Joan Rivers - Don't Start With Me (Showtime)

[JSngry]

Ok, not really a fan, not since the late-70s or so, grew tired (and often sick) of her a long while back, but this stand-up special on Showtime is freakin' nuts. The lady is 79, and is displaying standup skills that are insanely good, with an energy that should be the envy of comics half (or less, even) her age. She had me laughing out loud at shit I knew was wrong, but hell, wrong, but funny anyway.

One can argue content, perhaps, but skills? Don't even think about arguing skills.Besides, if there's no small degree of truth to the maxim that standup is an inherently and/or latently violent act, then...embrace the violence.

Dice Clay was never even remotely funny to me, ever. His was just mean. Joan Rivers used to be funny, then stopped being funny as she turned mean, and then, finally, irrelevant and boorishly needy. But whatever happened the night that this was recorded was pretty amazing, because she's zooming.

Fully stipulated that comedic tastes are about the most subjective tastes of all (and I'm just a fan/admirer/casual student of the art, not a professional practitioner, not even). But if skills themself are quantifiable, then..this is an amazing performance just for skills.

[BruceH]

I also stopped being a fan a long, long time ago. She was not only mean and boorishly needy, but MANIC in a way that seemed schticky and set my teeth on edge. But then, for some reason, I went to see the recent documentary about her, "A Piece of Work," and found it quite winning. It really gets you on her side, something I didn't think was possible. So I have to admit, I might like the Showtime special.

[robertoart]

A vain and stupendously materialistic identity.

Skills? - maybe.

Another Hollywood oxygen thief? - that's Entertainment Tonight.

[CraigP]

She's great on Fashion Police.

[GA Russell]

I saw her in Las Vegas in 1973 as the warm up for Petula Clark. Very funny.

[PHILLYQ]

She's a Brooklyn product, like Kaminsky & Koningsberg(Mel Brooks & Woody Allen).

[JSngry]

RIP Joan Rivers.

[.:.impossible]

She seemed to have found her legs for one last lap this past year. I heard her on the radio a few times with other comedians, who really seemed to get what she has been trying to do all this time, and she was in her element.

Interesting comment about the violence. In that metaphor, at her best, she was ultra- and brutally so. She could really hurt your feelings. She was no joke.