Some personal thoughts on the sad news about Robin Williams The evening I bought his first comedy album, I played it over and over, all night long. By morning. I knew all the routines by heart. The next afternoon, I had a friend over from school. I popped in the cassette and hit play Okay turn it off she said, seconds later. Its weird. Apparently I was a fan club of one. I didnt mind. Somewhere out there was someone who said and did strange things and I got his joke. So maybe there was a chance that someone would get me? I havent listened to that album in a long time. I wonder if it still holds up? With Williamss work even the most cringeworthy reveals something. Take Popeye for example. Popeye bombed at the box office. Critics hated it. I wanted to like it. I didnt Twenty years later, I caught Popeye on TV. There was Robin traipsing about and muttering. Something about his physicality caught my attention. Between the sailor hat and the pipe he didnt have much face to work with. But there coming out from under the rubber muscles was a fully developed clown character in the best European tradition. Wow, I thought. Hes working his ass off. So I watched the rest of the movie. When I saw the characters as clowns and not drawings from a comic strip I was too young to remember, the movie worked. The things the critics hated; the latex, a character that barely spoke, the strange setting, the sheer weirdness, Williams launched the work fom there. He used his craft and his training and he did his job. If nobody got the joke, it wasnt for lack of trying and it wasnt for lack of heart.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 08:19:32 +0000
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