OUTRAGEOUS, outspoken and razor-sharp, American comedian Joan Rivers is heading for Bournemouth later this year as part of her 16-date 'Farewell Tour'. (Nov 2)
Don't worry, Joan may be 72-years-old but she's not planning on hanging up her joke book just yet.
"Everyone seems to be doing farewell tours so I thought I'd better jump on the bandwagon," she told me. "This one will probably be the first of many."
However, she assures me that giving up work is the last thing on her mind. "It'd be so boring."
But a Farewell Tour? It had a promising ring to it. "I figured it might get the audience interested if it sounds like there's a chance I might die on stage."
Speaking from her Manhattan apartment, Joan is warming to her subject fast.
"Wow yeah, dying on stage. That'd be a fabulous way to go." Then she remembers something vital. "It'd only really be fabulous mind you if it was in the second half of the act. My contract says I don't get paid until I've done at least 31 minutes."
"I used to say to my daughter 'If I'm on stage in Vegas and anything happens to me just strap me to the stool'... as long as I do those 31 minutes."
Despite a schedule that finds her criss-crossing the Atlantic with projects that include a Broadway show, concert dates, charity work, a multi-million dollar jewellery business and her ongoing Channel 5 chat show, The Joan Rivers Position, she is hugely enthusiastic about the new UK tour.
With special guests Kit and the Widow, it will be her biggest tour of this country to date and takes her on a tour of the provinces that's starts in Croydon and ends in Blackpool. She arrives at the Bournemouth Pavilion on Wednesday November 2.
"It's going to be so much fun," she tells me.
Joan relishes her reputation as one of the hardest working women in the world - "If you don't count the hooker on the corner..." She is adamant that she would hate it to be any other way.
But at an age when most people are putting their feet up, doesn't she ever tire of juggling commitments? "It really is very easy, you just don't have a life," she laughs.
Joan Rivers Farewell Tour with Kit and the Widow will play the Bournemouth Pavilion on Wednesday, November 2.