Bro’s Billy Eichner Recalls How Joan Rivers Helped Make Him a Star –’She Really Became a Mentor to Me’
During a discussion about his new rom-com film Bros, actor/comedian Billy Eichner recalled how legendary comedian Joan Rivers mentored him and even got Eichner’s name in front of the major late-night talk show hosts, which ultimately helped him get started as a comedian.
Eichner originally met Rivers on a pilot for Bravo in 2006, back when the network was finding its ground. Along with Bravo producer Andy Cohen, Eichner formed a friendship with Rivers and Cohen even after the pilot was not picked up. Eicher recalled how Rivers continued to follow his career, offering him advice and she even promoted his work to late-night hosts like David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel.
Billy Eichner said Joan Rivers was ‘insanely supportive’
Eichner recalled getting close to Rivers during his experience with her at Bravo. “She really became like a mentor to me,” he said on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast. “I could go on and on about how insanely supportive she was for no reason.”
While he was still relatively unknown, Rivers would slip Eichner’s “Billy on the Street” DVD to major late-night talk show producers during appearances. “No one knew who I was at that point,” he said. “And Joan told me, she said, I’m about to do all the late-night shows for the first time in decades. Put your ‘Billy on the Street’ videos, put some of your favorite ones on a DVD and make copies and leave them at my apartment. I am going to bring the producers of all of those shows, your DVD, and tell them you have to know this Billy Eichner guy. Watch these videos.'”
Joan helped Billy with his career after she was blacklisted
Earlier in the podcast, Eichner recalled how Rivers stuck her neck out for him despite being blacklisted on the talk show circuit. O’Brien said Rivers was a huge ratings draw when she guest hosted The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was the host. Whenever Carson wanted to take a break from his show, which was hugely popular in the ’80s, Rivers would step in and viewers would love it.
“She was so funny and it was a huge event,” O’Brien recalled. “And then she went on to do her own show and that was seen as a betrayal.” Carson didn’t plan to leave his show at the time.
Billy Eichner recalls how Joan Rivers told talk show hosts about him during her resurgence
Eichner continued the story. “So Joan went and did her own show and he got extremely mad and basically had her blacklisted from late-night TV for the rest of her career up until like ten years before she died. And so she did have a career resurgence, though, and Letterman did have her back on. And Fallon had her on The Tonight Show for the first time in many years. [Jimmy] Kimmel had her on, and no one knew who I was at that point.”
“She had no reason to deal with me. And yet she really was so helpful,” Eichner continued. “This was a few years before Joan had her resurgence if you remember. And, you know, Joan had been blacklisted from a lot of the late-night talk shows like, you know, we know this story. And she hadn’t done The Tonight Show in many years and Letterman hadn’t had her on in many years.”
