Review: Time away from stand-up hasn’t robbed Williams

Kirk Baird

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2002 | 8:30 a.m.

Sixteen years is a long time to be away from anything.

Writing. Athletics. Playing guitar.

But a 16-year hiatus would be particularly daunting for a stand-up comedian, where proper timing and delivery can make the difference between an opening-act hack to a "Tonight Show" regular.

After all, comedians often talk of how rusty they are onstage after only a few weeks break.

Nonetheless, Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams decided to temporarily return to stand-up comedy last spring, embarking on a one-man nationwide tour.

By most accounts, his early performances were a mixed affair. There was the typically over-the-top Williams, given to manic fits of impressions and voices, and off-, off-, off-topic rants.

Still, according to some critics, many of his jokes seemed dated, stale even. The comedian, whose crazed mind seems to produce a punchline per second, appeared to be running low on fresh material.

But on Saturday Williams returned to the MGM Grand Garden Arena, where he had performed one of his first comeback stand-up performances April 26. With Williams receiving critical applause as a creepy stalker in the low-budget thriller "One Hour Photo," it was especially gratifying to see the acclaimed actor returning to his stand-up roots.

And if the actor-comedian had any rust remaining, it certainly didn't show.

Taking the stage in a brightly decorated, short-sleeve shirt and baggy black pants, Williams looked a decade younger than his 50 years.

He acted like it, too.

Williams is still a pre-teen fascinated by the male and female body, and he cracked wise with off-color comments about both.

For example, taking one of several nondescript water bottles from a small table onstage, Williams placed the prop at crotch-level, and shook it around in mock impersonation of a man loaded on Viagra while attempting to urinate.

Erection and urine jokes are nothing new -- ask most any seventh grader. But in the anything-goes world of Williams, the bit was not only fresh and funny, it bordered on performance art.

The comedian began his nearly two hours of material (counting a 10-minute encore) in unscripted form by gently chiding late-comers as they worked their way to their seats near the front of the stage.

One particularly well-endowed woman caught Williams' eye, and his mouth followed suit.

"This is Vegas, baby, where even God goes: 'I didn't make those.' "

From there the comedian began to riff on Las Vegas:

"It looks like the world's largest miniature golf course" and "(the Strip) is like 'The Wizard of Oz' on acid. You're walking down the street, 'Hookers and pigs, oh my!' "

He commented on the now-resolved baseball strike: "Now the players can keep their summer homes."

He also referred to the great Gloved One: "Michael Jackson says he's a victim of racism. First, you have to pick a race. And, while you're at it, pick a gender, too. What are you, an elf?"

The comedian also applauded the recent U.S. success at soccer's World Cup -- "America finally made it past the Special Olympics phase" -- before moving into the always comically fertile ground of politics.

Williams on Ted Kennedy's sizable weight gain: "My God, you're a Kennedy, not a Macy's (Thanksgiving) Day float!' "

Williams on George W.: "Some men are born great. Some achieve greatness. Others get it as a graduation gift."

Williams on NRA president Charlton Heston, who acknowledged last month he has symptoms of Alzhemier's disease: "Guns don't kill people. Apes with guns kill people."

Throughout most of his set, the punchlines came fast and furious -- it was easy to miss one joke while still laughing at the one before.

As his act wound down, perhaps to keep from exhaustion, the comedian jettisoned his series of rapid-fire nonsequitur one-liners to an almost epic take on the Scottish invention of golf -- complete with an outrageously faux accent.

He finished the night with a self-deprecating piece on his turning 50, including a description of his rectal examination.

Given that the humor was of the bodily function genre, Williams' bit was surprisingly funny, sharp -- even fresh.

Even after 16 years away, it probably should have been.