Joan Rivers, the distinctively New York stand-up comic turned television personality, has no plans of slowing down as she turns 80 on Saturday.
"Slow down? Never! Why should I slow down? I’ll only stop the day I die," Rivers told the Las Vegas Sun. "In our business, you have the opportunity to work. You’d be a fool not to work, so
I’ll continue onto the very end and never slow down."
Best known for her stinging one-liners and raunchy jokes, Rivers' often crass, direct manner entertains as many people as it offends.
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"Can you imagine me being mellow after all these years?" Rivers asked. "Maybe it’s something people yearn for in the back of their system, but I don’t want to mellow, I don’t want to calm down, I don’t want to be, 'Oh, she’s so nice now.' Forget it, no! I like to be edgy [and] I’m not going to change now."
Having planned to celebrate her 80th birthday at the Metropolitan Club in New York on Wednesday, Rivers cancelled the celebration in light of her sister, Barbara Waxler, having died on Monday.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Rivers began her show-business career in the late 1950s in the theatre.
Within a decade she was performing in comedy clubs in New York City's Greenwich Village which led to her eventual appearance on "The Tonight Show." From there her career took off.
"My mission is to make everybody laugh. I think if I went into Afghanistan and I did six good burka jokes, the war would be over," Rivers told the Las Vegas Sun. "I really, really, really believe you reach people with comedy. If I have a mission, that’s it: to make everybody look around and say this is silly, this is stupid, calm down. I hope I never calm down. There’s nothing more boring than an old person who is mellow. Blah."
Rivers currently hosts E! Entertainment’s "Fashion Police" and stars with daughter Melissa Rivers on "Joan Knows Best," now in Season 4 on WEtv.
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The outspoken comic often flirts with controversy, having recently made headlines for insulting the Grammy-winning English singer
Adele, calling her "fat" and telling her she should "lose weight."
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