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Joan Rivers talks about death in one of her last interviews

“I’ve had a great life”, insisted Joan Rivers. “If I dropped dead right now, nobody’s going to say ‘So young’. I’ve had such a great ride.”
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September 4, 2014

“I’ve had a great life”, insisted Joan Rivers.  “If I dropped dead right now, nobody’s going to say ‘So young’.  I’ve had such a great ride.” 

The Jewish comedian, born Joan Molinsky, made that comment and several others about death in an wide-ranging, hour-long interview in July that eerily foreshadowed her death today at age 81.

On Wednesday, Rivers’ daughter Melissa said in a statement that her mother had been moved out of the intensive care unit in a New York City hospital and into a private room, where she is “being kept comfortable”.  Earlier, Melissa Rivers revealed her mother had been on life support, after going into cardiac and respiratory arrest during a procedure in a doctor’s office one week ago.

Appearing in a two-part interview on the PBS talk show “Tavis Smiley”, Rivers spoke at length about not wanting to live if she could no longer perform. 

When asked by Smiley “If a moment ever comes when you don’t ‘have it’ on stage, how will you know?”, Rivers responded “I’ll know, I guess, when I do the same joke three times.  And then I will go offstage and call Dr. Kevorkian”… a reference to the late pathologist who championed physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill.

After a long pause, Rivers added, “And you’re waiting for a joke.  No joke”. 

She and Smiley continued to lightheartedly banter about the subject, at which point Rivers revealed  “I have it in my will or whatever you call it:  do not resuscitate if I cannot get up and be able to do 90 minutes onstage in concert.  And my lawyer argued with me about how long!  He said, ‘What about 60?’  I said, “90 minutes, Michael, or do not resuscitate.  And he’s arguing about 60.  ‘We’ll get a real good opening act!’ ” 

Amidst the laughter, Smiley remarked “I saw in your eyes that you meant that.  ‘If I can’t do what I do, I don’t want to be around here’”.

Rivers agreed, saying “I don’t want to sit around and be a vegetable.  I don’t want Melissa seeing her mother sitting there singing World War I songs.  ‘Over there, over there’, ‘change the catheter!’  I don’t want any of this, uh-uh.”

Reached for comment late Wednesday, Smiley said “When I heard the news of Joan’s health challenge, I immediately thought of what she’d recently shared with me about her wishes in the event of her incapacitation.  It was quite surreal”. 

Smiley said he hopes she’s recuperating, adding that “Even at 81, she hates not being on stage.  But God has a way of helping us to take a rest.” 

Elsewhere in what may have been her last in-depth interview, Rivers again spoke about how much she enjoys life.  “I’m so lucky,”, she said.  “In a previous life, I must have been a Jewish Mother Teresa.  I must have done something very good.  I must have washed a lot of stinky feet.  Because this life has been terrific.”

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