- Hi. - Hi.
- How are you? - I know.
I'm having a very emotional day.
- Yeah? Well-- - Yeah.
- I'm--I-- - The ebb and flow.
- Yeah. I understand. - Yeah.
- You know, first of all, you just--
the Daytime Emmys were last weekend...
- Yes.
- And there was a huge tribute to your mother,
which was beautiful.
- Thank you.
- And--but I can't believe she only won an Emmy once.
- Isn't that crazy? - Yeah.
- She's only--never won a Primetime Emmy,
and the only one she ever won was she won one Daytime Emmy.
- Wow.
- And, you know, it was at a point in her career
where the daytime community really embraced her...
- Mm-hmm.
- And she was so loved by that whole group,
and to walk out and have so many of the producers
and all these people that she's worked with for all those years
be there and stand up was a very emotional moment.
- It's a very strong community.
I also feel very embraced by the daytime community
and have been very blessed by, you know, everything,
so it's a wonderful thing.
- And I think she would've liked the dress,
except it was way too conservative.
- Uh--real-- - For her taste.
I mean, for her, she would've wanted me--
which I wrote in the book-- you know,
everything hanging out and nothing to the imagination.
- You had very different tastes in--in the way you dress.
Like, for her birthday, probably,
Jasmine's look would've been really good.
You know? - Yes.
- Yeah. - Yes.
- Yeah. That would've been-- - Yes.
- You know. - Yeah.
- She knew what to do for her mother for her birthday.
She knew.
So it's a really sweet book, and it's--
it's a tragedy that you had to write this book
in the first place.
But it must have been bittersweet
because there's--there are amazing stories in here
that make you laugh, and how was--
how tough was this to write?
- It was tough, but my mother, she always had this joke
that she wanted to write a book with me before she died
called "Comedian Dearest."
- Mm-hmm.
- You know where this is going. - Yeah.
- So then it would be in the safety deposit box,
so she would say once her head hit the floor,
I could just publish it right away.
- Right.
- So I wanted to write something that would make me laugh
and would make her laugh and would make her fans laugh,
and I think I set the tone with the dedication...
- Mm-hmm.
- Which is, "For my mother, whom I think about every day,
"and to my father, who, as of this past September,
is no longer resting in peace."
And--yeah.
That--that sets the tone for the book.
But it was cathartic.
It was very--I wanted to call it "Cheaper than Therapy."
- Yeah, but you say-- I mean, she joked,
saying "Comedian Dearest,"
but she was a great mother to you,
even though she gave you advice on how to be a good mother,
which I thought was interesting.
She was always self-deprecating anyway, but--
but tell people what she said.
- Oh, there were--there were lots of things she said.
Well, she always used to say that I was actually
a better mother than--for Cooper than she was for me.
- Mm-hmm.
- Which, on the surface, sounds like a compliment.
- Mm-hmm.
- But then you stop for a second--you go, like,
"Wait a minute, what's wrong with me?"
If I'm doing so much of a better job,
like, do I need to go lay down?
I'm a little worried about that.
- Yeah.
- But, you know, she was-- she was funny.
And, you know, she lived for my son.
- Yeah, Cooper is how old? 14?
- He's 14. - Wow.
And I know they were very, very close.
- Very close. He's 14 now.
It was a big, big blow to him.
- Mm-hmm.
- But, you know, he's a teenager,
so sometimes, he actually looks up from the phone,
and I see his eyes, and I can see if he's happy.
- Yeah.
- But, you know, my mom, she was--it's so funny
because when I was growing up, and--
my parents would come to every game,
and it turned out that my mother used to actually be asleep
behind her sunglasses
and never learned anything about sports.
- Uh-huh.
- And with Cooper, she would actually, like--
she had her chair, like, that she would carry to the games
and the practices, and she would actually stay awake,
and sometimes, she even knew which team scored.
So, you know, she really loved him.
- So she went to Cooper's games, and was she...
- Well, she wasn't dressed like that.
- I was gonna say, how--
- Yeah, she always went in full hair and makeup,
and I used to call her, like, it was, like, "Johnny Cash."
She would always be all in black and heels and the whole thing
'cause she was always--her-- her thing was,
"I don't need some snotty eighth-grader
"going home to his parents and say, 'I saw Joan Rivers
and she looks like crap.'"
- She was dressing for the eighth-graders.
- She was dressing for the drag--
Santa Monica Dragons eighth grade lacrosse team.
- Hilarious. Hilarious.
I want to read this.
I mean, her jokes are just timeless,
and I--I think it was-- was it the "60 Minutes" piece
where she showed the filing cabinet of all the jokes
that she's kept over the years?
Well, I remember that piece. - Yes.
- I mean, she's just got so many jokes,
but--and they just stand up.
"My love life is like a piece of Swiss cheese.
Most of it is missing, and what's there stinks."
[laughter]
"Looking 50 is great...
if you're 60."
"My best birth control now is just leave the lights on."
"The first time I see a jogger smiling,
I'll consider it."
"I hate housework.
"You make the beds, you do the dishes,
and six months later, you have to do it all again."
Just really great, and sweet stories.
And she really was a pioneer and an amazing, amazing woman.
- And you're in here.
- I know. I know.
I was flattered to see that.
That--that's so sweet,
and she was very supportive of me, so.
She was an amazing woman,
and we are sad that she's not with us anymore.
I'm so glad you wrote the book.
It is called "The Book of Joan,"
and it's available starting tomorrow.