I had the privilege of working with Joan Rivers for two and a half years on Fashion Police. Her work ethic and talent never failed to astound me. You could write a joke, rewrite a joke, pitch the joke, rewrite the joke again, type the joke into the script…and yet when she delivered it on set, it was magic. Having Joan Rivers get a big laugh with a line or a bit that I wrote will always be one of the biggest thrills I of my professional life. When Fashion Police went to an hour, I interviewed Joan for Frontiers magazine. Having worked with her for over a year and seen that she was as driven in person as she was in the documentary “A Piece of Work,” I was curious about where that incredible drive came from. Love, it turns out. “I love every minute of this business,” she told me. “I love the performing. I love the writing. I love the worry. Every week with Fashion Police, I’m terrified it’s going to suck this week. Even that I love.” Some of my favorite moments with her were when we had a bit of downtime and we’d talk about theater. She was such a fan. She’d tell me what shows she’d seen and or I’d tell her what I had seen or wanted to see. I remember her raving about the multi-story, immersive “Sleep No More” show in New York and when I finally caught it this spring and found myself running up and down stairs for three hours chasing after actors and watching scenes unfold in every nook and cranny of this four-story mansion, I thought, ‘I can’t believe an 80 year-old woman ran all over this building chasing after the show,’ and yet I could believe it, because it was Joan. I admired many things about Joan Rivers but my favorite was the way she was with her fans. If I had a friend come to a Fashion Police taping, I always knew that they would leave thrilled because Joan would give them their Joan Rivers moment. She’d been famous for decades and yet, she still understood that that short interaction could make someone’s week…or month…or decade. The reason so many people have photos of themselves with Joan to post is because she posed for them, joyfully, patiently and with a lot of love and gratitude. And she probably said something filthy and hilarious right before the click. It was an honor to have known her. My heartfelt condolences go out to her daughter and grandson, her staff and the entire Fashion Police family. She will be profoundly missed.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 22:29:04 +0000