Remembering Robin Williams

1979 I was tipped off by Dana Carey that his friend, Robin Williams was going to be "dropping in" to the tiny comedy club in San Francisco - the Holy City Zoo. I was at sitting at the bar when Robin walked in. He got behind the bar and took my order for a beer. Once the room was full, he jumped up on the stage a few feet away and did his thing. Most of his set was improvised and the riff that has stayed with me was when he asked the audience to give him something and was handed a wooden chair. Talking to the seat he said "I bet you've seen a lot of assholes."

At the time, Robin was playing Mork in the hit show "Mork and Mindy," but he made it clear that night that if anyone asked him to be Mork - he would walk out. Mork was not Robin, and dropping into the Holy City Zoo was his way of exorcising that demon. In the club, he was free to be himself. That night he was a whirlwind of hysterical characters, many of which he would slip in and out of through his entire career.

Behind the bar, he was just Robin, a furry, teddy bear of a man with eyes that met yours and sparkled with merriment. On the stage he was a comic tornado.

Yes, there's more to my story about that time in my life. The 1970's bought a comedy renaissance to San Francisco. Some of the most recognized comics of our time started there or came through there to hone their acts. To say I was obsessed with comedians, and in particular Dana, is perhaps an understatement. I wanted to be a comedian, but I had no idea where to start. So I met as many comedians as I could and got to know them onstage and off. Three years later began performing improvisational comedy, I brought what I'd learned into my own characters and found my own comic style. I did improv for over 20 years and would do it again in a heartbeat.

1989 I tried my hand at stand-up. Five minute sets, at open mikes, in clubs in and out of San Francisco. I never bombed, but I never really took to it either. There was just something unsatisfying about being the same character saying the same words night after night. I did it for only four months.

The last time I did my five minutes, I took a book with me, "How to Make Love to a Single Woman" I asked the audience for page numbers and literally read what I found on those pages and made off-hand comments from a woman's perspective. For five minutes I had the attention and laughter of everyone in the room. I walked away happy and never looked back.

I can't say I learned sarcasm from Robin, but he certainly influenced me and hundreds of other comics and would-be comics. There was no one like Robin in 1979 and there is still no one like Robin in 2014. Robin's off-hand comments had the attention and laughter of everyone in the world for decades.


If only he could have walked away happy.