The Failure Pledge

Comedy

Next

Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers in the 1960s.
During the seven years — in the trio Jim, Jake & Joan.

What failed

Seven years of it: unpaid Greenwich Village sets, six years as an office temp, and seven auditions over three years for The Tonight Show, whose people were afraid she would make Carson nervous.

What happened next

She got on The Tonight Show in February 1965 only because somebody dropped out. Carson told her on air she would be a star, invited her back eight more times that year, and she became the first woman to host a network late-night show.

The point

Her break was luck — a cancellation. The luck was only usable because seven years of unpaid rooms had made her ready to take it at no notice.

The sequence

3 documented failures, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.

  1. 1958-1965

    Seven years in the business, six of them as an office temp. Her own count.

    failureHow Joan Rivers Got Her Start (The Saturday Evening Post)

  2. 1961

    Furious to find there is no script, she flings a glass ashtray at her Second City auditors. She gets the job.

    noteHow to Audition for Second City (Backstage)

  3. 1961

    Makes her Second City MainStage debut in the seventh revue, Alarums and Excursions, her only production there. She later said it was where she was born as a comedian.

    successJoan Rivers (Wikipedia)

  4. 1962

    Night work to pay for the unpaid shows.

    failureHow Joan Rivers Got Her Start (The Saturday Evening Post)

  5. 1964

    Her trio, Jim, Jake & Joan, plays The Bitter End, and the booking gets the act into the film Once Upon a Coffee House: her first feature-film credit.

    successJoan Rivers (Wikipedia)

  6. 1965

    The Tonight Show's bookers turn her down.

    failureHow Joan Rivers Got Her Start (The Saturday Evening Post)

  7. 1965

    On 17 February she finally gets on, but only as a last-second replacement, in the end-of-show slot kept for writers and other 'interesting people'.

    successHow Joan Rivers Got Her Start (The Saturday Evening Post)

  8. 1965

    Carson waves her over to the couch after her set and, still wiping his eyes, tells her she is going to be a star.

    successHow Joan Rivers Got Her Start (The Saturday Evening Post)

  9. 1965

    Invited back eight more times that year.

    successJoan Rivers (Wikipedia)

Sources

Use the ← and → keys to move between entries.

Others in comedy, and nearby.

← All of them