A 'crown jewel of comedy': The Joan Rivers card catalog of jokes finds a home
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Sunday, December 22, 2024


A 'crown jewel of comedy': The Joan Rivers card catalog of jokes finds a home
An undated image of a typewritten joke on a card provided by the Joan Rivers Estate. The comedian’s archives, which include a meticulously organized collection of 65,000 typewritten jokes, are being donated to the National Comedy Center, the high-tech museum in Jamestown, N.Y. (Joan Rivers Estate via The New York Times)

by Jason Zinoman



NEW YORK, NY.- When Joan Rivers died in 2014, ending one of the greatest careers in modern comedy, several groups were interested in acquiring her archives, which included a meticulously organized collection of 65,000 typewritten jokes.

Her daughter, Melissa Rivers, recalled a conversation with a representative from the Smithsonian Institution who wanted the catalog of jokes but said it would not be on permanent display. Her mind instantly went to the final tracking shot of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” in which the golden Ark of the Covenant is locked inside a crate and placed in a vast warehouse with hundreds of other crates.

“I couldn’t do that because so much of who she was is in those files,” Melissa Rivers said on a video call from Los Angeles. For her mother, a pioneering stand-up and withering critic of celebrity fashion, “a view was always important.”

Instead, Rivers is donating the extensive collection to the National Comedy Center, the high-tech museum in Jamestown, New York, joining the archives of A-list comics such as George Carlin and Carl Reiner. The fact that the jokes will be accessible is only one of the reasons for Melissa Rivers’ decision.

The museum is in the planning stages of an interactive exhibition that will center on Joan Rivers’ card catalog of jokes and include material covering a vast swath of comedy history, from the 1950s to 2015. The show will allow visitors to explore the file in depth.

Jamestown is where Lucille Ball grew up, and “Joan Rivers was the first headliner I booked for the Lucille Ball Comedy Festival the year we announced to the world our intention to build the National Comedy Center,” Journey Gunderson, the executive director, said by phone. Melissa Rivers, a television personality in her own right, was on hand for the groundbreaking in 2015.

When it comes to the Joan Rivers joke collection, “I don’t know that another exists that is nearly as vast,” Gunderson said. In Carlin’s archives, by contrast, the jokes were “mainly scraps of paper organized into Ziploc baggies then put into a folder by topic.”

Rivers, who wrote gags at all hours, paid close attention to setups and punchlines, typing them up and cross-referencing them by categories like “Parents hated me” or “Las Vegas” or “No sex appeal.” The largest subject area is “Tramp,” which includes 1,756 jokes.

Along with this bounty of material, the collection includes snapshots of other aspects of this major cultural figure, including her sense of fashion, including the pearls and a little black dress she wore early in her career as well as the multiple boas from her later fashionista years. Here’s a look at a few of the artifacts headed to the center.




Insults in Character

As you can see from these cards, Joan Rivers often made herself the butt of the joke, leaning on tight, snappy punchlines to describe herself as unwanted or ugly or old. Gunderson said the self-deprecating gibes emerged from a character “she was using as a position of power to comment on the plight of woman.” In real life, Melissa Rivers said that “every now and again, she would say that for whatever age she was, she looked good. But that was that.” Rivers added that those jokes came from a real place. “That was a part of her, but maybe not as crippling as everyone assumed it would be,” she said. “But she also knew she looked good.”

An Unparalleled Catalog

“Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” (from 2010 and available on major platforms) is one of the greatest documentaries about a stand-up comic ever made — candid, unflinching and alert to the brutal amount of work necessary to succeed in show business. It also introduced the world to the cabinet of jokes that Rivers kept in her home. Gunderson described the catalog as one of “the crown jewels of comedy that exist on planet Earth.”

