Las Vegas Weekly

August 27, 2009 · 12:03 PM

Joan Rivers ready to scorch the stars with her Venetian shows

By Robin Leach

Joan Rivers.

Photo: The Venetian

After a five-year absence from Las Vegas, fresh-mouthed comedienne Joan Rivers returns tonight for a run of shows through Saturday night and then again for three nights over Labor Day weekend. “I am thrilled to be back in Vegas at The Venetian,” she said, adding her first zinger, “Vegas is the only place where you can see Cher, Bette Midler, Celine Dion and me all in one night -- and it’s all the same guy!”

That barb may have been for impersonator Frank Marino, who also returns to the Strip with his female impersonators show debuting next weekend at the Imperial Palace just 200 yards from where Joan will be taking pot shots at the stars. (Joan and our resident entertainer Frank had a long-running legal battle over his impersonations of her.)

Photo: Frank Marino

Frank Marino in his famed Joan Rivers impression.

“I can’t wait to start,” she added. “Vegas audiences are the best in the world, and performing at The Venetian is even better than going to Venice, as it’s just as beautiful, but the canals here are clean!” Joan plans on seeing Phantom -- the Las Vegas Spectacular at The Venetian while she’s here.

Here are some comedic samples of Joan to start your laughter with the arrows on her targets!

The sassy, saucy 76-year-old arrives hot off her Season 2 win on Donald Trump’s NBC show Celebrity Apprentice.

In addition to her comedy gigs throughout the U.S., Joan has been a successful radio and TV talk show host, a best-selling author, a Tony Award-nominated actress -- and she’s still selling that jewelry on QVC. Her new TV series How’d You Get So Rich? which debuted Aug. 5, is almost her take on my old Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. She also was roasted on Comedy Central this month.

You can expect her razor-sharp tongue to lash today’s young Hollywood starlets, with everybody from Britney Spears to Lindsay Lohan subject to her verbal abuse. She also will joke about her more than 12 plastic surgeries!

Click HERE for our Las Vegas Sun colleague Jerry Fink’s interview with the caustic comedienne from her New York City apartment home before she arrived in Las Vegas yesterday.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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