People may think she is the joke, but Joan Rivers is completely serious about being funny.  Having never seen Joan Rivers perform live, I found her mildly funny (and sometimes annoying) when I would catch a snippet of her act on television. But I changed my opinion after watching this insightful and fascinating 84-minute documentary. Rivers is hilarious and to my surprise, inspiring.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work follows a year in the life of the then 75-year-old Rivers. Rivers candidly discusses her numerous cosmetic surgeries, the suicide of her husband Edgar Rosenberg, her relationship with her daughter Melissa, her relationship with Johnny Carson, who made her a star and then later blackballed her, and other professional triumphs and failures. The old footage of Rivers doing her act illustrates the success she deserves. Interviews with fellow comics Don Rickles and Kathy Griffin, daughter Melissa (she explains that her family referred to Rivers’ career as “the career” and Melissa felt that the career was like another sibling), and business managers and staff add to the portrait of the complex Rivers. What struck me here was Rivers’ astonishing hard work, her grounded sense of herself and her passion.

At the start of the documentary, Rivers points to the blank pages of her date book and says “You want to see fear? I will show you fear.” She wants to work all the time, and says yes to every offer if the money is right. She will hawk jewelry, give lectures and travel anywhere. Rivers explains this by saying that she lives an opulent lifestyle (she describes her ornate penthouse in New York by saying that, “This is how Marie Antoinette would live if she had money”) and says that she prefers to work rather than retiring and living more modestly. One senses that this is only partially true. Her friends and business associates describe Rivers as a work addict. This would explain why she travels the country doing gigs, many in remote places with less-than-glamorous hotel accommodations (she sprays the toilet with Lysol in one hotel). Rivers has a huge file cabinet with jokes, each drawer meticulously labeled by topic, like “Melissa’s Dates” or “My Sex Life.” The documentary shows Rivers frequently creating and honing material. She tries an Obama joke on her staff, asking them if it is too much. “We used to call Jackie Kennedy Jackie O; can we call Michelle Obama Blackie O?” Her staff tells her it is too much.

Rivers is candid about her many cosmetic surgeries and allows directors Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg to shoot her without any make-up, even though Rivers says she finds her naked face scary. She allows herself to be roasted on Comedy Central despite the fact that she know there will be jokes about her age and her plastic surgery. She is right about that, and she says those jokes still hurt. But she smiles and takes part. One of the more powerful scenes shows a stand-up gig where Rivers is heckled by an audience member offended by her act. Rivers cuts him down and manages to keep the audience on her side. But after the show, she explains that this is not always easy to do. She expresses sympathy for the heckler.

My favorite scenes show Rivers working on an autobiographical play, “Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress.” The play was a big hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the film shows Rivers trying it out in London. The first night audience seems to love it, but Rivers refuses to celebrate. She wants to wait for the reviews. She does not get carried away by her love for the play. The reviews are mostly bad. Rivers feels the pain of the bad reviews, but they do not affect her belief in the project. However, the reviews make her decide not to take it to New York. She knows that the New York press will be even tougher. River seems to have arrived at that rare emotional place. Her belief in her talent is strong, but she is not deluded by her ego. She can look at each situation realistically. When she appears on a bill with other well-known comedians to honor George Carlin receiving the Mark Twain award, she assesses her own performance. “I was funnier than some and not as funny as others.”

The film shows both the low points and the high points in what turned out to be a big year for Rivers. Despite having trouble booking gigs because of ageism, she goes on The Apprentice and wins. When doors start to open again, she is thrilled. She points to her date book, which is now full. She reads the entries aloud by the time, followed by the activity. “That’s happiness,” she says. But she understands show business, and knows that she has to take advantage of whatever opportunities she has now. Towards the end of the film she reveals that she is “only really happy when she is onstage.” She talks admiringly about comics like George Burns and Phyllis Diller who still performed when they were in their nineties. “I think I will outlast them,” she states. I believe her.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.  Directed by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg.  Joan Rivers (Herself), Melissa Rivers  (Herself), Kathy Griffin (Herself), Emily Kosloski (Herself), Mark Anderson Phillips (Himself), Don Rickles (Himself) and Larry A. Thompson (Himself). IFC Films, 2010.

 

Gail sees a movie appears every Wednesday.

 

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