Can the Real Robin Still Stand Up?

FREDERICK M. BROWN/GETTY IMAGES
Comedian Robin Williams performs at the 52nd Annual ACE Awards

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He knows his humor is not as cynically rebellious as some of the younger comics'. (See above joke.) But it is still more spontaneous than most. He has no gagwriters and goes onstage without a scripted routine, an activity that he compares to walking in the wilderness with Ray Charles. In two try-out shows in a casino by Lake Tahoe last month, he changed about half the material from one night to the next. The Chicago show last week was about one-third new material again. This is the most exhausting way to do comedy. Yet unlike those comedians who can barely muster a grin when not onstage, Williams never seems to be down; the performance never ends. His energy levels are prodigious. When he goes cycling, it's for 50 or 60 miles. Lance Armstrong is a cycling partner.

Over midnight sushi in Chicago, he is still popping with energy, happy the first show of the tour went so well. The mix of humor seemed about right; the crowd laughed along with the political jokes as well as the Viagra routines. "The political stuff is the reason to come back out," he says. "I think there is a kind of responsibility [for a comedian] to talk about what everyone is going through. A lot of comedy comes from fear. It's having a take on things that people are maybe thinking but not expressing. That's when you get the huge 'wow' laugh, because you spoke the unspeakable."

The stand-up tour and the three new movies are an attempt to shake off the schmaltz and re-establish Robin Williams, uncut. His particular brand of madness--his ability to take on a multitude of roles--is what keeps him alive, balanced on his high wire. Laughter keeps him up there, prevents him from falling. That is why he cannot stop.