Review: Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

Directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg find both comedy and tragedy in the life of this showbiz legend.

By Lauren Besser
Published: June 15th, 2010 | 12:45pm

Everybody knows something about Joan Rivers. She’s a trailblazing comedienne who kicked doors open for women in an industry still dominated by men. She’s a loudmouth past her prime. She’s the butt of endless plastic surgery jokes, and she sort of deserves it.

But there’s a lot we don’t know. Like the fact that she’s the only woman to host a late-night network talk show. Or that Johnny Carson blacklisted her from NBC after landing that gig on Fox. That in her lifetime no man has ever told her she was beautiful. Or that the husband she married four days after meeting would commit suicide years later.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work gives us an all-access pass to the aging star’s rise to ultra-fame and her gritty struggle to stay in the spotlight no matter how many times she’s kicked out of it. Of course she’s opinionated and dramatic. She wears furs and diamonds while delivering Thanksgiving meals to the needy. She jokes about her daughter’s refusal to pose for Playboy as the biggest mistake of her life. But mostly, Rivers works like a mad woman because staying in the entertainment business as long as she has requires one thing above everything else—reinvention.

The film starts at a low point. Rivers is in that all-too-familiar space of needing a makeover, but this time she’s 75 and her anti-celebrity icon status makes it difficult to change peoples’ ideas. She teases associates about needing sunglasses to look at her calendar because of the glaring white space that rolls on for months and demands that managers book her anywhere for anything. Her hunger isn’t phased by the lull, though. It actually seems fed by it.

Rivers rarely refuses a job regardless of its esteem. She does whatever it takes to push her career forward, even if it means embracing the place she’s earned in the media and using it for her own benefit. We see her at her most vulnerable preparing for the “Comedy Central Joan Rivers Roast.” She knows the line-up of mostly male comedians who are decades younger than her will exclusively joke about plastic surgery but agrees to the show because she needs the money. Rivers gracefully sits there, takes it, and laughs at herself with the audience. But off camera the pain is pressing.

Watching her in sound check we know she’s a pro. Rivers leads crews and directors with ease and big experience guiding her. But she truly becomes Her Royal Highness on stage with nasty jokes flowing out of her mouth and into the microphone.

The best example is when a small-town Wisconsin casino pays big money to bring her in for a sold-out show. Rivers isn’t exactly sure of where she is but knows with certainty that the crowd will be shocked by just about anything she says.

Sure enough, after a Helen Keller joke, one man call from the audience to Rivers about his offense. And here is when the star in Joan shines, for better or worse. After screaming obscenities to him from stage and waxing poetic on the nature of comedy, the tension in the room is tangible. Remarkably, Rivers pulls herself and the crowd together with a simple Bin Laden joke and the show is saved. The glorious turn-around is something only a true professional could manage.

All said, A Piece of Work is excellent in every way. Rivers is human. She is hysterical. She is struggling. In lieu of the autobiographic play she penned that sadly didn’t make it to New York, this documentary will stand the test of time not only telling the story of Joan Rivers, but also one of fearlessness and dedication.

Long from now when women are equally represented everywhere, including the late-night comedy stage, we’ll sit our daughters down and show them how it was done with this film. All hail the Queen.