Joan Rivers — Comedy’s all-time good time gal

Joan Rivers needs no introduction. Our interview took place in mid-February, in the midst of Hollywood’s award season. She didn’t give up any inside gossip — especially the fact that, after being banned from “The Tonight Show” since 1986, she would return for Jimmy Fallon’s first night, one week later. We were just happy that she was warm, friendly and funny.

Joan Rivers: I love Louisville.
LEO: What do you love about Louisville?
JR: I love Louisville because my first college crush was in Louisville. He’s probably dead by now, but at the time, he was very, very cute.

LEO: Have you been dating lately?
JR: No, I closed the hotel about three years ago … I lived with a man for nine years, and he died. You reach a point that you go, “OK, that’s it, I’m really not interested.” If you say to somebody, “Tell me about yourself,” you’ll be dead before they even get to college.

LEO: So, who are you wearing?
JR: I’m always wearing — even though I hate them — Chanel shoes. They’re the most comfortable shoes in the world. Around the house, I wear very much what I wear on “Fashion Police,” but just simpler.

LEO: Do you shop for yourself or use a stylist?
JR: I love to shop for myself. I never get a chance to do it … I buy a lot when I buy. But I have a stylist that brings the things I wear on “Fashion Police,” and it’s usually pretty well sorted out. He’s been doing it for 15 years, so I trust him totally. And he doesn’t laugh when you get undressed.

LEO: What if you’re telling a joke at the time?
JR: Oh, that’s very funny.

LEO: Jennifer Lawrence is from Louisville — everybody loves her everywhere except you. Why is that?
JR: No, no, no, I think — let’s start from the beginning. Jennifer Lawrence is a terrific actress. I saw her in “Winter’s Bone” — we’re not discussing acting. We are discussing that when we said she looked good on “Fashion Police,” she said she loved “Fashion Police.” And the minute we dared to say we didn’t like one of her dresses, she began to knock us and tell us how terrible we were. So that’s why I’m not a fan of Jennifer Lawrence, even though I’m a tremendous fan — I think she has amazing talent.

LEO: Jay Leno has finally left, Jimmy Fallon’s coming in next week — how do you feel about that transition?
JR: I think Jimmy Fallon is so smart and so good. I think he’s going to be amazing, and he represents a whole different generation, and I think you need that. I never found Leno funny. I found him very, very goyish. And I truly never watched the show. I would either watch Letterman or Kimmel. So, for me, that he’s left — I didn’t know he was there.

LEO: How much material do you get from other people? How much do you come up with on your own these days?
JR: The majority is my own because it just has to be. It’s truly how you look at things. But especially “Fashion Police,” you cannot … you’ve got to have other people and other eyes looking with you. “Fashion Police,” I would certainly say 60 percent is me, 40 percent is them. But the act is certainly 80 percent, 90 percent me. But if you’ve got a good joke and you said it to me, I’ll say, “Thank you, god!” I’m going to use it.

LEO: Have you found any other controversial topics lately that have inspired you?
JR: Thank god for Woody Allen! You wait for these things; otherwise, what is there to talk about? Nothing.

LEO: What happens when it’s somebody who’s actually a close friend of yours?
JR: When somebody is a really close friend, you try to keep it out of the act. But, again, the act comes first for me. If somebody is paying to see me, my allegiance is always to my audience … They made plans, they bought tickets, they hired a babysitter, or they cut classes. Nobody has come not to like it, not to have a good time, and so I always make sure they have a good time.

Joan Rivers
Friday, March 21
Brown Theatre
315 W. Broadway
kentuckycenter.org
$35; 8 p.m.

Here
c. 2014 LEO Weekly

Spreading the Gospel: From South Africa to the Oscars to Louisville

On another sadly cold day in early March, Shimmy Jiyane is in Fayettville, Arkansas. The tenor singer is the choir director of the Soweto Gospel Choir, and the group is in the midst of their fifth North American tour since forming in late 2002. “I’m getting used to it,” he says in his melodic accent, about the below-freezing temperatures. Back home, it usually only gets cold in June and July — “but not like here! Here, it’s crazy,” he laughs.

