{"id":448,"date":"2024-01-24T04:22:16","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T04:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/gennarojane\/?p=448"},"modified":"2024-01-27T18:14:46","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T23:14:46","slug":"can-we-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/gennarojane\/can-we-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cCan We Talk?\u201d\u00a0Joan Rivers got me doing radio."},"content":{"rendered":"

The American Comedy Network was a group of former radio deejays who formed a radio syndication service that provided parody and novelty songs to local U.S. and Canadian radio stations. They hired me to voice Madonna. <\/span>Between takes I\u2019d talk like Little<\/span> Mrs. Goldfarb, (a character I did in my stand-up) to crack up Dale Reeves. Mrs. G’s rasp made Dale say <\/span>\u201cYou could do Joan Rivers!\u201d So I went to Tower Records, bought J<\/span>oan\u2019s LP, What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most, <\/em>and played it over and over and over like  in high school when I was preparing to try out for the musical. But this wasn\u2019t about learning lyrics, where the orchestra came in and practicing my moves.  I needed to make my voice be able to sound exactly like Joan Rivers\u2019s voice.  Maybe it\u2019s my ears, but I can\u2019t always hear the words to a song. My brain immediately picks out the tune and orchestration. When I listened to Joan the words hardly mattered.  What I heard was the rhythm.  <\/span><\/span>Badada Badada \u2014<\/em><\/span>BUH!  <\/em> Her phrasing is a laugh trigger!\u2014 she taps the funny bone with a little rubber hammer. Like Little Mrs. Goldfarb, doing Joan\u2019s voice means high level energy. The trick is to suck in my diaphragm while <\/span>pushing my breath up out of my gut into the back of my throat and kind of retch out words. <\/span>\u201cCan we talk?\u201d That was Joan\u2019s signature line at that time.  I voiced Joan on <\/span>ACN\u2019s parody Can We Talk, <\/em>which was later released as a single on Rhino Records. <\/span><\/p>\n

For more than twenty years Joan substitute host for Johnny Carson. Until Joan signed a deal to host her own late talk show on another network without getting Johnny\u2019s blessing. The feud was big news.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing was more fun than being hired to play Joan on<\/span> TV and radio commercials! Once the tape started running it was like being possessed, \u2014in a good way. Hilarity supreme! I just got her. She freed me. I\u2019d just blurt shit out without thinking, knowing how I was using my voice would make people laugh. When I  read Joan\u2019s autobiography, Can We Talk, <\/em>I discovered that what Joan<\/span> Rosenberg from Larchmont had wanted more than anything was to be taken seriously as a legitimate stage actress. I could relate. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t