Robin Williams, who died early today, didn’t have super tight connections to Atlanta, but he has performed here over the years and shot a film in Atlanta last year.
Marshall Chiles, owner of the Laughing Skull Lounge in Midtown, tried to coax Williams to show up in 2009 by booking Williams’ friend and fellow stand-up comic Rick Overton. But Williams, who was performing at the Fox Theatre, didn’t feel well and ended up getting heart surgery a few days later. (Chiles even invited me to a show expecting Williams to possibly show up.)
Four years later, Williams did end up popping by to join Overton at the 80-seat Laughing Skull while taking a break from filming “Merry Friggin’ Christmas,” which is set to come out later this year and features Lauren Graham, Candace Bergen and Joel McHale.
Mara Davis, a former Dave FM host who does work for Atlanta Eats and can be heard every Friday on WABE-FM and Saturdays on WGST-AM, was invited to see the show, aware a big star was coming. “It was so surreal,” Davis said. “He came out and there was this instant surge of energy. The whole room changed. All of a sudden, this blast of hilarity from a true physical comedian. You were in awe to be in a room with 80 people and Robin Williams. He and his friend did improv together. They bounced off each other.”
Chiles, who remembers wearing a “Mork & Mindy” T-shirt as a child, said working with Williams “was a dream come true. This is such a huge loss for the comedy world.” He said Williams rapid-fire comedy style was unique in his day and only a few comics to this day can pull it off today such as Frank Caliendo and Pablo Francesco.
“I do a comedy class and teach them not to step on laughs,” Chiles said. “But Robin kept throwing them at you.”
He recalled Williams at Laughing Skull honoring his friend and “Mork & Mindy” colleague Jonathan Winters, who had just passed. According to a story my colleague AJC Buzzmeister Jennifer Brett wrote, he also riffed on topics such as “The Walking Dead,” Christopher Walken and Lindsay Lohan.
Back in the late 1980s, he visited the Punchline Comedy Club a couple of times. Marcey Guthrie, who has worked at the Punchline for more than 30 years and was an assistant manager, greeted Williams at the door when he arrived. The second time, to her amazement, Williams actually remembered her name.
Williams stopped by to goof with his friend and headliner Bruce Baum. “He did a really long set with him,” she recalled. “Ad-libbed everything.”
“He didn’t come in stuffy,” Guthrie added. “Came in full blown having fun.”
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