The group initially formed for a tribute concert held in honor of Nelson Mandela. “He is the man who inspired the choir,” Jiyane says, “so I would definitely say Nelson Mandela kept us going. He taught us to be humble and to forgive and — not to forget, but to be humble.” After shaking the revolutionary leader’s hand, Jiyane says, “I never washed it for, like, five days.”

The Soweto Gospel Choir live show is made up of dozens of singers, musicians and dancers. He says the choir itself has two-dozen members now. “You have to audition first. You stand in a queue, then go in there and give us a good voice, give us some character, be a good dancer — if you’re a good dancer.”

Most stay on full time. Occasionally, every couple years or so, they audition 200 more and pick replacements. “When you’re in the show, you’re here forever,” he laughs. “The people who love the choir love the choir.”

Jiyane doesn’t dismiss a suggestion that “Gospel Choir Idol” might be an idea for a TV program. “I’d get to be a judge! That’s fantastic, yeah.” He says he wouldn’t be a mean judge, but “sometimes people come with high expectations and can be disappointed. It really takes guts. Some are bad, some are the worst, some are good.”

“You’ve got to have heart to be an artist,” he continues. “You’ve got to have patience to be an artist. It’s about the craft that you do … it’s about you, who you are, how you express yourself.”

He describes their show this way: “We’re going to be on stage, and it’s going to be fireworks. It is a high-energy show … People can expect beautiful, beautiful South African music.”

The current tour promotes their recent live album, Divine Decade: Celebrating 10 Years. The set includes performances with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Robert Plant and U2, and an introduction by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Their first decade has been amazing in many ways — the choir has performed at parties for former President Clinton and Oprah Winfrey, and backed up Peter Gabriel on his Oscar-nominated song from “Wall-E.” They have sung with everyone from Jimmy Cliff to Josh Groban, and toured with Celine Dion and, even more oddly, through Germany with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“It’s a very beautiful album,” Jiyane says, sounding more appreciative than boastful. “We did feature many artists from South Africa, from Africa also, from the States, playing. A very nice mixture on the album. We’re celebrating our 10th anniversary in the choir. Celebrating our success, sharing our recordings with our friends on an album — including everything, (the sounds of) our fans and our choir.”

Though they have traveled around the world and made many friends, Jiyane says they are always glad to get on the computers in their bus and Skype with family and friends back home. They come to places like this “… to be here for our fans, to be here for the people.” Though it must be tough to keep track of dozens of people, he says they get time in each city to get out and explore. On stage, they don’t notice when they’re tired because they’re having so much fun. He stays fit “by playing good music!”

So, what’s next for Jiyane and his many friends? “The choir. We’re just looking at doing more music for the people.”

They have won two Grammy awards and been nominated for others. One goal remaining, says Jiyane: “We already performed at the Oscars, so we want to perform at the Grammys. We want people to see our work.”

But mostly, “We want people to get up and dance. We want to see people happy.”

The Soweto Gospel Choir
Sunday, March 16
Brown Theatre
315 W. Broadway
kentuckycenter.org
$15; 7 p.m.

photo by Brett Schewitz

Here
c. 2014 LEO Weekly

Her mind is not for rent

Sweatermeat is a performance art pop band whose first album, Bad Boobs, is out this month. They play at the Rudyard Kipling Thursday (just don’t tell them they sound like the B-52s). Here are excerpts from a lively conversation.

Yoko Molotov: I started making these weird recordings in the kitchen of my house with my best friend, John. They’re kind of weird, ’cause we just used this broken organ we got at a thrift store and a ukulele. So they all sound kind of depraved. I was, like, “I want to print these and implant them in music stores around Louisville,” ’cause I couldn’t foresee anyone really wanting to listen to this. We didn’t end up doing that, but we kept making these songs and giving them away. Then I learned how to play a real instrument. One day, I woke up and I had a drummer (laughs). … Did you listen to it?

LEO: Of course.

YM: Did you have to go to a doctor?

LEO: Actually, I hear echoes of stuff like The Cramps or the B-52s —

YM: You know what? That is one of our most loathed bands! Them and Rush. They make noises that make me feel like I’m going to get pulled down to hell. When someone says that to me, it doesn’t make me mad — I’m just happy they listened to it. But, man, somebody’s laughing somewhere.

LEO: You play shows for people who usually enjoy what you do. Have you tried to go to the suburbs and assault a crowd?

