The late, great comedy legend Joan Rivers would turn 90 today, and no one would be more surprised than her daughter.
“Damn, he would have been 90 years old!” Melissa Rivers cries out during a phone call with The Daily Beast earlier this week, before sharing her mom’s casual approach to milestone anniversaries. She never liked her birthday. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t like receiving nice gifts.”
“She hated getting old,” Melissa adds. “Actually she hated it when she couldn’t wear the highest heels anymore. That’s what would catch him, not being able to walk that fast and hug people at the airport. And he would always laugh, ‘I look in the mirror and I say, why is a friend of my mom’s looking at me?’
For Joan’s 80th birthday in 2013—the year before she died following complications from a minor throat surgery—Melissa planned a big surprise party for her mother. But after Joan’s only sister aunt died a few days ago, the entire party had to be cancelled. When Joan found out, she was very angry with her daughter.
“He literally threw me off because he didn’t like surprises,” Melissa explains. “She got very angry with me and hung up on me. We were at my aunt’s house in Philadelphia and I said to my mom, ‘Do you want to see the invitation?’ I said, “No, I’m mad at you.” I said, ‘Look, mom.’ I had these beautiful invitations made with gold lettering on heavy cardstock. He said, “It should have been a suitable RSVP card.” And he keeps looking at the card, and of course there’s an RSVP card. So he’s happy now. And when we got back to New York, we were like, ‘Well, who was coming?’ And when I started reading him the list, he started crying. He couldn’t believe how many people wanted to come out and congratulate him.”
“He was still mad at me,” she continues. “But then he asked for all the details and got really emotional after that. But overall – and I was raised the same way – the best thing that could happen is to work on your birthday because that means you have a job.
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Reuters/Handout
Perhaps Joan is relieved to hear that her 90th birthday coincides with a career announcement: This year she will be accepted into the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York, with a new exhibition dedicated to her life. It’s a full-circle moment when Joan presided over the famous Lucille Ball Comedy Festival in 2011 for Ball’s 100th birthday, when the plans for the National Comedy Center were first announced. Melissa attended the groundbreaking ceremony at the Center, which opened its doors in 2018, a year after Joan’s death, and also houses archives of late legends like George Carlin and Carl Reiner.
“Being there when it was announced, and now she’s 90, she’s moving there… I don’t think she’ll be happy with the weather in upstate New York, but I still think she’ll be happy with the table she’s sitting at,” says Melissa.
The exhibition includes never-before-seen photographs, handwritten jokes, personally curated scrapbooks, and a collection of famous joke cards that Joan has filed and stored with a detailed index card, with wardrobe pieces from her pioneering career, including gowns and boas. system. Joan once said, “When I die, Melissa can sell it to a lucky comedian.” But her daughter was hung up on the library of laughter, some of which will soon be publicly visible at the Center. (You can also see some of the never-before-seen prank cards embedded below.)
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Reuters/Handout
“Once you start examining these cards, it pretty much becomes history,” says Melissa. “He reaffirmed a lot of things I know, like how disciplined he is at his job. It reminded me how productive he was. And it reminded me how observant society and even popular culture is, and just being so aware of the heat of the country and the world. It reminded me that even though it’s 80 years old, it’s still cutting-edge and its material is incredibly up-to-date. He wasn’t one of those people you went to see for nostalgia. It was always up to date.
So much so that in the last turbulent years in US culture, you can’t help but wonder what sharp, controversial bullshit will do, especially as celebrities and comedians are always expected to say the right thing about social issues, politics. or any quick button issue they were asked to comment on.
“I think at first glance, he would definitely be happy with #MeToo and all these guys getting caught. “I think she would be happy with the idea of all these different communities standing up and insisting on recognition,” Melissa says. “But then everything went too far. I mean, the far left and the far right went nuts. I think the pendulum, like everyone else in comedy, went too far. I was always like, ‘Can we all please take a deep breath?’ would say.”
“He always said that when you make someone laugh, you give them a little vacation,” he continues. “And boy, oh boy, have we badly needed these mini-holidays over the last few years? My mom was… a laugh was a laugh. You mean to say she was an equal opportunity offender, but she wasn’t offensive. What you mean is that even at the worst of times, everybody stops, breathes, and He believed he should laugh. Let’s laugh at our own ridiculousness.”
Almost nine years after Joan’s death, Melissa says that “like everything else, the noise of everyone’s constant discussion of her mother’s legacy and her influence on the worlds of comedy, fashion and pop culture has subsided.” However, she enjoys the sensual, petite gunshot that’s called in on shows like she. Gorgeous Miss Maisel And cheatsWhat Melissa calls “very exaggerated depictions” of women like her mother.
“I mean, how can you not see it?” says. “By the way, Jean Smart is amazing. When she won the Emmy, I sent her an orchid for congratulations and my mom was a huge fan and would be delighted. Mom would have been so happy that this beautiful, imposing, blonde, WASPy woman was playing a version of her. I think this is her It would be the biggest compliment.”
The impact Joan has had on the legions of fans who have followed fifty years of her caustic comedy is no less exaggerated but no less gratifying. Tonight Show, Fashion Policeand beyond.
“After all these years, people come to me and say, ‘When I met your mother’ or ‘Your mother did this, your mother helped me with this.’ It is always beautiful. It’s good to know that his legacy is not just in comedy, but in being a good and good person,” says Melissa, before she paused and sneered, “I can’t promise you’ll still be good at 90.”
“I’m 80 years old, what are they going to do to me that they haven’t done before?’ would say,” continues Melissa. “Now he will be 90 years old and say, ‘What else are they going to do to me that they haven’t done before?’ he would say. So I’m not sure it will give him more filters. I think by now he would have been a little more grumpy, a little more grumpy.