After ten years of trying to make it in Hollywood, Billy Eichner was on the verge of quitting show business, but was persuaded to do so by Joan Rivers.
“The closest I came[to quitting]was 2009,” the 47-year-old comedian told Page Six in a recent exclusive interview while promoting his recently released audiobook, “Billy on Billy.”
Four years earlier, a flattering article in the New York Times had made a fuss about Mr. Eichner, and “everyone was basically implying that my life was going to change,” he explains, adding that his agent “told me I was going to be on TV with my own show in six months.”
“And to be honest, I don’t think they were completely wrong. It just took six years instead of six months.”
The ‘Billy on the Streets’ alum admitted he started to get scared, worrying about “money, just trying to survive and pay the bills.”
“You can romanticize being a struggling artist in your 20s,” Eichner said. “But I was 30 (at the time), so it wasn’t as appealing to me. At that point, it was more difficult to justify (it).”
So he contacted Joan Rivers, whom he had known for several years and who had worked with him on failed pilots.
“She invited me for dinner and drinks,” Eichner recalled. “And at that dinner, she encouraged me to be a little more patient.” She also said he had a “unique energy.”
“I think she really saw something in me and thought I could make it,” he theorized. “And that’s the real reason I decided to do a few more years. And sure enough, that was in 2009. In 2010, my first video went viral, and in 2011, ‘Billy on the Street’ became a popular TV show.”
The “AHS” alum doesn’t know what Rivers saw in him.
“Maybe she saw that our backgrounds were similar,” he said. “We were unconventional, we were outrageous. We were from New York City. She obviously loved gay men, and she responded to that part of me. You know, we were Jewish and we loved the theater even though we were trying to build our own careers.”
Remarkably, Rivers was the first stand-up comedian whose father sneaked Eichner into her performance at the Shore Haven Beach Club when she was eight years old. “And 20, 25 years later, she became my true champion.”
The “Brothers” star said he was happy to include memories and honor Rivers, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 81.
The surprisingly moving book also pays tribute to Eichner’s parents, Debbie and Jay Eichner. They both passed away before their son’s success and were incredibly supportive of all his endeavors.
Eichner said she has been touched by people’s reactions to her parents.
“It was surreal in a good way to see people who didn’t know my parents now feel like they knew them,” he said. “And there are a lot of comments that say, ‘If all children were loved by Jay and Debbie Eichner as much as you are, the world would be a different place.'”
