Can The Real Robin Still Stand Up?

Robin Williams got hooked on sappy roles. Now he's getting help, by doing improv and acting out

Robin Williams is nervous. He is prowling around backstage at the Chicago Theater, waiting for the curtain to go up in front of a packed house and wondering if he can make the 3,800 people out there laugh. It's the opening show in his first stand-up tour in almost 16 years. He turned 50, "an age when you realize your prostate is bigger than your ego," last July. Can he still carry an audience for nearly two hours on his own, the way he last did in New York City when he was just 35?

Even now--especially now, minutes before show...

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