Last night I saw Joan Rivers perform at Udderbelly, the strange upside-down cow touring venue currently located at the South Bank in London. She was absolutely amazing. She is also 75 and charged around the stage for over an hour like a woman in her twenties, flinging herself on the floor and generally putting less fit performers to shame. Her humour is incredibly quick-fire, wickedly acerbic and takes no prisoners. She is totally outrageous and wild and almost no subject is off-limits.
I spent the evening laughing non-stop and just about managing to keep up with the speed of her delivery – even her little one-liner asides are hysterical. She truly is a comedian in a class of her own. An original. The very best.
On the way home Mr X and I discussed what it was about her that made us laugh at potentially offensive material. Like I said, she takes no prisoners. What, for example, distinguishes her from Britain’s tradition of bigoted comedians, dead or alive, such as Bernard Manning and Jim Davidson. We decided that she doesn’t engage with stereotypes or the usual set of prejudices, the smug delivery of anti–black or mother-in-law jokes loved by small-minded bigots. Rather, she finds her own targets and they ARE so outrageous that you know she doesn’t really believe what she’s saying. The whole point is to shock – to say those things that polite society says we shouldn’t – especially not at 75!
She’s tiny and incredibly fit. And the funny thing is, that after a while, you just get used to her famously surgically-enhanced face that she is the first to mock, and she doesn’t look so freaky. In fact, you can see why older men would find her attractive. Nor does her facial lack of mobility impede her performance – she is incredibly expressive with her voice, body, mannerisms.
Rock on, Joan. You were magnificent!
4 responses so far ↓
Rachel Fox // May 29, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Did you see her on that Shrink Rap programme with Pamela Connolly? She was very interesting.
bevaristo // May 30, 2009 at 7:18 am
No, I didn’t but I bet she was interesting. What channel was it on? Maybe I can see it on iplayer.
Rachel Fox // May 30, 2009 at 7:22 am
More 4 I think. The series was on last year or so. It might be on youtube I suppose (the Billy Connolly one was…another very interesting show).
Yemisi Blake // June 1, 2009 at 11:23 am
Glad it was a good show. Really wanted to go but was busy. Did they say if it was for a dvd or if it’s gonna be online?
Yem