The Last Girl From Larchmont

~ Laura

Joan Rivers was an amazing woman. A fighter. She fought against society that demanded that girls had to be nice and quiet. I’m very sorry that she’s gone.

Read this article by Joan about comedy and career. It’s great advice.

I think it was Cosby who also said to me, “If only 2 percent of the world thinks you’re funny, you’ll still fill stadiums for the rest of your life.”

My advice to women comedians is: First of all, don’t worry about the money. Love the process. You don’t know when it’s gonna happen. Louis C.K. started hitting in his 40s; he’d been doing it for 20 years. And don’t settle. I don’t want to ever hear, “It’s good enough.” Then it’s not good enough. Don’t ever underestimate your audience. They can tell when it isn’t true. Also: Ignore your competition. A Mafia guy in Vegas gave me this advice: “Run your own race, put on your blinders.” Don’t worry about how others are doing. Something better will come.

Published by Laura

5 thoughts on “The Last Girl From Larchmont”

  2. I’ll confess that I don’t remember ever finding her whole “Can we talk?!” shtick funny. But I’m aware of too many people who found her hilarious, and who respected the hell out of her, to take my opinion too seriously. I have to chalk it up to some combination of gender, culture, and age. Growing up, watching her occasionally on Carson when I was a kid, or later on her own show on Fox, I’m not sure I was able to catch the transgressive humor of seeing a woman like her–a grown woman with children, white, obviously educated and middle-class–talking (in a self-consciously catty way) about sex, bodily organs, and the like. Which is weird, because I loved Carol Burnett, who had her own style but essentially did the same thing. Everyone has been sharing a link to that recent highly-praised documentary about her life and career; I should watch it, and see if I can figure out what I missed.

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  3. “with children, white, obviously educated and middle-class–talking (in a self-consciously catty way) about sex, bodily organs, and the like.”

    Sounds like Howard Stern. It never occurred to me that he may have owed his act to Joan.

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  4. Truly loved her, I know she many thought her crass and mean, but I loved her and her smart, quick wit. She was genuine, which is ironic to say about a woman who remade herself physically.

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