Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is aptly titled. She’s been in the entertainment business for the better part of 50 years, an achievement that very few people are able to make.

For my generation I think it’s pretty easy to ignore Joan Rivers career. Her biggest hit was during the Carson Show years, she’s put together a few plays and she’s done stand up for pretty much her whole career. She’s actually very, very funny. She was edgy back when she started and she continues that today. Clawing her way through show biz (she really wanted to be an actress, but that’s never really panned out) Joan Rivers really hasn’t changed. A hard working women, she doesn’t take shit from anyone.

The film followers her for what looks like about a year from 2009 to early 2010 where she wins the Celebrity Apprentice. You get a good idea of what makes her tick and what pushes her to work well into her 70’s. For every success she had a crushing career blow (Carson gave her the spotlight to become famous, he ditched and blackballed her when she got her own talk show on FOX, her husband killed himself after her talk show was canceled, her plays did well only to be crushed by critics). It’s pretty amazing she’s had the steel mind to keep going and stay sharp…and she’s still really funny. I have a lot of respect for her now and I’d totally go see her do stand up One of the best scenes is where she offends a guy in the audience with a deaf joke and she manages to stomp on his throat, win the entire crowd back AND make him laugh at the joke she lays out to recover from his outburst. Really something to see and it really shook her up emotionally.

Highly recommended.