MIND OF GENIUS, EDGE
Robin Williams documentary captures comic’s manic humor
The two-hour documentary “Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind” captures the magic and the mania that was the iconic comic.
Bursting with hilarious clips and bloopers, it’s almost as good as having Williams back.
That’s its strength and its drawback, for those who so miss the comedy genius. Williams, who took his own life in 2014, shared so much of his life on camera that director Marina Zenovich (“Water & Power: A California Heist,” “Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic”) is able to craft a cut that practically has the legend narrating his life story from the Great Unknown.
The two-hour feature includes insights from his family and friends, including his first wife, Valerie Velardi, his oldest son, Zak, and such celebrities as Billy Crystal, Steve Martin, David Letterman, Eric Idle, Whoopi Goldberg and his “Mork & Mindy” co-star Pam Dawber.
Idle recalls seeing Williams at a comedy club in 1980.
“He made the entire audience pray for the death of the heckler at the back of the room.”
Lewis Black remembers doing a USO tour with him. “He was like the light who never knew how to turn himself off,” he says.
Even leaving a message on an answering machine was a chance to perform that Williams couldn’t pass up: Pretending to be a Lord Sisley in Africa, he told Crystal, “I send you all my love. But not like that day in boarding school. Something different. Something wonderful. A hug.”
What made Williams tick?
He grew up in comparative luxury, the son of a Ford Motor Co. exec and a woman who perhaps gave him his zany sense of humor. But Williams grew up isolated, raised by a nanny, and was a scholar and athlete — and, in his estimation, nothing special.
When his family moved to Northern California when he was a teenager, he was bitten by the acting bug that led him ultimately to comedy clubs.
His first big break — and a role he is still remembered for — was the alien Mork, who first appeared on “Happy Days” and then on “Mork & Mindy.”
He was earning $15,000 a week, still working the comedy clubs and getting lost in cocaine.
“The cocaine is God’s way of saying you’re making too much money,” he joked with Johnny Carson.
As for the one addiction he could never give up — performing in front of live, adoring crowds — he called that “sex without the guilt.”
When Williams wasn’t performing, he felt he wasn’t succeeding as a person, Zak says.
Williams was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease while filming the CBS sitcom “The Crazy Ones” in 2014.
His family attributed his suicide to Lewy body dementia.
Ultimately, the title of this moving portrait is a lie. We never do understand Robin Williams. We only have all that he generously gave us.
The film reminds us of one great, humbling truth: Every one of us is fighting a battle that no one knows anything about.