Robin Williams – Live On Broadway

Robin Williams
Live On Broadway
Columbia Music Video 2002
126 minutes

Robin Williams Live on Broadway is a two-hour tour de force by the wildest, most out of control and unpredictable of today’s comics. Robin Williams is a funny stand up comedian and on Live On Broadway answers the age old question: how many bottles of water can Robin Williams go through in one show? Williams has often said that much of his comic style comes from the great Jonathan Winters and this is a claim he backs up once again on this stand-up comedy DVD. Williams, like Jonathan Winters, has the ability to tell funny stories and funny jokes and you get the feeling a lot of it is improv, live on the spot as he goes along. However, Robin Williams even at his best does not match the talent Jonathan Winters had for sticking to a funny story for a while and keeping all the characters separate. Jonathan Winters, in his prime, could do an easy 10 minutes on Billy the Kid, Williams does not have that ability to focus his comic mind for that long.

The other major difference between the funny material of Robin Williams compared to the funny material Jonathan Winters used to do (used to do because now he is doing stuff with some guy called Gary Owens and all of his new stuff is simply atrocious) is that Jonathan Winters’ material somehow still seems fresh while some of the material on this 2002 stand-up comedy DVD is already dated. This is perhaps because Williams is more current affairs topical than Winters was but basically, no matter how funny this DVD is, it simply will not last the test of time.

Still, Robin Williams Live On Broadway is definitely something you want to see. Those who are fans of funny guys, funny comedians, funny joke tellers and so on are already aware that the DVD of Robin Williams Live On Broadway is very different from the sometimes 2 CD and sometimes 1 CD Robin Williams Live 2002 stand-up comedy CD. Basically, the CD is audio cuts from various shows Williams did before the big, HBO concert on Broadway, and being a topical comedian, it’s never the same show twice. The other reason you want to see this at least once is that you have to see Robin Williams perform to believe it. Nobody is as funny live, nobody is as wild live, nobody is as irreverential live as Robin Williams.

This stand-up comedy DVD is not a keeper, and definitely not something the whole family will enjoy (this is most certainly not material kids should see unless you want to spend hours explaining every sexual innuendo) but is most certainly something you want to treat yourself to at least once.

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