As a mail-order company, most of our famous clientele we’ve never met. But I met Robin Williams about a decade ago, and I’ll never forget him. It was in San Francisco, and we were waiting in an auditorium to see Eddie Izzard perform, who was just starting to hit it big in the U.S. My wife & I were sitting a few rows back as the audience slowly filed in, and in walks Robin Williams and his wife and sits at the end of the 3rd row. I’d never met or spoken to him, but I’d watched his stand-up since HBO was only 1 channel that wasn’t even on 24 hours a day, and was a big fan. Completely coincidentally, about 2 weeks earlier we’d shipped him a Mach V PC as a birthday gift from a director friend of his. It was a rush order, and I had to pick the paint color for him, which I remember wringing my hands over – what color does this famous person you’ve never met like? I went with Chromalusion. I was very curious to meet him, and most of all to see if he liked the PC. Or had even seen it. Or even knew what it was – you never know with such gifts. My wife nudged me to go over to him and introduce myself, but I said “No way, security will wrestle me to the ground!” She said I was being silly and gave me the push I needed. I nervously made my way over and figured I’d get a polite brush off. I put my business card with the Falcon logo in front of him and said “Excuse me Mr. Williams, do you recognize this?” He looked at it for a second, and then gave me a huge grin and held out his hand and said enthusiastically “Put ‘er there!” I remember he had the hairiest forearms I’d ever seen. Turns out he was a big gamer, and he was manically excited about gaming PCs. You’ve all seen him manically excited on stage, and that’s not acting. He said he was thrilled with the PC, and that he had an Alienware as well. He even liked my color choice, which was a load off my mind. He introduced me to his wife, who like many game widows, seemed completely uninterested in any of this. We talked for a few more minutes, but it was a blur to me. I just remember looking at his face unlike I’d ever seen anyone else: as scores of other people. Everyone from Mork to Ms. Doubtfire to Sy the photo guy was talking to me. I’d heard the term starstruck, but never realized that it was a real thing. Eddie Izzard was fantastic, but my head was buzzing and I can’t remember a single line of his performance. When I remember Robin Williams, I think of that huge grin and crazed enthusiasm just talking about PCs and gaming. He seemed like a man thoroughly enjoying life, and that’s the way I’d like to remember him. -Kelt
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 08:26:15 +0000
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