With the help of some red-hot comics, the late great Joan Rivers is still asking “Can we talk?” a decade after she died.
A Nov. 7 tribute show at the Apollo Theater, brutally titled “Dead Funny,” is the opening-night event of the upcoming New York Comedy Festival, and will feature the barbs of Nikki Glaser, Michelle Buteau and many more.
Festival founder Caroline Hirsch told The Post over lunch at Michael’s that the fete was the brainchild of Joan’s daughter Melissa Rivers.
“We were going to take all of Joan’s cards,” Hirsch said of her original plan to use Rivers’ expansive library of written jokes.
“She wrote everything on index cards, right? And she had a big cabinet of them, which she gave to the National Comedy Center [in Jamestown, NY]. But we weren’t going to do a show with that.”
Melissa, who stalked the red carpet with her mom for years, approached Hirsch with a better idea: Get Joan’s foul-mouthed friends, admirers and 1,500 fans together for a night of inappropriate laughs.
“It’s a lot of comedians who Joan was really close with,” Hirsch said.
The lineup includes Sandra Bernhard, Patton Oswalt, Matteo Lane, Jeff Ross, Randy Rainbow and, in a clever nod to Joan’s enduring impact, Rachel Brosnahan from “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
“You have to remember we have two TV shows that have won a number of Emmys that were really about Joan,” Hirsch said. “You have ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ and then ‘Hacks’. It’s all Joan.”
And, of course, part of honoring the bold and brash stand-up is speaking fearlessly.
“I remember watching her, when I was a kid, on Johnny Carson. And I can’t believe what comes out of this lady’s mouth. No filter,” said Hirsch, whose Caroline’s comedy club was a fixture in Times Square for 41 years.
“That’s what comedians do. There was no filter on Joan — ever, ever.”
Who else in the Festival is Hirsch — and her keen eye for comedians — excited for?
“Zarna Garg,” she said.
The Indian-American stand-up began playing at Caroline’s in 2019, and has never left Hirsch’s radar. She even mentioned her three years ago when the Clintons rang.
“We got a call one day because Hillary Clinton and Chelsea were producing a series called “Gutsy” — about gutsy women. And the producers called us and said, ‘Could you suggest some comedians?’. And we suggested Zarna.”
Months later, when Hirsch went to the 2022 premiere of “Gutsy,” she spotted a former president copying Garg’s routine.
“Bill Clinton was doing her jokes!” the founder said. “He said [to her], ‘I follow you on Instagram!”
And then on Nov. 11 returns the annual “Stand Up for Heroes” show with Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart and Jim Gaffigan, among other heavy hitters. Over 13 years, the “Heroes” has raised more than $100 million for veterans.
Bruce Springsteen will also be back alongside the comedians. And joining him is wife Patti Scialfa, whose multiple myeloma diagnosis was revealed in the recent documentary “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.”
“He’s leaving his tour to play here,” Hirsch says of the E Street Band’s Canadian gigs on Nov. 9 and 13. “That’s how good he’s been. And Patti’s gonna do it, too.”
Hirsch says that Scialfa has been doing OK during her cancer battle.
“We knew she was sick, but nobody talked about anything,” she said. “But they’ve made such strides with that disease that she’s gonna be fine.”
The New York Comedy Festival runs Nov. 7-17 in venues all over the city. Tickets are available at nycomedyfestival.com.
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