Robin Williams - London
By Terri Rimmer
Published Yesterday
Comedian
Rating: Unrated
Fans of manic stand-up comedian and Oscar winner Robin Williams will once again get to experience the workings of the comic’s mind when he performs in London Nov. 13 and 14 with John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson among others.



The outrageous veteran Hollywood star Williams returns to perform there after a 25-year absence, this time entertaining the crowds for Prince Charles’ 60th birthday, according to research. The 57-year-old will be featured in the event, titled “We Are Most Amused.”



Williams, once described by one writer as a “walking, talking Improv,” traveled the country on a solo stand-up which included three sold-out shows at Upper Darby’s Tower Theater in 2004, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. In the summer of that year Williams cracked up crowds all across Brentwood in California, performing his unique brand of stream-of-consciousness stand-up in medium-sized venues that sell out fast, stated writer Jenny Peters.



“The son of a Ford Motor Company executive and a fashion model-turned-housewife, Robin Williams didn’t start out on the fast track to comic stardom at all,” writes Peters. “Williams’ incredible high-octane, motor-mouthed stand-up performances quickly became legendary, making him so popular and famous that television quickly beckoned.”



Years later a Charlie Rose interview was by turns enlightening and a laugh riot. (Source: signsonsandiego.com).



In 2003 the high point of an evening featuring St

eve Martin at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute was Williams who made a surprise appearance.



“In that setting, it was easy to see genius in comedy as not so different from mathematical genius: Both comedians demonstrated an incredible ability to think quickly on their feet, fold remarks back on themselves to form jokes, and draw clever connections between seemingly disparate topics,” wrote Sara Robinson. (http://www.siam.org/news/news.php?id=314).



In 2002 Williams went on a similar live tour as the one he started this September to “recharge his batteries,” as he communicated to a reporter. He attributed the best live comedy performance to the late Richard Pryor’s Live in Concert in an interview.



Williams is also involved with numerous charities including The Gorilla Foundation, Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Pediatric AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), the Make-a-Wish Foundation, the University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco General Hospital Pediatrics, and The Africa Foundation among many others. He also co-founded the Windfall Foundation.



“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world,” Williams once said.



His wild comic talent follows in the footsteps of his child idol, comic Jonathan Winters and Williams has been described as “like no other” by Science Fiction Weekly.



For ticket information on the London shows, see robin-williams.net, empiretickets.com, or ticketmaster.com online.