Joan Rivers: An Audience With [DVD]

For a lot of us there are few people who can actually take our breath away with laughter. People like Barry Humphries a.k.a. Dame Edna Everidge - sometimes does it for me, Phyllis Diller could when she was at her best, and then there's Joan Rivers - usually whenever she opens her mouth and starts talking.

And I'm pleased to say, this is one of those times when she really nails it. Just when you think that no one could have anything more to say on just about any contentious issue, along comes Joan to inform and update us all with her particular take on things.

There seem to be no taboo areas for Joan Rivers and if she offends a few people by dropping the not so odd four lettered word to add further shock value, well most people just gasp, smile and crack up with laughter. She tells those people who groan or gasp too loudly to "grow up" . She's an adult entertainer assuming that her audience is also adult enough to deal with her particular ascerbic take on things.

What she says about old people [while admitting in passing that she's one of them], gays, Jews, Julie Andrews, old friends and acquaintances, and just about everyone who might be in her audience, is very wicked and very, very funny. And then near the end she talks about why she does it and it's almost heartbreaking. . . but still kinda funny . . . she leaves you laughing.

She not only someone who can make me laugh till tears roll down my face, she's someone who makes me feel grateful that there are still people who can poke fun at the world with such irreverance, as well as at themselves . . . and that it's all good.

If you've seen her live you'll know just what I'm talking about. If you haven't seen her live then this is probably as close as it gets. It's a sensational DVD and I definitely recommend it as worth owning. Look at it when you need cheering up or when you just feel like some irreverant laughter or an asthma attack!

The queen of acid returns in this show recorded for ITV, And talks about the highs and lows of being Joan, as well as some major put downs for her audience.
I would recommend this for anyone who needs a good laugh and enjoys tears of laughter!

This is no 'chicken soup for the soul', this is the kind of humour that the medical profession says we need for a healthy, balanced life. Laughs, the good old-fashioned type that start with a chuckle and then develop into a deep belly laugh, are generated at a dizzily paced rate. Thank goodness for the rewind button, it is needed to catch up on those bits we couldn't hear because we were bent double with laughter.

An Audience with Joan Rivers is slick, professional, self-deprecating, provocative humour. The expletives are natural, every-day stuff so should come as no surprise to any modern audience. But be warned: you will ache from laughing so much, and at times it will be difficult to catch your breath!