David Letterman Remembers Robin Williams

just 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 uh for 38 years 38 years which in and of itself is crazy how time and i met him uh at the comedy store he and i uh were kids uh along with myself and and uh jay leno and tom driessen and tim thomson and johnny dark and elaine busler 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'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 uh and i can remember the night my friend george miller and i who was a very funny uh 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 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 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 uh 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 doesn't seem 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 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 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 uh 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 fledgling starting out comics makes sense right 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 night 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 morgan 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 oh 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 share sharing my success which is exactly what he did he then was on our show this show in the old show a total of nearly 50 times i told it 50 times 50 times 50 times and uh 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 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'd 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 so we would like to we put together a uh a segment of robin williams appearances and uh moreover more than anything it will 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 doubtfire is very funny you know you're much more attractive as an older woman told him okay i got him i got it all right take it easy aren't you glad you didn't see this at the surgery hey dave it's me i think it's starting to be real funny you had a television show morgan mindy 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 not bring myself to watch it until tonight you have it here somebody has stolen my rolls royce using your rollers 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 wood way to go and two weeks later it's like hey mork how are you god bless you my friend well what i will add here is uh beyond being a very talented man uh and a good friend and a gentleman i'm 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 you

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Keywords: cbs, late show, david letterman, dave letterman, letterman clips, celebrity guests, celebrity interviews, celebrities, late night, late night talk show, talk show, paul shaffer, Biff, the, late, show, david, letterman, comedy, top 10, top ten, list, celebrity, paul, shaffer, stupid, tricks, robin williams, mork and mindy

Id: fpxSnw4NbVs

Length: 10min 34sec (634 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 19 2014