At the age of 89, Phyllis Diller is saying good night but not goodbye.
December 31, 2006 (Press Release) --
Diller, the subject of a new DVD that celebrates her life and documents her final stand-up performance in 2002, says she simply got too old to keep traveling from city to city. But, hey, if you have a movie role in mind, give her a call.
''Look, if it's a little old lady, I get the role,'' she says, breaking into that famous Diller laugh, the one that sounds something like AHHH! AHHH! AHHH AHHH!
''I've just done a couple movies where I died and they loved it. Because without my wig I look dead! AHHH! AHHH! AHHH AHHH!''
Still, she has had to turn down some roles because they were too big and required more work than she could handle.
''I have energy, but I don't have lasting energy,'' says Diller, who had a pacemaker installed after a near-fatal heart attack in 1999. ''I could do maybe two hours, but beyond that I can't. And you have to know your limitations.''
Funny thing is, Diller never seemed to accept any limitations when, against the odds, she became one of the most famous comedians of her time. Her lighthearted routines about married suburban life as a living hell were making her husband, ''Fang,'' a household name when Roseanne Barr was barely out of diapers.
''The very first female comedian that I ever heard of,'' Bonnie Hunt says in the affectionate new documentary ''Goodnight, We Love You.''
''There weren't any,'' Diller replies when asked to name the other female comics working the stand-up circuit when she broke in at San Francisco's Purple Onion in 1956.
''One thing that helped me a lot is that there weren't even any male stand-ups then. They had all become famous and had their own shows on television,'' she continued. ''And all the new comics coming up were working double. ... There was Allen and Rossi and Martin and Lewis and -- who is the angry guy? George Carlin. Even he was working with a partner then. That kind of gave me a little niche for what I did.''
Source: http://www.msn.com
POSTED BY JOHN ROGERS
''Look, if it's a little old lady, I get the role,'' she says, breaking into that famous Diller laugh, the one that sounds something like AHHH! AHHH! AHHH AHHH!
''I've just done a couple movies where I died and they loved it. Because without my wig I look dead! AHHH! AHHH! AHHH AHHH!''
Still, she has had to turn down some roles because they were too big and required more work than she could handle.
''I have energy, but I don't have lasting energy,'' says Diller, who had a pacemaker installed after a near-fatal heart attack in 1999. ''I could do maybe two hours, but beyond that I can't. And you have to know your limitations.''
Funny thing is, Diller never seemed to accept any limitations when, against the odds, she became one of the most famous comedians of her time. Her lighthearted routines about married suburban life as a living hell were making her husband, ''Fang,'' a household name when Roseanne Barr was barely out of diapers.
''The very first female comedian that I ever heard of,'' Bonnie Hunt says in the affectionate new documentary ''Goodnight, We Love You.''
''There weren't any,'' Diller replies when asked to name the other female comics working the stand-up circuit when she broke in at San Francisco's Purple Onion in 1956.
''One thing that helped me a lot is that there weren't even any male stand-ups then. They had all become famous and had their own shows on television,'' she continued. ''And all the new comics coming up were working double. ... There was Allen and Rossi and Martin and Lewis and -- who is the angry guy? George Carlin. Even he was working with a partner then. That kind of gave me a little niche for what I did.''
Source: http://www.msn.com
POSTED BY JOHN ROGERS
Email
Print
SPAM
LEAVE A COMMENT
