Browse by
Find a post
Posts - Page 30
The Irish accent transitions into two or three others. It slips into Welsh, Scottish, and then it just starts to break down.
One time in makeup as Mrs. Doubtfire, I walked into a sex shop in San Francisco and tried to buy a double-headed dildo. Just because. Why not? And the guy was about to sell it to me until he realized it was me - Robin Williams - not an older Scottish woman coming in to look for a very large dildo and a jar of lube. He just laughed and said "what are you doing here" and I left. Did I make the purchase? *No. * Did I walk away with a really good story? Yes.
Oh my god, Jack Nicholson. He once was with me at a benefit and leaned over and said "even oysters have enemies." In a very intense voice. I responded with "Increase your dosage."
I have several Warhammer armies. But I have never actually played the game. Specifically, Warhammer 40K.
My wife's art. To realizing that painting is a full-contact art form. She came out of her art studio all day and I thought she had been attacked because she was covered in red, but it was just paint, and she had this great stunned expression, almost post-orgasmic. The painting was exquisite, a very dramatic landscape. And I realized that she had the same type of emotional response as I do when I perform.
From a drunken Scottish friend. I think his idea was "What the fuck is that sport" and I just took it from there. I don't play. I was once at a driving range with my son, I hit 2 balls, and he said "Dad, that's enough."
Is it any consolation? This whole period of documenting an artist’s work, movies, records, all this shit, it’s 100 years old, if it’s that. It’s brand-new. Beethoven and those fuckers couldn’t even listen to their shit, do you know how hard it was to find a motherfucker with a violin that worked back then? And his stuff went through the ages. Technology has it to where they gonna play this stuff forever. But the reality is, all this shit turns into dust, everything is temporary. No matter what you do, if you’re around here long enough, you’ll wind up dribbling and shitting on yourself, and you won’t even remember the shit you did. I saw this documentary on Ronald Reagan, and it was like, “W...
The big myth in the African-American community was that he said that the only thing black folks could do for him was shine his shoes and buy his records. People liked him when they were young, then said, “I don’t like him because he said that,” and I said, “He never even said that.” Truth be told, you go back far enough, you go back to your black-and-white footage, everybody’s a racist, every star you’re looking at, every star you loved was some kind of racist, straight-out racist, no black folks in their movies, all that shit, but you love them, look at their work. And you can’t fault them – that’s the times.
Michael sat in the same hot seat Elvis was in, the biggest star in the world… how can I put it? It’s like you’re not a person, your human-beingness is compromised. The stuff that everybody has to deal with, take that and magnify it by 1,000 – that’s where Michael and Elvis are sitting. It’s madness swirling around them all the time. On the surface, you’re coming off like you have it all the way together, and behind the scenes, you’re completely unraveling. Michael was the first artist that jumped up into the canvas and became part of it, where every waking moment is part of the show. Who can live up to that shit?
We were so different that people would see us and be like, “Y’all are brothers? I didn’t know you was brothers.” And Charlie was in gangs, and even now, Charlie’s like extra ultramacho – piranha, pit bulls, hatchets, axes, machetes. He has a black belt in karate. I got through a lot of school because the kids knew I was his brother, nobody was fucking with me. “You don’t fuck with Eddie, his brother will kill you.” Charlie was a really tough guy.
I was always funny. I grew up around a bunch of funny people. Every time the bus stopped, whoever got off the bus, I would start talking, like, doing what that person was saying and where they’re going, and like a voice for that person. I was doing it loud enough and the whole bus was laughing, and it went on for like a half hour. Then when I got off the bus, the whole bus clapped.
I had stopped doing standup because it had stopped being fun, and the reason it stopped being fun was it was harder to write — and this is before the internet — it was harder to write new stuff. It had gotten so crazy. Like if I went to the club and tried out a bit, the next day it could be like “Oh I saw Eddie was onstage at the so-and-so and he said yada yada” and I’d be like “Man, I ain’t even finished that bit yet!” And it’d be people talking about it: “What’d you think of that new joke?” And it was like “What the f*ck?” And this was years ago it started, so it was like “ Maybe I’ll take a little break from stand-up.” And then the break got longer, then the whole Def Jam thing started wi...