YM: Yes! Actually, we played Phoenix Hill. My favorite part of that was seeing these old men, these dads that were there — I heard them go, “We paid $10 for this?” The band tried to play on a table. They haven’t asked us back. I don’t know why (laughs).

LEO: The name of the band and the record — do you just like boobs, or is it a comment on American consumerism and using sexuality to sell products?

YM: (pause) I love you, because you’re so smart. No, we’re just really childish.

Here
c. 2014 LEO Weekly

Work hard, play hard: Arcade Fire puts together their world tour in Louisville

Being a member of Arcade Fire has its perks. When LEO spoke with multi-instrumentalists Will Butler and Richard Reed Parry recently, it was in a week that also included their performance on the new “Tonight Show” and another trip to play at Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti. Oh, and they had just been nominated for an Oscar for scoring the movie “Her.”

It’s all leading up to their latest tour, kicking off Thursday in Louisville, in support of their latest No. 1 album, Reflektor. “Yeah, it’s feeling pretty good,” Butler says. “It’s the start of the tour, so we’re feeling really excited to play the music live, and we’re still really excited to be meeting people and doing stuff.”

It’s been a “very natural” progression for the decade-old band, he says. “You notice it at the start of each record campaign a little more. With time off, you’re just in your artistic zone and you’re making the art. Then you come out of that and people are buying your record and talking about your record, and you’re going places. For that first couple months, it fries your brain. Then, it makes sense again, and you get back in the rhythm of it.”

The Canadian band famously confused mainstream listeners by winning the Best Album Grammy in 2011, turning “Who Is Arcade Fire?” into a funny meme. Now they’re playing places where pop singers like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift rule, like the KFC Yum! Center. “That is our favorite joke, in terms of the title (of the venue),” Parry laughs.

“Part of it is just playing in places where everyone can buy tickets,” says Butler. “For a number of years, we played smaller than we could have. Tickets sold out so fast — which is great, it ended up being really excited fans, but you wanted to give a chance to everyone to buy a ticket. So we’ve been experimenting with larger venues, just because — in a way — it’s a little more democratic.”

Parry has had a long relationship with Louisville. “I love that place. It’s super interesting and it’s a really soulful town. I’ve had a couple of really good friends in that place.” One of his friends was Jason Noble, the late musician whose work with Rachel’s was a major influence — Parry’s first album of chamber music, due out in June, is dedicated to Noble. “It was a sad loss. He was really good to me, that guy.”

The band arrived earlier this week to rehearse. Two new horn players have been added for this tour, and Parry notes, “We’re just trying to weave together the new show … incorporating new visuals and new ideas that we’re trying to figure out. We’re doing our best to make it look special, hoping you guys engage in it and not just have a boring night in the arena.”

To be an Arcade Fire member is to be closely involved with every detail of the experience, from the sounds to the visuals. This collaboration extended to the “Her” score; the band worked with director Spike Jonze from early drafts of the script to the editing room. “It blew his mind, how intense and collaborative the whole process was,” says Butler.

The sextet was also making Reflektor, their fourth full-length album, at the same time. “We’re all getting better at (collaborating), but it’s hard. Sometimes, it’s really hard to figure out when you’re being useful or when you’re just shutting someone down creatively.”

“I enjoyed working on the film,” Butler adds. “It definitely used a different set of skills from this band, which to me was refreshing and exhausting.”

The band upset some fans last fall when they asked concertgoers to consider dressing in formal attire or in a costume for their show. They have since clarified that it is not a formal request, just a suggestion. Butler feels optimistic about how the Louisville crowd will take the suggestion. “Kentuckians are a good-looking bunch. Definitely not their race-day outfits, right? I think it’ll be pretty good, I think we’ll have a pretty good showing.”

“We’re definitely people that have all seen really amazing shows in our lifetime and have been impacted by them,” Parry says. “We are just trying to do something interesting and hopefully beautiful and striking and memorable.”

Arcade Fire with Dan Deacon and Kid Koala
Thursday, March 6
KFC Yum! Center
1 Arena Plaza
kfcyumcenter.com
$30.50-$60.50; 7:30 p.m.

photo by JF Lalonde

Here
c. 2014 LEO Weekly