I never had the pleasure of meeting Joan Rivers, but like Phyllis Diller and many other comediennes of her time, she made me laugh. In our business, sometimes you get the chance to meet and work with celebrities, and when you do, everybody wants to know what they’re really like. Will Sliger, former station CSD, […]
I never had the pleasure of meeting Joan Rivers, but like Phyllis Diller and many other comediennes of her time, she made me laugh. In our business, sometimes you get the chance to meet and work with celebrities, and when you do, everybody wants to know what they’re really like.
Will Sliger, former station CSD, now VP of brand management and creative at GoDaddy, wrote this account of working with Joan Rivers and he agreed I could share it. Thanks, Will.
I don’t usually post this kind of thing but under the circumstances I feel the need to share. It’s totally self-indulgent and I’m sorry for that.
I worked with Joan Rivers on a project. The first thing she said to me was “Who wrote this script? It needs work.”
When I told her I was the writer she laughed and said “It still stinks.”
She didn’t care that I was also the person who had signed her contract. She only cared about the quality and the comedy. No bull. No pretense. She then proceeded to punch-up my script AND the director’s notes. In five minutes the concept was miles better than what a team of creative types had developed over weeks and weeks of work. We used every one of her notes.
Once on set, Joan was gracious and hard working. She told the crew “I’m working for you guys. I’ll do a take 100 times if you want and if it still isn’t right, I’ll do 100 more.” It didn’t require 100 takes or even 10. She was spot on every single time.
When we were done with the day, she went to each crew member and thanked them for, in her words, “making an old bag look good.” There were hugs, handshakes, laughs and maybe even a high-five or two. It’s rare for a celebrity to be so humble, so thankful and so giving of their time to the folks behind the scenes. But Joan was rare.
People mostly talk about her brash comedy, what she did for women in entertainment and her work ethic. All of those things are true. But she was also an incredibly nice lady who made an effort to make the people around her feel comfortable and cared for.
As Joan hugged me goodbye, she said: “Thank you for the opportunity. Next time, have wardrobe bring more expensive shoes.” It was me who was thankful for the opportunity. It was an honor seeing a legend like her at work. And, yes, she was right about the shoes.
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