A few years ago, I was booked to play in a band that opened for Joan Rivers, in Atlantic City. We arrived very early to the gig for a rehearsal and sound check. Ms. Rivers stopped into the rehearsal and listened. Afterward, she asked us to join her on-stage for her part of the show. Our duties consisted of playing her on and off the stage with “Anchors Away”. The drummer, of course, had to provide some well-placed rim shots. That was it. Apparently, she told the venue we were going to join her and that was that. This augmented our compensation by several hundred dollars each. We had a very long break before the performance and there were “bandwiches” in our dressing room for dinner. As we sat chatting and eating our sweaty cheese, Ms. Rivers knocked on our door and invited us to come to her dressing room and take all of the fancy food back to our room. She was an absolutely wonderful person with whom to work. At the evening’s end, I grabbed her name tag off her dressing room door and it has since resided on our piano. RIP, Madame. You were a class act. Thanks for the laughs.