Joan Rivers

“How’d You Get So Rich?” is Joan Rivers’ new show on TV.  If you or I stopped the driver of a $200,000 car, stuck our heads in, and shoved a microphone in his face, asking the big question, the police would be called.  But she’s Joan Rivers!  Within seconds the person is sharing his rags-to-riches story.  And the next step is a guided tour of his house.  She'll ask a rich woman what designer she's wearing, whether it’s her money or her husband’s money, and what work she has had done. 

It’s impossible just to talk about Joan’s new show.  I have to talk about Joan.  Do you think she’s a (Woody Allen-ish) love-her-or-hate-her type?  I’ve loved her since she cracked up Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.  Yes, she took shots at Queen Elizabeth (What does she carry in that purse?) and Elizabeth Taylor (It’s fun to have lunch with her at McDonald’s, just to see the numbers on the sign change), but it’s true that most of Joan’s jokes are on Joan.  I’m sure that's the exaggeration of comedy, but she always did the type of humor, identifiable to all, that was backed by brains.  (Here's a clip of Joan in Canada in 2007.)

Does anybody know that Joan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College?  That she earned degrees in English and Anthropology?  That she's written 10 books?  She also had a first marriage to James Sanger, heir to Bond Stores (where Joan had been a fashion coordinator).  Joan studied drama and appeared in off-Broadway plays – once with newbie Barbra Streisand.  After her dramatic appearances she was told by an agent she should be doing comedy.  Whoops.  We all thank that agent.

Joan later married Edgar Rosenberg, an English television producer.  She pronounced his name “Eggah.”  She made it sound as if it was her only marriage, and this was her last chance.  Hardly.  Joan seems to have nine lives.  I’m enjoying every transformation.