You know, when I was growing up and my family would take us out and we went to hotels, I just immediately loved it. I don’t know if it really stems from that or it stems from the simplicity of hotel rooms versus the disarray my home is in. Staying in hotels is so easy. It’s just about when you walk in, everything is in a bag and everything you own is right there and it’s simple. But I’ve been in so many hotels now that my mind is starting to play tricks on me, and I’m starting to get freaked out my bedspreads and shit now, too.
It used to be that I could live in a Motel 6 for a month, but now I have to be in a certain style or a certain level of hotel to feel comfortable, so that’s sad. I m...
So I guess what I learned about that is I don’t want to be written about any drug point of view, you know? Because I think that kind of thing is just…no one nowadays ever keeps to themselves. Everyone talks about shit, and you can’t just do stuff these days without someone talkin.’ Those days are over. As far as what I’ve learned, I guess is to stay under the radar as far as possible and just, you know, I mean, I’ve definitely learned over the years that you can’t do copious amounts of drugs and stay alive; that’s not going to happen. So not all drug use has tapered off, much to many people’s misunderstanding, but I’ve learned just to stay under the radar, and do what you do and keep it in c...
Well backstage has always been my area for me where I’ve always had high expectations of um…good times. I’ve always wanted to have it just right. I’m really into putting on some music that the whole audience can hear, and if I can do that, I’ll do that. Most of my backstage experiences are in these little rooms in comedy clubs. Now that I have a theater actual-backstage area, I would say my backstage preparation…I’m trying the massage technique, I brought a lady in who does massages on one of those chairs, you know those chairs? So I paid for her to come in for an hour, and everyone’s entitled to ten, fifteen-minute message, whatever they want. And I thought that helped me out. That was my l...
I don’t understand that term. I mean, I do those rooms that are called alternative comedy. In the 80’s, there was a formula that started happening with the airline jokes, just a person with a microphone, doing very conventional material. But everything before that was alternative comedy. Like when Albert Brooks used to go on Johnny Carson and literally read the phone book. Or Steve Martin would do those great bits. I guess I am. I really don’t know. I’m alternative (he says with raised eyebrows). I lead an alternative lifestyle. (laughs)
I sometimes think that it would be fun to be a lawyer because I find a lot of what I do in my podcast, Comedy Bang! Bang!, is what I call comedy lawyering, where I’m sitting there cross-examining the other person to try to lead to something funny. I know a lot of being a lawyer isn’t like that, it’s just a lot of court appearances where you’re scheduling arraignments and stuff like that, but maybe an old Southern country lawyer that’s, like, fanning himself with a newspaper in a hot courtroom.
I think dystopian future movies are more saying that life is going to get so hard for people that nothing will be funny, but that’s never been true. During the terrible times of the Great Depression, there were great works of meaningful art that came out of it, like The Grapes of Wrath. Comedy was huge back then. Comedy is an escape from things getting so difficult.
I don’t think my personal story, what’s actually happened in my life, is that interesting to anyone, but I think the feelings we all go through that are universal to the human experience are stories that I’m probably interested in delving into. I think that we all become a little more attuned to the effects that our words have on other people. I think Between Two Ferns and my history with shows like Mr. Show [with Bob and David], we embraced button-pushing and trying to find where the line is, and the line continually moves, which is a great thing. I think as long as it has some sort of attempt at artistry in it, it can be good to kind of try to go up to that line or even cross the line, and...
Popular categories
Foam corner
Making a show
Inside baseball
Filmmaking
Favorite books
Favorite comedians
Coming up with ideas
Relationship with other comics
Advice for aspiring comedians
Childhood
General life advice
Writing
Favorite movies
Acting
Relationship with fans
Working with other comedians
Styles of comedy
Performing
Podcasting
Comedic influences
Saturday Night Live
Favorite memories as a comedian
Favorite music
Reflecting on own work
Fan stories
Favorite jokes
Creativity
Finding your voice
Yuks
Screenwriting
Robin Williams