Comedian and writer Arabella Weir remembers the trailblazing American comic and salutes her craft and personal strength
It's unusual to find a female comic as completely fearless as Joan Rivers. The fact that we're still talking about her at 81 is both heartening and depressing: you would think that at her age she wouldn't be so relevant, but women in comedy are still such a rarity.
Standup lends itself well to the classic male persona because the act is in itself so aggressive. The whole notion of standing up in front of strangers and asking to entertain them with nothing other than a mic and your brain is so counter to what people are accustomed to from women. Girls are told to be nice and pretty, whether you're an actor or an accountant.
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