Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work Page #4

And then, God, it's,

you know, all this time.

I've known Billy-

it's got to be about 35 years.

I could open

the drawer here somewhere,

and you'll, uh-

you'll find pictures of Billy.

Here.

Look, young Billy, young Joan.

That's Edgar in the background.

And Billy is...

Billy is part of my life.

And I want to see him now

because we're doing the play

and I need another pair of eyes.

I need another brain.

I need his input desperately.

- Welcome, welcome, welcome,

welcome to what will be

Joan Rivers.;

A Work in Progress

by a Life in Progress.

Okay, here we go.

I am thrilled to be here.

I just don't want this

to be about me, me, me, me, me.

Hello.

No, not-not yet, honey.

No, again, you too, back.

Go back.

Beautiful.

Anyhow...

Line.

"Now, where was I?"

Now, where was I?

Bill Cosby, who was

a very good friend of mine,

was on The Tonight Show,

and the comic that was on

with Bill absolutely bombed,

and Bill, God bless him,

went over to the director,

and he said, "Listen.

Why don't you use Joan Rivers?

She can't be any worse than

the guy that was on tonight,"

and that's how they put me on.

They put me on the next night.

And it was one

of those nights, um...

Do you know, like,

when everything goes right?

Do you know?

When the stars are in alignment?

And the audience,

we just connected.

And Carson,

at the end of the act-

after nine years

of working bungalow colonies

and strip joints

and working in Greenwich Village

in clubs

where you'd pass the hat,

the hat wouldn't come back-

on the air, Carson said to me,

"You're going to be a star."

And I looked behind me.

"Well, who the hell

is he talking to?"

And it was absolutely-

it was magical

between the two of us.

Absolutely magical.

- Don't you think men

really like intelligence more

when comes right down to it?

- Ugh, please, are we

gonna go back to that?

Are you kidding?

- Oh, sure, I mean,

it's a brain,

you know, a caring person.

- No man has ever put his hand

up a woman's dress

looking for a library card.

I'm sorry.

Everyone watched

the Carson show,

and when Carson said to me

"You're gonna be a star,"

my life changed.

- And as they say

at Cape Canaveral,

she took off like a rocket.

- The Tonight Show

was a pinnacle for Joan,

and the more guest appearances

she got,

either guesting with Johnny

or guest-hosting for Johnny,

the bigger and stronger

the career was going

and building up and up and up.

And then eventually,

they made her

the permanent guest host

of The Tonight Show,

which was a big thing.

- After 20 years

on The Tonight Show,

FO X came and offered me

my own show,

and Edgar

would be the producer.

Of course we said yes.

The first person I called

was Johnny Carson.

He slammed the phone down.

I called him again.

He slammed it down again

and never spoke to me again.

Ever.

I think he was furious.

He felt betrayed.

I was now a competitor.

He literally

had me blacklisted,

and to this day,

I have not been

on NBC Late Night ever.

- As she drove off the NBC lot,

she lost her confidence.

"Oh, my God,

what have I done?"

It was such a bad period.

- The Fox show, even before

we went on the air,

was just a nightmare.

Edgar did not like

Rupert Murdoch

and Barry Diller,

and from the day we walked in,

there were fights

about everything,

about whether we should have

a Coke machine

or Pepsi machine,

M&M's or Hershey Kisses.

Finally, they called me in

on a Thursday night,

and they said,

"You've got to fire Edgar."

I couldn't do it.

I couldn't, uh...

I couldn't-

couldn't do it.

Couldn't-

couldn't do it.

- The woman who asked,

"Can we talk?"

Joan Rivers,

is apparently through

as permanent host

of her late-night talk show.

- From there, Edgar imploded,

absolutely imploded.

He didn't have Joan's strength.

He didn't have it.

I got a call

from Gavin de Becker,

who was his security company.

They said, "Terrible news."

"Yes?"

"Edgar killed himself

in Philadelphia."

He left us high and dry.

Everything just went

to smithereens.

And he left me with no career

and a lot of debts,

because he wasn't

a good businessman,

and, uh, a lot of tough times.

I walk past Edgar's pictures.

I feel such sadness,

such darkness.

- First off, Mother,

I'm very, very angry at you.

Since Daddy died, you have not

spent one minute at home.

Melissa and I,

we started immediately

going into therapy,

separately and together.

And then we did something

which sounds so sick.

We did a movie

about Edgar's suicide

where we played ourselves.

Are you angry about something?

- I'm angry about a lot

of things, okay?

Okay.

It sounds so stupid and corny,

but I think by

walking through it again,

it absolutely mended us,

totally mended

the relationship.

Don't ask,; I'd have to go

to another doctor

to figure that one out.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

- Thank you.

- Thanks again.

- Lovely that you came.

Thank you.

I worship you.

I worship you.

Get off your knees.

- Joan.

Joan, oh, my God.

Joan Rivers, everybody.

Please give her a clap.

- Billy sent me this

for opening night.

Wait, wait, wait.

Polly wants a f***ing cracker.

Give Polly

a f***ing cracker now!

Squawk!

Old lady on the cover.

Young people,

young festival,

young idea, old lady.

Hold on.

Get ready.

"Hottest ticket."

Isn't it great?

And the front page.

Oh.

The play went beyond

my wildest dreams in Edinburgh.

We had great reviews,

the audiences adored it,

but who knows what's going

to happen in London.

It can turn on a dime.

Now where are we?

- Oh, the signage is going up.

Look, your canopy is going up.

- Oh, isn't that sweet?

All right.

This is where we'll make

the decision for me

whether or not I'm gonna try

to bring it to New York.

Oh, If the reviews are bad,

we're dead.

We finished it.

It was wonderful.

But it will not go to New York.

- Joan, this is

Graham McCluskey,

your lighting designer.

Thank God.

Soft pink.

I don't care what it says.

- Joan didn't want to open

the play in New York or L.A.,

because even if it's great,

they will not give her

the kudos that it's great

because of who she is,

that there's nothing she can do

that will be industry-embraced.

How much does it hold?

Uh, 393...

So it's 400.

Yes, of course.

- I have never been

the critics' darling.

I've always been

considered a comic

and a Borscht Belt comic

or a Vegas comic or-

there's always an adjective

before my name,

and it's never a nice adjective.

I go back to Fun City,

which was

my first play in 1973,

and they were-

they were very harsh to it.

It was a horrible experience,

and I will not go

through that again.

I mean, I moved us

out of New York.

I said, "When that play closes,

we're out of here, "

and we moved

right after Fun City.

I just think they're not going

to like us, and, uh...

but I didn't spend all this time

and all this energy

to have this close.

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