i guess like a lot of us uh most of us i've been thinking about uh robin williams uh i believe
we found out uh a week ago that he had died and um many things come to mind in a situation like
this and of course more questions are raised than can possibly be answered but i started reflecting
about it uh i knew robin williams for 38 years 38 years which in and of itself is crazy how time
and i i met him uh at the comedy store he and i uh were kids uh along with myself
and and uh jay leno and uh tom dreesen and tim tommerson and johnny dark and elaine bustler and
and on and on and jimmy walker and we were you know we were all out there at the comedy store
and we we wanted to you know make people laugh we wanted to get on the tonight show we wanted
we wanted something because we all felt that we were were funny and and we would in those
days we were working for uh free drinks some were working for more free drinks than others but um
uh so what you would do is you would go on stage and then you'd do your little skits
and then you would come off stage and if there was a new guy coming on you you'd want to stick
around and make fun of the new guy sure because we were all worried that oh somebody else is
coming in who's really funny and then we'll have to go back in my case to indiana yes
and i can remember the night my friend george miller and i who was a very funny comic and was
on this show many times we were at the comedy store and they introduced uh robin williams
and for some reason in in in the beginning he was introduced as being from scotland
they said he was he was scottish i see so now we're we're stumped we don't know
there's a scottish guy really coming to the united states so we we're feeling pretty smug
about our position right away because it's going to be haggis and that kind of crap
so we're we're relaxed we're ready to go and and all of a sudden he comes up on stage
and you know what it is it's it's like nothing we had ever seen before nothing we had ever imagined
before we go home at night and are writing our little jokes about stuff and this guy comes
in and and and we're we're like you know like a morning dew he comes in like a hurricane
yeah and and now the longer he's on stage the worse we feel about ourselves
and because it's not stopping
and and then he he finishes and i thought oh that's it they're going to have to put an end
to show business because what can happen after this and and then we get to see this night after
night after night and and uh we didn't approach him because we were afraid of him honest honest
to god you thought holy crap there goes my chance at show business because of this guy from scotland
um and and and then like shot out of a cannon he he goes and he's on the happy days show
and then from the happy day show he gets to be on mork and mindy now now there's some structure
to his life he's not at the comedy store every night because he's got an actual job
so the rest of us can pretend that it never happened
but but yet then he he goes from uh morgan mindy and then he starts making movie after
movie after movie he's nominated uh four times for an academy award and it wasn't really until
paul and i started the nbc version of this show which by the way is still running in mexico it is
very popular
but it wasn't until then uh that i sort of got to really know robin williams because
he would come on uh to promote movies or concerts or whatever he was talking about
and he was always so gracious and we would talk about the old times
and and never did he act like oh i knew you guys were scared because i was so good and it was
just a pleasure to know the guy and and he was a gentleman and delightful and even in the old days
he was kind enough to ask me to appear on his morgan mindy show now this is a double-edged sword
because he did it only because he was trying to help other uh fledgling starting out comics
makes sense right uh the other side of the sword is i i had no business being on that show i can't
i have no business being on this show well
but he was nigh he gave me a job and so i there and in those days jobs were hard to come by and
there i was and i was on mork and mindy and i can remember uh between the the dress rehearsal
and the actual taping of the show the director of the program howard
howard howard shore howard storm storm howard storm comes up to me and he says
well you've been trying all week so this is your last chance
so so even to the detriment of the show robin was kind enough to invite me to
come on because he thought why why can't i spread this around and have some of my friends
uh share in my success which is exactly what he did he
then was on our show this show and the old show uh a total of nearly 50 times right 50
and two things would happen because robin was on the program one i didn't have to do anything yes
i all i had to do was sit here and watch the machine yeah uh and two uh he
people would watch if they knew robin was on the show the the viewership would go up because they
wanted to see robin yeah and and believe me that wasn't just true of television i believe
that was true of the kind of guy he was people were drawn to him because of this electricity
this this whatever it was that he radiated that that propelled him and empowered him
uh and then he came on uh when i came back after my heart surgery right robin was nice enough to to
come on that night and it was very very funny and very very uh uh appropriate and here's a picture
that i will now uh cherish even more than i had previously there are four people right there wow
two of which two of which wildly funny insanely funny uh two are not
the uh the uh handsome woman there is mitzi shore she owned the comedy store we all the
three of us worked there i think robin and i would be safe to say we started there richard pryor was
already richard pryor but he would work there and uh the guy in the middle i trimmed hedges yes well
so we would like to uh
we put together a uh a segment of robin williams appearances and uh moreover more than anything it
will uh make you laugh and and and really that's uh what we should take from this is he could make
you laugh under any circumstances here he is on our show it's from the gandhian ice collection
oh god how you doing mr williams god mrs thoughtful is very funny you know you're much
more attractive as an older woman hold him okay i got him all right take it easy dad all right
next my first day on the job aren't you glad you didn't see this at the surgery hey dave it's me
can't get started to be real funny you had a television show morgan mindy right and uh the
producers for some unknown reason invited me for like a little thing on the show that's right you
played uh i know i've never seen it i'm not bring myself to watch it until tonight you have it here
somebody has stolen my rolls royce using your old voice is a concept getting it back is the reality
it's amazing when you win the academy award you have like about a week where
everyone's like hey good will hunting way to go goodwill hunting academy wood way to go
and two weeks later it's like hey mork how are you
god bless you my friend
oh
well
what i will add here is uh beyond being a very talented man and a good friend and a gentleman
i'm i'm sorry like everybody else i had no idea uh that the man was in pain that the man was
suffering uh but what a guy robin williams we'll be right back ladies and gentlemen
you