Heather McMahan | A Million Dollar Check to Her Dad

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Heather McMahan used to stalk Joan Rivers' shows. She bartended across the street from a basement comedy club in Hell's Kitchen, so she knew where the unmarked back entrance was, and one Fat Tuesday she got off early and waited outside it. When Joan came out, the first thing she said was: oh my God, you're gorgeous. Then she handed her a string of Mardi Gras beads and gave her ten minutes she didn't owe her. Over the next few years, in book-signing lines and outside theaters, Joan kept telling her the same thing — keep going, you have a commercial look, go to LA. So she went. Within her first 24 hours in Los Angeles she'd been in a car accident and had an allergic reaction to a bad spray…