Name: David Letterman Remembers Robin Williams | Letterman
Uploaded: 2014-08-19T07:30:01.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'David Letterman Remembers Robin Williams | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2014-08-19. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'David Letterman Remembers Robin Williams | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2014-08-19. Transcript available.

I guess like a lot of us, most of us, I've been thinking about Robin Williams.
I believe we found out a week ago that he had died.
And 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.
I knew Robin Williams for 38 years.
38 years, which in and of itself is crazy how time...
And I met him at the Comedy Store.
He and I were kids, myself and Jay Leno and Tom Dreesen and Tim Thomerson and
Johnny Dark and Elaine Boosler and on and on and Jimmy Walker.
And we were all out there at the Comedy Store and we wanted to make people
laugh.
We wanted to get on The Tonight Show.
We wanted something because we all felt that we were funny.
And we would, in those days, we were working for free drinks.
Some were working for more free drinks than others.
I see, but...
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'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 introduce Robin Williams.
And for some reason, in the beginning, he was introduced as being from Scotland.
They said he was Scottish.
I see.
So now we're stumped.
We don't know.
There's a Scottish guy, really, coming to the United States.
So we were feeling pretty smug about our position right away because it's going
to be haggis and that kind of crap.
So we're relaxed.
We're ready to go.
And all of a sudden, he comes up on stage and you know what it is.
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 we're like, you know, like morning dew.
He comes in like a hurricane.
Yeah.
And now, the longer he's on stage, the worse we feel about ourselves because it's
not stopping.
It doesn't stop.
And then 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 then we get to see this night after night after night and we didn't
approach him because we were afraid of him.
Honest to God, you thought, holy crap, there goes my chance at show business
because of this guy from Scotland.
And then, like shot out of a cannon, he goes and he's on the Happy Days show.
And then from the Happy Days show, he gets to be on Mork and Mindy.
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 yet then, he goes from Mork and Mindy and then he starts making movie after
movie after movie.
He's nominated 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.
But it wasn't until then that I sort of got to really know Robin Williams
because he would come on 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 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 he was a gentleman and delightful.
And even in the old days, he was kind enough to ask me to appear on his Mork
and Mindy show.
Now, this is a double-edged sword.
Because he did it only because he was trying to help other fledgling starting
out comics.
Makes sense.
Right.
The other side of the sword is I had no business being on that show.
I can't.
I have no business being on this show.
Well.
But he was nice.
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, between 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.
He says, this is your last chance.
Oh.
So even to the detriment of the show, Robin was kind enough to invite me to
come on because he thought, why can't I spread this around and have some of my
friends share in my success, which is exactly what he did.
He then was on our show, this show, and the old show, a total of nearly 50
times.
A total of 50 times.
50 times.
50 times.
And two things would happen because Robin was on the program.
One, I didn't have to do anything.
Yes.
All I had to do was sit here and watch the machine.
Yeah.
And two, people would watch.
If they knew Robin was on the show, the viewership would go up because they
wanted to see Robin.
Yeah.
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 whatever it was that
he radiated that propelled him and powered him.
And then he came on when I came back after my heart surgery.
Right.
Robin was nice enough to come on that night, and it was very, very funny and
very, very appropriate.
And here's a picture that I will now cherish even more than I had previously.
There are four people right there.
Wow.
Two of which, two of which wildly funny, insanely funny.
Two are not.
The handsome woman there is Mitzi Shore.
She owned the comedy store.
We all, the three of us, worked there.
I think Robin and I, it'd be safe to say, we started there.
Richard Pryor was already Richard Pryor, but he would work there.
And the guy in the middle, I trimmed hedges.
Yeah.
Oh, well.
So, we would like to, we put together a segment of Robin Williams' appearances,
and moreover, more than anything, it will make you laugh.
And really, that's 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 Gandhi on Ice collection.
Oh, God, how you doing, Mr. Williams?
God, Mrs. Doubtfire is very funny.
You know, you're much more attractive as an older woman.
Hold him, hold him.
Okay, I got him, I got him.
All right.
Take it easy, do it.
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.
They just started to be real funny.
You had a television show, Mork and Mindy, and the producers, for some unknown
reason, invited me for like a little thing on the show.
That's right.
You played a, like a...
I know.
I've never seen it.
I could not bring myself to watch it until tonight.
You have it here.
Somebody has stolen my Rolls-Royce.
The Rolls-Royce is using your Rolls-Royce as a concept.
Getting it back is a 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.
Good Will Hunting, Academy Award, way to go.
And two weeks later, it's like, hey, Mork, how are you?
God bless you, my friend.
Oh, my.
Well, what I will add here is, beyond being a very talented man and a good
friend and a gentleman,
I'm sorry, like everybody else, I had no idea that the man was in pain, that
the man was suffering.
But what a guy, Robin Williams.
We'll be right back, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you.