Joan Rivers: Don't Start With Me

I kind of just rolled my eyes and shrugged as I threw on Joan Rivers’ Don’t Start With Me. I expected nothing from a reality TV star that no one remembered until the plague of reality television became a booming business. Then again I can’t ever really remember seeing anything with Joan Rivers in it anyway. Maybe it would be alright.

As the show began I was completely let down by the fact that this 78 year old woman, a veteran of her profession, had stooped to shock comedy to stay relevant. Pretending to do coke before the show, dropping F bomb after F bomb, going after races, handicaps, sexual preferences, and age in the first ten minutes. I sighed and sat back without so much as a smirk on my face. If I wanted to see Sarah Silverman or Lisa Lampanelli, well, I would probably punch myself in the face for having no taste.

So the show goes on and something happens. Rivers is flowing through her obviously practiced offensive maneuvers when all of a sudden she deviates from her routine and starts improvising and talking about her own life. It’s here where I found Rivers actually did have some comedic talent after all these years hiding out in the cobwebs.

There were some instances where demographic may have hampered her punch lines, I’m sure if a twenty something got their hands on this DVD they’d probably be lost, but she managed to weave in and out of her insulting persona while keeping this strange warmth in her tone about people she knew and events from her life. Sure she totally ripped them apart, but with a grain of truth and a knee slapping kind of guffaw that seemed genuine.

Another thing that blew my mind is how animated Rivers is on stage. For a 78 year old she sure is spry. She drops to the floor and does pelvic thrusts and runs across the stage hopping here and there. There were a few times I wondered if maybe a really good make up artist has work their magic on a younger woman who had mastered the art of imitating Rivers voice and was touring in her stead. Hey, people say the same thing about Paul McCartney.

In the end I half enjoyed the stand up. Rivers is loud, obnoxious, one of those kind of people that believes if they stop trying to be the life of the party she’ll simply disappear. Still, with everything considered, she’s sure more lively then Betty White.