Joan Rivers (1933–2014)

"Dear Diary:
This diary is my Christmas gift from Melissa [her daughter] and Cooper [her grandson] and I'm more disappointed than I was on my wedding night when I found that Edgar [her 2nd husband] was half Chinese---and not the good half"

Joan Rivers...esa comediante reina del stand up, pionera en preguntar quien vestía a los asistentes de una alfombra roja, increiblemente graciosa e irreverente, y que si hubiera aparecido por primera vez en la actualidad no habría tenido éxito o habría show more sido mayormente odiada. Tuvo un tipo de humor que ni por equivocación es políticamente correcto, hacia mofa de latinos, alemanes, franceses, homosexuales, heterosexuales, gordos, flacos, negros, blancos, judios, mormones, cristianos, no natos, ancianos, su agente, su hija, su difunto esposo, y ella misma, por sólo mencionar algunos de los tópicos. Y aun así personas de las que se burló la admiraban y querían.

Decir que Rivers fue una de mis comediantes favoritas sería quedarme corta, generalmente yo no disfruto el humor tan ácido que ella manejaba pero me era imposible resistirme a la manera en que hablaba ,como construía la broma y lo jodidamente díficil que era ofendersepor cosas que fácilmente era ofensivas. Y este libro (queno entiendo porque esta clasificado como no ficción cuando la misma descripción dice que no se puede asegurar que sea real lo escrito, además de que Joan fallecio en Septiembre de 2014, año que esta narrando, y el libro cierra con el 31 de diciembre de 2014) es esa esencia, es Rivers leída, no hay profundida, no hay mensaje ni enseñanza, simplemente te hace pasar un buen rato.

En este diario vemos el "día a día" de Rivers durante el 2014, la vemos disfrazarse, viajar, y odiar todo y a todos,incluyendo odiar las cosas que le gustaban, no hay mas que decir, porque el "encanto" de este libro esta en el humor de la narradora, y para mi, tanto leído como en el stand up, un chiste que se lee/escucha varias veces pierde su gracia (así que no pondré ningun otro aquí),sólo dirpeque el libro vale la pena desde la dedicatoria. El cierre me gusto bastante, tras una queja al inicio por haber recibido diario, cerramos con Joan quejándose nuevamente de recibir un diario e imaginando que asesinaba a Kathy Griffin para que el siguiente año ella y su hija Melissa hicieran el conteo de año nuevo.

Algo en lo que haré hincapié es si te ofendes facilmente, no leas este libro, en serio, no lo leas, sino te gusta el humor obsceno, tampoco leas el libro, y sino te gusta el stand up, no leas este libro. show less

In this memoir, comedian Joan Rivers comes across as thoughtful and introspective, as well as brash, driven and, in what I assume is a standard show-business characteristic, a person whose iron will and confidence cannot be successfully disentangled from deep-seated feelings of inadequacy. This book does not offer any Hollywood fluff. The narrative begins with the suicide of her husband, Edgar Rosenberg, following the complicated crash and burn of Rivers' Fox Network talk show that the show more couple had co-produced. We then move back to the beginnings of Rivers' career and progress through the decades back to the time of the tragedy, with a satisfying amount of time spent afterwards on Rivers' eventual recovery and return to show biz success. Rivers is often hard on herself and honest about her husband and his problems. The two had a long, successful marriage and partnership before Rosenberg's psychological problems surfaced later in life. There's a lot here about the nature of show business in general and the history of show business from the 60s through the 80s. Her descriptions of the fast and free days of Las Vegas in the 70s are particularly entertaining. There is some tough stuff here, but if one has any interest in the subject matter, this book is worth reading. It made me very sad that Rivers died two years ago during a tragically botched, supposedly routine, plastic surgery procedure. show less

I love me some Joan Rivers. "A Piece of Work" is one of my favorite documentaries - giving that full-force, workaholic Joan, vulnerable and brutal all at once. I hoped this book would give more of that, especially now that we've lost her. But it is a joke-punched diatribe when I wanted a curtain-dropping soliloquy - like she unburdened her archive of one-liners instead of her soul. Then again, we didn't really earn that intimacy, did we?

Joan Rivers attacks everything and everybody in her sometimes hilarious but almost always vulgar and vitriolic misanthropic observations about who and what annoys her.

I wasn’t always offended by her attacks – after all, she doesn’t leave anyone out, not even herself. And she makes a point of frequently interjecting remarks so outrageous it is clear she is only joking. Still.

At times, she tackled subjects that just would have best been left alone. I’m not one to find humor in making show more fun of, for instance, handicapped people.

Also, I do admit to wishing she hadn’t employed foul language so freely. (Although she quite rightly goes after hypocritical people like me who say “f-ing” but get all freaked out over people using the full “F word.”) But I did feel squirmily offended by her frequent gratuitous use of words that are not only crass and deprecatory but, in addition, sexist when referring to females: does she really have to call Anne Frank “that bitch” or call other women the “c-word”?

It’s very interesting to me that so much of what is considered funny today involves sex and/or vulgarity. Certainly for years and years comedians made people laugh through witticisms like clever puns, or lampoons, or even insults, without resorting to raunchiness. Joan Rivers seems to think that her flagrant use of obscenity is funny in and of itself. And sometimes, it is in fact an essential part of the joke. Take this example by Rodney Dangerfeld, who gave his impression of a New York echo as:

"Helloooo!

Shut the fuck up!"

But for the most part, I don’t find profanity inherently amusing. Maybe it is so to many people, but I sort of prefer more content to my social satire. show less