s Videotron Just for Laughs Gala on July 16.
When The Canadian Jewish News got on the phone with Rivers from her New
York apartment, she immediately asked, “So what do you want to know?”
Has she been outspoken from day one?, we asked. “Probably not,” Rivers replied. “I think most of us that go into comedy go into it because we were always thinking rather than saying what we thought was funny,” she continued.
“In high school, I was not the class clown. I was the class wit. Big distinction. I never put the lampshade on my head, but I made the joke about Moby Dick.”
Rivers thinks comedy is the last bastion of being able to say what you like. “Absolutely everything is so politically correct nowadays. My act is so politically incorrect,” she said.
“It has to be, please! If it’s funny, people laugh. If they don’t laugh, then perhaps you’ve gone too far. I do that at least twice in my act every night. I say to the audience, ‘Too far, eh?’”
Along with longtime fans, college students often populate her shows, in part because her act is not about memory lane. “People interview me and ask about Johnny Carson. Who cares – you know? I’m talking about being green, old, sex, death, the absolute fallout from 9-11, and terrorists being hideous and ugly – all current,” Rivers said.
After gaining much notoriety from a 1965 appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, among other gigs at the time, she wrote for the hidden-camera show Candid Camera. She said she found writing for Just For Laughs Gags, also a hidden-camera show, difficult.
“For everyone that you see that gets hysterical or funny, you really have 15 hours of people going, ‘Oh, okay,’ and walking away.
“I did a thing once where I was shoplifting and people would just watch me. Lily Tomlin was on the show with me, and she couldn’t take it anymore, she was so bored.”
In the 1980s, Rivers was the first permanent guest host of The Tonight Show, appeared on Saturday Night Live and had her own late-night show on Fox, but she doesn’t watch late-night TV anymore.
“I don’t tune into Leno or Letterman. Those shows have become so commercial. I have yet to see someone come out that isn’t pushing something,” she said. “Wouldn’t it be nice if someone came on for no reason other than just wanting to be there?”
After having celebrated her 75th birthday last month, Rivers continues to have a full schedule.
“I have a play in Edinburgh that will go to London. I have two books coming out. I have a tour going around with my comedy act. I have my jewelry company. I perform Wednesday nights at [the New York club] The Cutting Room,” she said.
“I’m in a series called Z Rock coming to IFC [Independent Film Channel], doing a TV pilot, offered another game show and will be on Celebrity Apprentice.”
She admits that she’s never seen Celebrity Apprentice, Donald Trump’s reality TV show. “They are going to send me tapes.”
Rivers and her daughter, Melissa, have worked together as co-hosts of endless red-carpet events, starting in 1996 for the TV channel E! Entertainment, then for the TV Guide Channel and next for AOL.“It’s a lot of fun to work with your daughter. She’s the only one that I’m happy who does better than I do,” Rivers said.
“I’m very competitive. I’m not sitting back and passing the mantle. You’re going to have to rip it from my shoulders.”
She expressed her admiration for the comedian George Carlin, who died recently. “I knew George, and he had a great life. They are replaying all his specials. A star for 40 to 50 years. He worked the week before died,” she said.
“How nice not to be forgotten, to die with your boots on? I think that’s exactly how he wanted it. He left a great legacy for being a respected comedian among his peers. He was great.”
One of Rivers’ mainstays is talking about celebrities she can’t stand. “Russell Crowe is very, very rude,” she said. Tommy Lee Jones, too. Diane Keaton is rude and weird. She’s always dressing in a Charlie Chaplin outfit. I have pictures of her on the red carpet with white gloves. They’re like clown gloves.”
She doesn’t hate everyone. In fact, she thinks Rosie O’Donnell is brilliant, finds Nicole Kidman charming, adores Howard Stern, who often has Rivers on as a guest, and speaks highly of her fellow Just For Laughs guest Kathy Griffin.
Just For Laughs has expanded to include shows in Toronto from July 23 to 27, including galas hosted by Martin Short (July 24), Jason Alexander (25) and Jimmy Fallon (27). In Montreal, the festival runs from July 8 to 20 and includes a special event featuring South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, and Canadians Jeremy Hotz and Seth Rogen.
The hosts of the signature gala series at St-Denis Theatre include Kathy Griffin (July 17), Craig Ferguson (18), Jeremy Piven (18) and Jimmy Fallon (19). For tickets, visit hahaha.com.
