00:00I want everyone to know about her and what she what she dealt with being a female comedian when she was a female comedian and going into those rooms when there were no women there going into those rooms dressing up like she made comedy you know elegant even though she was talking trash out of her mouth she was elegant about it she knocked open so many doors so that the rest of us were able to walk through and we have and will continue to please welcome Chelsea Handler
00:30good evening everybody
00:32my name is Chelsea Handler and I am here to celebrate Joan Rivers because she was a mother groundbreaker
00:43when you're a woman doing stand-up and you start to become successful you're often compared to Joan Rivers and I can say in my case that is a very accurate assessment we do have a lot in common
00:56for starters she was also a blonde Jew which is the third rarest kind of Jew
01:02after uncircumcised rabbis and Tiffany Haddish
01:08Joan was of course she was a stand-up comedian in a male-dominated industry and unfortunately
01:17it is still a male-dominated industry and if it's hard being a female comedian today can you imagine
01:23how hard it was in the 1960s that was before we had Roe v Wade and then we got Roe v Wade and then we lost
01:29Roe v Wade so actually it's not that different but Joan did all of it for the love of comedy and she never
01:35apologized she once said me apologizing for a joke is like Taco Bell apologizing for giving you diarrhea
01:42we're both just doing our jobs she was the first woman to talk to audiences the way that women
01:50actually talk to each other we weren't allowed to tell jokes about sex or religion or our bodies and
01:55Joan wasn't allowed to either but she did so anyway she was quick she was smart she was self-deprecating
02:02she once said I have no sex appeal my gynecologist examines me by telephone
02:06if Joan didn't pave the way by talking about sex and gynecologists and vaginas do you really
02:15think I could go on stage three nights a week and talk about how much I love I'm kidding not really
02:23though Joan was a pioneer for women in comedy and she walked so that we could run
02:30and let's talk about her late night legacy in 1989 she became the first woman to host a late night
02:37talk show ever and she was the only woman in a male-dominated field and she opened the floodgates
02:45boy did she ever it went so well that the second woman to host the late night talk show was hired
02:52just 18 short years later and that's me
02:57and Joan like all female trailblazers made it easier for all of us but when she was starting
03:06on her journey in comedy there was nobody to make it easier for her do you know how hard it was for
03:12Joan to get a spot doing stand-up on the tonight show with Johnny Carson the kind of spot that could
03:16literally change your life and career in an instant even though she was well known as a joke writer
03:21the booker told her no over and over and over again until she got a recommendation from peekaboo
03:27guess who Bill Cosby because it doesn't matter if you're a woman advocating for yourself you need
03:36someone to vouch for you someone trustworthy like Bill Cosby Joan gave us license to be bold and to be
03:48brave she showed us how to work hard how to succeed how to fail how to pick ourselves back up work hard
03:54succeed and fail all over again and I think Joan said it best in this card we found from her filing
04:00cabinet all is fair in love and comedy and I feel the same way as most guys when they see Chelsea
04:07Handler naked no hard feelings
04:09my entire career I have been compared to Joan River