Help With Hecklers

Rivers, a fixture on television who never stopped performing live, loved sparring with a crowd. But early in her career, she prepared for rambunctious audience members with a list of comebacks that could be weaponized to mock hecklers without losing the tempo of her set. Melissa Rivers said she saw her mother upset by a heckler only once, when later in her career someone was offended by a joke about Helen Keller. “She spun around and said: ‘Don’t you dare! My mother was deaf. She lost her hearing early. Don’t tell me what’s inappropriate.’”

Early Ambitions

Before Joan Rivers became a comedian, she wanted to be a dramatic actress. After graduating from Barnard College in 1954, she commissioned this series of head shots to display her range. She didn’t make her Broadway debut until 1972 with “Fun City,” which she co-wrote (with her husband, Edgar Rosenberg, and Lester Colodny) and starred in. It closed after nine performances. But Rivers remained a stalwart fan of the stage, a regular at shows and a savvy commentator on the television series “Theater Talk.” When she went to the theater, she always dressed up and insisted her family do the same. Melissa Rivers said: “She always said, ‘This is church.’”

A Momentous Time

When Joan Rivers left her position as the permanent guest host of “The Tonight Show” on NBC to start her own version in 1986 on the then-fledging network Fox, she became the first woman in the modern era to host a late-night talk show. It was a bold move, a career landmark that also preceded a painful period of her life. She made an enemy of “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson, who saw her departure as a betrayal. “That made her angry,” Melissa Rivers said. “Like she often said, if it had been a man, it would have been the great send-off to my protégé.” Rivers was banished from the Carson show and fired from her own the following year. Her husband, a producer on “The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers,” died by suicide months later. “It took a huge toll on their marriage and our family,” Melissa Rivers recalled, describing the period as one of “great elation and great horror.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.










Today's News

June 11, 2023

Hannah Gadsby's Picasso show was meant to ignite debate. And it did.

Elizabeth Peyton's solo exhibition Angel now on view at David Zwirner

400-year-old mystery solved as Thomas Cromwell's Book of Hours discovered and goes on display at Hever Castle

A new Hiroshi Sugimoto sculpture in San Francisco reaches for infinity

Gagosian Paris to exhibit new work by Takashi Murakami

Phillips' inaugural Hong Kong Spring Auction in new Asia headquarters realized US $107 million

Can he fix 'palace of scaffolding' in time for Belgium's 200th birthday?

A 'crown jewel of comedy': The Joan Rivers card catalog of jokes finds a home

'Stereo Sights and Sounds' curated by Josh Gosselin & Ana Stjepanović at Marc Straus, NY

Latin American artists reinvent their histories

Schaulager in Basel celebrates its 20th anniversary with 'OUT OF THE BOX'

Tala Worrell: Phosphenes opened yesterday at Parrasch Heijnen

Olga Viso appointed Selig Family Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs and Engagement at Phoenix Art Museum

Kunsthalle Zürich is now presenting Christopher Kulendran Thomas: FOR REAL

Moran's achieves a NEW world auction record of $325,000 for Oscar Howe in their Art of the American West sale

Secretariat's legend rolls on like, well, a tremendous machine

Helen Thorington, who brought sonic art to the airwaves, dies at 94

A Russian pianist speaks out against the war from home

Private dances: Lotto Royale offers a 'door to an experience'

'Dalíland' Review: Landscape with vipers

2023 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces Exhibition: Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi

"QuarryArt" features works of nine local photographers and provides a look at Cape Ann Quarries

'A Matter of Discovery: The Art of Luis Perelman' on view at the Neuberger Museum of Art

Work by Sandy Skoglund now on view at Janet Borden, Inc. in The Outtakes

The exhibition Trab'ssahl by Abdessamad El Montassir is now on view at Bétonsalon Centre D'Art

A Step-by-Step Guide for Making Engaging Social Media Videos

Best Cannes Film Festival-Themed Slots 2023

Experience Comfort and Style in Activity Dresses Designed Just for You

Donald "C-Note" Hooker: A Prison Artist Who Celebrates Black Culture




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
(52 8110667640)

Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Houston Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง
Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful