Joan Rivers said, “Somebody said to me, the biggest stress factors in life are the death of a spouse or a loved one, a new job, and moving. I’ve got it all.”

Two years ago, Edgar Rosenberg, Rivers’ husband of 23 years and adviser in business, died, and recently she has started a new talk show and changed her permanent residence from Los Angeles to New York, but still has a home in California.

Her talk show is a daily hour-long program that is televised on WGN. This addition to the daytime competition will not be focusing on a monologue and guests. Instead it will be a magazine format that will combine emotional subjects and tabloid with comedy. “There will still be Cher telling us about her new boyfriend,” Rivers said, “but a lot less music, no band. If Elton John comes on, I’ll pay for the piano but he has to pay for the hoisting.”

Even though her new television show has resulted in a crowded schedule, Rivers still finds time to visit venues across the country where she can perform her comedic routine. Her most recent appearance in the Chicago-land area was at the Star Plaza in Merrillville, Indiana.

During her one-hour performance, no entertainment personality was safe from Rivers’ poisonous tongue. Referring to Madonna she said, “When she raised her arm, I thought Tina Turner was under there.” She doesn’t like Continental Airlines because “It was so cheap we had to chip in for gas.” Her favorite diet is “The Vanna White diet, you only eat what you can spell.” She even had a few barbs aimed at ‘The National Enquirer.’ “I can’t go to the bathroom without it. It’s replacing bran muffins.”

At several times in her act, Rivers discussed subjects with the audience and at one point she had one member of the audience venture onto the stage. In return, Rivers gave the woman two potted plants, and this gesture has become a trademark during her performances.

Before Rivers enjoyed the rewards of a successful career, she struggled but fought with determination and tried to understand her parents’ confusion. “I had tried it their way, the right schools and the right man, and none of it worked. If I had said I wanted to be a doctor, they would have said, ‘Go scrub up, here’s all the money you want.’ My mother was from a wealthy Russian family, and I was raised with governesses and suddenly I was saying, ‘Goodbye, I’m going to Greenwich Village. I’ll be home at 4 a.m.’ This was a tremendous blow to them.”

Over the years, Rivers has proven herself to be a Renaissance woman by working as a columnist for the Chicago Tribune from 1973-1976; writing three different books, “Having a Baby Can Be a Scream,” “The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abromowitz,” and her autobiography “Enter Talking;” and writing material for Allen Funt’s “Candid Camera” and the 1969-1971 syndicated talk show “That Show.”

She also directed a film in 1978 titled “Rabbit Test,” which was the story of a man who finds himself with child. “I think they (the film critics) were expecting something different from me,” said Rivers. “And I think they just weren’t ready for that kind of humor. We broke tremendous ground, which sounds silly to say now, but it was absolutely true. What saved us was that I wrote a college film, and it was college kids who adored it and went to see it.”