Las Vegas Weekly

April 8, 2010 · 3:14 PM

Busier-than-ever Joan Rivers says she’s young all over again

By Robin Leach

Joan Rivers, today.

Photo: Charles William Bush

It’s not a joke when sassy comedienne Joan Rivers recalls the two horrific years of her life after her husband Edgar committed suicide. “I’d wake up in the middle of the night wondering where’s the next dollar coming from. Fox fired me from the late-night show, and even my daughter Melissa wasn’t talking to me,” Joan confessed.

But now as she takes the stage tonight at The Venetian with a new contract of four double-weekend appearances each season, she confides that she’s never been busier with work and even though 76 years old, Joan says she’s not only feeling the youngest she’s ever felt but also comedy is reversing her age and building up her bone marrow!

I talked with Joan, who was at her New York City apartment on a day off from her new filming schedule for the reality TV program How Did You Get So Rich?, as she packed for her flight to Las Vegas this morning.

“It’s the granddaughter of your show, Robin. This is now our second season. If you brought your Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous back, I think today’s economy would have you doing stories of riches to rags! And all the people would either be Arabs or the Chinese since they now have all the money!”

Joan also is starting a second reality TV show, Mother Knows Best, with daughter and my friend Melissa, where Joan moves in to help find Melissa a new California home. “Nobody welcomes their mother at a time like that,” Joan laughed. “But it’s a great premise for a reality show and perfect comedy material.” Coincidentally, Joan’s also excited about the new home she’s purchased in Connecticut not far from where I used to live.

As if two shows aren’t enough, she’s back on E! Entertainment with Melissa as The Fashion Police. “It sounds very bitchy, but we say it with love. We get them before the red carpet and tell them what’s wrong and how awful the clothes look. At least we say it right to their face rather than behind their back, so hopefully it helps save them before disaster can really strike,” she laughed.

Joan continued: “Everything is fabulous. I’ve never been so busy in my life. I’ve never been happier. I’m still continuing to host my jewelry collection on QVC, and now we’re able to make these two sets of consecutive weekends four times a year to The Venetian. There is nothing like doing live standup in Las Vegas and hearing a thousand people all laughing together with you. The immediacy of live performance simply can’t be beaten, and in The Venetian theater, I have tremendous freedom that you don’t have on television. So I can say anything -- and will!

“In 40 years, I have never run out of comedy material. There’s never been a moment when I haven’t been able to talk about something really funny. Look, you’ve got Jesse James screwing a Nazi, you’ve got Tiger’s wife using the golf clubs better than he does, and LiLo is headed back to rehab any moment -- and I haven’t even begun to start thinking of how to open the show! Years ago, we were shocked if somebody just had an affair, but today the bed-hopping girls are on the phone to the tabloids selling the secrets of the sexual antics before the sheets have been changed!

“I don’t know where the values have all gone. There are no morals -- just money to talk about the lack of them! It used to be good and be true, but today it’s the opposite. The girls have simply become rich hookers! If it’s not the stars, it’s the politicians. There was Clinton and one poor girl and a cigar, but she, too, was a nice Jewish girl who turned a profit. What’s going on with all this sex stuff is a unique phenomenon, but as long as they are all doing it, there will always be comedy material for me.

“As long as it’s funny, I can keep going. You don’t have to be young and good-looking to be a successful comedian. Just be funny. Look at Don Rickles still going strong. Look at George Burns, who made people laugh right up until the end. Make people laugh, and you can go on forever. I honestly think comedy has reversed my age and is even building up my bone marrow! I laugh at it all, too, and so I don’t even think I’m 76. I have no age.”

Joan admitted that today she’s on top of the world, a far cry from 1989 and 1990 when she had to switch to survival mode after Edgar’s suicide: “I think looking back at it now that if that hadn’t happened, all the good things that I have now wouldn’t have come along later. It was a horrific two years: Edgar’s suicide, Fox fired me from the late show, Melissa didn’t talk to me. I was waking up in the middle of the night frightened of where the next dollar was going to come from. It was really that bad.

“Today, I give survival lectures because I was 56, a widow with no money, no savings, everything gone. I had to start all over again. It truly was terrifying. It was a case of going from how did that happen to how do you get your life back as fast as possible. I couldn’t sit around and die. I had to go forward. I couldn’t change the past, so it was get up and move on. I had to, as you Brits say, put on a stiff upper lip and fight for me as if it was a war to be won.

“I am extremely grateful because I never thought I’d get back to the way I am now -- happy, busy and contented. I just stopped seeing somebody after a year of dating. That was the first time I could stomach entering the dating scene, but it was all good. So let’s just say I’m on the semi-lookout for a new guy.

“For now, though, it’s nice to put on bunny slippers and a bathrobe and stay home. I’m quite happy about that. I’m looking forward to the next two weekends in Las Vegas. I’ll have champagne on ice ready in case Melissa comes in -- and you stop by.”

The red carpet diva and Celebrity Apprentice champion presents her hilarious comedy in The Venetian Showroom tonight, tomorrow and Saturday, and again April 15-17. She returns for two consecutive weekends starting July 8 and 15.

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.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter at Twitter.com/vegasdeluxe.

Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

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