How Robin Williams started

Realization. One of the things that you probably don’t know about Robin Williams is that he was very overweight as a child. This results to the situation that nobody would play with him and so he started to talk in different voices just to entertain himself.

In 2001, an interview was held on “Inside the Actors Studio”. He credited his beloved mom as being a very vital influence for his sense of humor. This is because as a child, he always tried to make her mother laugh in order to gain attention for him. He also noted “that’s where it all started”.

“My childhood was lonely. Both my parents were away a lot, working, and the maid basically raised me. And I think that's where a lot of my comedy comes from. Not only was the maid very funny and witty, but when my mother came home, I'd use humour to try and get her attention. If I made mommy laugh, then maybe everything would be all right. I think that's where it all started.”

Early influences. Robin has given credits to several comics that has roused and affected him. This includes Peter Sellers, Jonathan Winters, Lenny Bruce, and Nichols & May. He acknowledged them for being able to pull more of scholarly people by using a larger amount of wit. He also enjoyed Sid Caesar whose demonstrations he felt were “valuable” and also Jay Leno for his abruptness in promoting lobbing satire schedules.

As a person whom William first saw on TV when he was still 8, Jonathan Winters eventually turned into his “idol” ahead of schedule in life. All through his profession, Robin has always paid him tribute in meetings. Winter’s resourcefulness was what made Williams motivated. Robin even acknowledged Winters that anything is clever and anything is conceivable. He further noted that Winters has provided him with the thought that anything can be free-structure which means anyone can go “done” and be finished with things with less effort.

He told British TV host Sir Michael Parkinson amid a meeting in London last 2002 that he was greatly affected by Richard Pryor, a humorist. It’s because of his brave capacity to discuss his personal life in front of the people as his audience. Discussions include his utilization of liquor and medication. Williams was influenced to include those sorts of things into his own performances. By doing such thing, he was able to repress his feelings and vitality which he told Parkinson that it was “less expensive than treatment”.

He further told Parkinson that Peter Sellers also provided him with an impact specifically in Dr. Strangelove where there are multi-character parts. Robin also claimed his not so common in recording of Goon Shows, Sellers’ initial radio show.

His break.  When Williams first entered the world of stand-up comedy, He said that “Stand-up is the place where you can do things that you could never do in public. Once you step on stage you're licensed to do that. It's an understood relationship. You walk on stage - it's your job.”

Williams began his career after his whole family moved to Marin County. In the mid-1970s, he did stand-up comedy shows in the San Francisco Bay Area. His very first performance as a stand-up comedian took place at the Holy City Zoo, one of the comedy clubs in San Francisco. He didn’t come as a stand-up comedian immediately. He first served as bartender and worked his way up to the stage.

Robin Williams once said “I started doing comedy because that was the only stage that I could find. It was the pure idea of being on stage. That was the only thing that interested me, along with learning the craft and working, and just being in productions with people.”

Going back a decade before that time, 1960s was San Francisco’s time when it became center for hippies, rock music, sexual revolution, and drugs. It was when Williams became a stand-up comedian in 1970s that he helped lead San Francisco to its “comedy renaissance”. This is according to critic Gerald Nachman.

Williams said that during that period, he found out about “drugs and happiness” and how he saw the best brains of his time has turned into mud.

After San Francisco, Robin proceeded to Los Angeles where he continued doing stand-up shows at several clubs. It was 1977 in Comedy Club where George Schlatter, a TV producer, discovered him. Realizing that Williams would have a bright future in show business, George Schlatter invited him to be on a revival of his show “Laugh-In”. This particular show became Robin’s debut TV appearance airing in late 1977. Williams also had a performance at the La Improv for Home Box Office (HBO) at the same year.

Unfortunately, the “Laugh-in” revival failed. On the bright side, it led Williams into his television career. In that period, he still continued doing stand-up comedy at various comedy clubs. He did this to make his skills in improvisation shape.

After developing his improvisational style as a stand-up comedian, Robin Williams landed in Mork and Mindy, his own television show.

Producer Garry Marshall told him to sit down when he auditioned for the role of Mork. Robin just sat on his head on the chair. Saying “he was the only alien who auditioned”, Marshall hired him.

It was in 1997 when Robin Williams was voted funniest man alive by Entertainment Weekly.

In 1978, during the making of Mork & Mindy, Williams always ignored the scripts and had fibbed most of the time. He did it so well that the producers stopped trying to make him specific scripts and making him stick to it. They just purposely left some gaps in the next scripts and left words such as “Mork can go off here” and let Williams do his own improvisations.