(FX)
Joan Rivers, who died on Thursday at 81, left behind a half-century’s worth of jokes and a comedic legacy that will continue to live on.
The ground-breaking comedian never stopped working, and her constant energy inspired many, including Louis C.K.
After seeing the 2010 documentary on her life, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, the “Louie” star asked her to make a cameo on his FX show.
“Part of the episode is her playing onstage, and she’s playing at Atlantic City, so we went down there with a small crew just to shoot some footage of her separate from the episode,” he told the AV. Club of her 2011 appearance.
C.K. recalled, “We just went to see her, and I went in there, and I love Joan Rivers, I always have. But when I saw her onstage, I couldn’t believe it. She darts around, she’s got so much energy. She just kills. She’s better than me, and I’m literally close to half her age, and I can’t run around like she does.”
In the episode, aptly titled “Joan,” Rivers explains the life of a comedian to a defeated C.K.
“Listen, I wish I could tell you it gets better, but it doesn’t get better. You get better,” she tells him. “I’ve gone up, I’ve gone down, I’ve been bankrupt, I’ve been broke. But you do it, and you do it because we love it more than anything else.”
Rivers sums up, “What we do is a calling.”
Watch the memorable clip below.
