The Late Joan Rivers: 'Does this urn make my ash look fat?' — Page 13

"It was in the moment," Joan explained at the time. "I like her very much. It's like the Katy Perry song, 'I Kissed a Girl.' I don't know if I liked it or I didn't like it. I woke up this morning with an incredible urge to play golf."

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More wonderful reminiscences: Kevin Sessums's reminiscence introducing Richard Kramer's:

Here's Kevin's:

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Kevin Sessums

Richard Kramer's lovely reminiscence of Joan Rivers at a performance of Dreamgirls.
But first my own small reminiscence.

I have been thinking of my downstairs neighbor back in New York since all this happened - Henry Edwards - who is so very close to Joan and helps her write her act. Henry and I would often talk about theatre when we'd run into each other in the lobby until we began to just talk about life. He'd keep me in stitches most times. Such a funny man. It makes me sad to think of Henry so sad right now. I hope he's writing jokes through all this, even maybe the a kind of gallows humor that Joan will be in stitches herself about when I am hopeful she finally hears some of them. Henry spends almost every holiday with Joan. He is more than her colleague; he is like family to her. I know she is like family to him. Henry - like Joan herself - is the kind of person who is also just part of the New York conversation. I only met Joan once with him - at the intermission of "A Streetcar Named Desire" down at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a production starring Cate Blanchett as Blanche DuBois. All we did was talk about Cate that day since it was one of the most remarkable performances I'd ever witnessed. Talking about an Australian actress's take on Tennessee Williams while standing in Brooklyn with Joan Rivers is the kind of divine dissonance that only New York can offer; Joan herself has always been a part of that kind of divine New York dissonance and has even helped define it.

But if you are a regular theatergoer in New York, chances are you often see Joan there. She loves the theater and I think she maybe secretly thinks of herself as an actress first and foremost who only fell into comedy. Indeed, I saw her in Neil Simon's Broadway Bound on Broadway when she took over the role of Kate from Linda Lavin. Those were big shoes to feel but Joan not only filled them brilliantly but also with a kind of fearlessness and bravery. I stood for her that night I saw her as Kate but I didn't shout bravo.

Let me shout it now: Bravo! Bravo! I hope she's calling on that bravery, that fearlessness now.

And now, here's Richard Kramer's own reminiscence below:

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Updated On: 9/1/14 at 05:44 PM

Armistead Maupin just reposted Joan's holiday wishes, with this sweet remembrance:


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Armistead Maupin

I interviewed Joan Rivers for Interview Magazine back in the early eighties. She was already known for being heavily airbrushed in her press photos, so I asked if I could bring along the artist Don Bachardy to draw her. There were stacks of fat biographies next to her bed at the Riviera in Vegas, and she was hugely impressed when she realized that was sitting for Christopher Isherwood's longtime partner. When Don showed her the finished product, Joan nodded and said "I look like my aunt." Don grinned demurely and said: "Then I must have succeeded." I found her to be a woman of great intelligence and warmth -- and not just because she fixed me up with her handsome ginger hairdresser that night. (His name, by the way, was not Mr. Phyllis). There's a definite family resemblance in this lovely clip from 1966. She looks like her daughter Melissa. Count me among the people who are rooting for this pioneer to stick around a good while longer.

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Do we know if pulling the plug is even an option at this point? Has there been a report of how bringing her out of the coma went?

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There has been no reports at all from the hospital- about anything- i presume at the family's request.

I has my suspicions about "when" this process began only cos it's not really something u do on a long weekend. I expect more info will be available after Tuesday.

That made me giggle!

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Over the past few decades, I've always admired the work Linda Ellerbee did as a pioneering woman in late-night news, so I was delighted to see that she made this comment underneath Armistead's re-post of the holiday message.

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Linda Ellerbee

I join you, Armistead, in your affection and respect for Joan Rivers. I have known her for years. Her sense of humor is that of the survivor and as a mother, she was always a tiger. May she live and prosper.

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It's being passed around like Heidi Abramowitz during Fleet Week!

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Has Adele weighed in?

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Many people seem to consider Joan Rivers a very important figure in the gay rights movement.

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Joan was at the March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights in 1987. Where was that Harvey Milk?

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Poor Melissa. That's hurtful.

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