I went back and forth about sharing my favorite Robin Williams story because I have friends that were so close to him and yesterday besides my shock and sorrow my heart was hurting for so many of them…but my friends who know this story have asked me to share…so here goes. When I was a very young struggling comic stage time was a precious precious thing…something you would wait long hours for, beg borrow and steal for, and do just about anything for…and stage time in a comedy club was the most precious of all…this one night I had managed to sweet-talk my way into a set at the very very end of the night…there were only three people in the audience.,,and I was about to go on when in comes Robin WIlliams. Now the deal was that if a big time comic came in…that was it. You were not going on. It happened more often then not. So when I see Robin WIlliams I am excited to watch him and I knew I was not going on that night. But I was wrong…because just as I started walking back to my seat Robin WIlliams comes up behind me and says,,,Oh were you about to go on? and proceeds to walk to the stage and welcome everybody to the NoNo Lounge and introduces his favorite jewish stripper Bon Bon LeFleur? at which point he waves me up to the stage. Well f**k me…Robin WIlliams is waving me up…I will be Bon Bon… So I get up there and Robin sits in the chair right up against the stage…and I realize in that moment that… there are two people in the audience..they thought they were going to see Robin WIlliams…then they think they are going to see a stripper…and instead they get a funny looking jewish girl in a blazer and slacks with a bad perm…there was going to be no set coming out of me tonight…so instead I look down at Robin and say Mr. Himmelfarb you know youre not supposed to leave the retirement home without permission.…and there was this split second when you saw the glee in his eyes…because he knew we were going to play! Then he became Mr. Himmelfarb the pervy octogenarian and off he went. I dont know how long we went…but Bon Bon and Himmelfarb fought and at some point we danced the hora. Those two audience members stayed…the wait staff came in and sat…I never wanted it to end… I didnt see him again for years after that…but one night I bumped into him at another comedy club…and by bumped into I meant… despite the night that Bon Bon and Mr. Himmelfarb shared…I was still too shy to say hello…but lo and behold just as I walked by him he grabs my arm and says Bon Bon!!! I never knew him well and I can count the number of encounters I had with him on my two hands…but each time…he called me Bon Bon. And each time it meant a hell of a lot to me.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 07:40:36 +0000
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