After having open-heart surgery several months ago,comedian Robin Williams is back on track, back on tour, and funnier than ever. Taking a break certainly seemed to recharge his batteries…not that he needed charging. Robin’s frenetic energy has always been one of the things that made him my favorite comedian–and it was in full force last night at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, where he made his South Florida stop on his “Weapons of Self Destruction” tour.
He walked onstage only to be greeted by a standing ovation from most of the audience, and went right into a set about the Hard Rock Casino and the Seminole Tribe–how they’ve had to change their names to things like “Chief Always Roll a Seven” and the estranged tribal son “All In”. Like any great comedian, he did his homework on South Florida and worked the local jokes into his intro, heckling some of the latecomers and picking on the “hot women” with plastic surgery (accompanied by cameras panning in on the audience, displaying on two large screens on stage). He made a few quips about Governor Charlie Crist and his tan (”he’s darker than Obama”), and joked about how the Seminole Tribe could buy back Manhattan–”oh wait, looks like they already did, New York is here already” and of course, talking about our weather (”you folks down here know what global warming is, you’ve been living with it for years.”)
While I was not impressed with the constant dropping of the “f” bomb (which thank goodness eased off after a few minutes, where he still used it quite a bit but not every other word), Williams jokes spanned topics ranging from hurricanes and natural disasters (”I live in California, God’s etch-a-sketch”) to technology and Twittering, GPS systems, his surgery, politics, marriage, drugs, the Pope, pets, and of course, sex and porn. In typical Williams style–and another one of the reasons he’s so top notch–he blended in his phenomenal character voices and impersonations with his jokes, never missing a beat.
During a great bit about people who have been married more than once should have to lose a body part each time around, he slipped into a set on same-sex marriage, Mormons and polygamy (”Mormons giving marital advice is like Octomom running a planned parenthood organization”).
He did surprise me by throwing in a couple of trite, we’ve-heard-em-before one liners (”Pregnant women shouldn’t drink–isn’t that how you got pregnant in the first place?”) but the rest of his performance was so damn funny, I didn’t care.
One of most clever bits was about how a committee designed the human reproductive system–and of course the comedy would be lost in translation if I attempted to describe this, so I won’t even try. Watching Robin Williams has so much to do with his voices and physical comedy in addition to what he’s saying that it’s neary impossible to describe him and do him any justice.
He finished the show, then came back for one small encore, which was a phenomenal impersonation of Walter Cronkite telling a “blue” joke. I won’t spoil the fun by telling the joke, but it was fantastic, made better only by Williams’ impression of Cronkite. Didn’t see the punchline coming, that’s for sure!
I literally didn’t stop laughing the entire show, and the audience around me was having a similar experience. It’s a non-stop laughing, eyes-tearing, practically peeing-in-your-pants heckuva good time, and I highly recommend you get to the Hard Rock Live tonight to catch his second show. (Be forewarned, though, this is DEFINITELY an adult content, R-rated show–not for the weak of heart or the prude.)
For more info: Call 1-800-745-3000 or visit the Hard Rock Live website.
