Freed from the constraints of Hollywood, Robin Williams takes stand-up to an old level 

Save for some solid dramatic roles, Robin Williams’ screen career has largely gone from Mork to mawkish.

But anyone expecting Mrs Doubtfire: Live from the comedy superstar’s madly entertaining stand-up show at Vector (only the second comedian to fill the place, after Bill Connolly) was going to be in for a shock. [More]
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To begin with, the Aussies take centre stage at Auckland’s Vector Arena, with The Umbilical Brothers opening this sell-out event. The pair of Australian physical comics performs an absolutely unique routine of sound effects and mime, with their impeccable timing and practised physicality only being matched by wild imagination and originality. A microphone has never been done such justice.

The Umbilical Brothers are a complementary coupling with Robin Williams, as their strength lies so much in their visual performance with its genius sound effects rather than with their witticisms; whereas, Robin Williams is all rapid-fire words and one-liners. 

His Weapons of Self Destruction has no through-line. It’s just Robin Williams’ stream-of-consciousness – on porn, cats, weed, weather, Arnold Schwarzenegger… – which is somehow like a group of power-walkers in thongs, letting off as they see fit. And it’s bloody funny. 

After recent open-heart surgery and a battle with alcoholism, you might expect the 59 year old comedian to have mellowed some. But his relentless energy is simply incredible, and it’s a mission just to keep up with him. His humour in this show is bold and ballsy (literally), with some highlights including a parody of intelligent design, where we witness the justification of the reproductive system; and a sketch about Darwin’s opinion of Australia, which amounts to: “I’m wrong. I don’t know what I was thinking”. 

Incidentally, this little sketch about Australia, along with Williams’ recent comment on the David Letterman show that “Aussies are basically English rednecks” had Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd up in arms. Rudd responded that Williams “should spend a bit of time in Alabama before he frames comments about anyone being particularly redneck,” which – hilariously – prompted the governor of Alabama, Bob Riley to formally defend the Alabamian people. Ahh…

Williams really shouldn’t be taken so seriously, particularly when he’s the kind of comedian to compare being a functioning alcoholic to being a paraplegic lap-dancer. [This sold-out tour of Australia and NZ being over, license is allowed for once in revealing some punchlines – ED]

Evolution becomes home base during the evening, when Williams’ penchant for determining how certain species were created is indulged. Kangaroos are the result of a Lama loving up a Velociraptor. Obama = Martin Luther King and Spock. Sarah Palin = Ronald Regan and Paris Hilton. And he loves juggling the left over parts – the parts evolution didn’t anticipate; the two remaining 40-year-old sperm that escape during Viagra-induced sex, screaming: “I thought the war was over”; the bit of turkey neck the Intelligent Design people managed to recycle; the deleted scenes where Mrs. Doubtfire takes off the rubber gloves; the missile launcher Margaret Thatcher has for a vibrator.

Williams is a stand-up great. Only a few of us have evolved to be able to stand in front of twelve thousand people and to make them laugh non-stop for an hour and a half; and that is some leap in species development.
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