KNOWN FOR HER brash manner and loud gruff voice, with a heavy accent, Joan Rivers is at the top of her game. Last month, actor, comedienne, talk-show host, writer, radio host, fashion coordinator, director and jewelry entrepreneur, Joan Rivers made a return visit to Las Vegas for a one night appearance at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in the Tiffany Theater, home of the world famous Follies Bergere Show. I had an opportunity to interview her for my weekly radio show and thought that I would share with you parts of that interview for this month's column.

Born, Joan Alexandra Molinsky on June 8, 1933 in Brooklyn New York, Rivers always knew she belonged on stage. "From the minute I could put two sentences together in my head, I knew I wanted to be in the theater, I wanted to be an actress, I wanted to be in show business."

Educated at Barnard College, New York she earned a B.A. degree in English and Anthropology (1954). She stated, "My degree always gave me something to fall back on. My parents insisted on it, and they were right. For all those times I didn't have a job, I always knew I had a degree. It also opened me up to reading and seeing and knowing other things in the world. I am very glad I did it, but at the time I was furious."

During her college days, she was a stage actor appearing in almost all of the productions. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa, she took a job as a buyer for a department store and married the boss's son. The marriage lasted six months. Determined to reclaim her dream, Joan made the rounds in New York and began seven long years of having to survive the tough road of breaking into show business. One of her agents told her that she could work in strip joints but she needed a better name so, she was billed as, "Pepper January comedy with spice."

In 1965, Rivers finally made it to "The Tonight Show," where the host, Johnny Carson, proclaimed to America, with Joan at his side, that she would be a star. "Johnny Carson gave me the big break and Johnny Carson also gave me the first stamp of approval by saying, "She's funny." I was so outrageous that a lot of people said, a woman can't say that, and he was the first one to say you're funny, you're gonna be a star. And then the minute he said it, then everyone agreed—She's funny, she can say that."

"Can we talk?" now a trademark, states Rivers, "it happened while performing on stage. Until this day, I get really crazy with them if they don't admit to things, like come on you know this is true. I actually think it started with Elizabeth Taylor when she was very fat and the audience would go ahh and I would say, can we talk here, is she fat, or is she not fat. Like saying come on tell the truth. And then the audience would say it to me long before I started saying it to them."

I asked Joan how she deals with adversities and where she gets her strength. She stated, "What's your choice? I can't stand wasting a day, I can't stand people that sit around and feel sorry for themselves. That's your cards, here's what you were dealt, now work with your cards."

Her advise to amateur and professionals trying to go to another level was, "You work anywhere. You work anywhere there's a microphone and you record everything, you tape every thing, and you listen to it. You go to all the crappie little clubs, you go to every comedy club and you wait on line with a number. And you just do it." You find your way in, the good ones always do, I know people don't believe it, the good ones eventually break through. But, you gotta know what you are doing."

Nearly seventy-two-years of age, Joan knows exactly what she's doing, managing to keep re-inventing herself throughout the years, living life to its fullest and having fun at the same time. Can She Talk.