Book Review - Dave Itzkoff's Robin
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: May 15th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy
Robin Williams' upbringing is perhaps not what you'd expect. He was scholastically gifted and was from an affluent family where his closest companion was the maid in their palatial forty room house. He even got accepted into Julliard where his classmates were Christopher Reeve, William Hurt, and Mandy Patinkin. Though his own comedic style and love of mimicry and accents wasn't exactly what the classical and staid school was known for they could see he was a genius but he left without getting a degree conferred on him. He started his stand-up career in San Franscisco but to really make it you had to go to Los Angeles, so that is what he did. He worked the clubs as well as working whatever television work he could pick up especially during pilot season. Though he was notorious for stealing the jokes of other comedians, no one really thought that this was malicious, he just heard it and didn't know from where and so incorporated it into his act. Which was problematic to the comedians who had actually written the material, because once Robin had done it no one else could use it. But it was a last minute spot on an episode of Happy Days that would change his life. The episode "My Favorite Orkan" was so popular his character of Mork got his own television show. Mork and Mindy was a juggernaut. Everything from magazines to lunchboxes featured Robin's face. Despite it's success and cultural status the show was cancelled after four seasons. But that seemed fine with Robin because he was now chasing bigger Hollywood dreams. He desperately wanted awards and an Oscar. This is where the Julliard training starts to make sense. With The World According to Garp, Good Morning, Vietnam, and Dead Poets Society his serious credits started to roll in. Though it wouldn't be until 1997 and Good Will Hunting that he would get the respect of his peers he had been longing for with an Oscar. In the meanwhile he was making his name as serious business at the box office with films for a younger audience with Hook, FernGully, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Jumanji. But behind the scenes there were issues, and not just with Disney who actually sent him an apology Picasso. He burned through three marriages and had severe addiction problems. At least his addiction to cocaine had a check on it when John Belushi died the morning after they had partied together. But later his alcoholism took a toll. Though it was the Parkinson's diagnose that led to his suicide in 2014 at the age of 63. A blazing talent gone in an instant.
I've never really considered myself a fan of Robin Williams. He was just a fact of life, like death and taxes. He was omnipresent. Or at least for those of a certain age. Growing up in the eighties and nineties he was everywhere; films, television, Comic Relief, there was no getting away from him. And the truth of the matter is, I'd never really thought about it. I had never realized his complete and total omnipresence in my life until I read this book. It's like my childhood paralleled his fame and he was there every step along the way as I grew up. When Nick at Nite started in the mid eighties I watched it religiously. Perhaps six was a little too young to be watching some of the fare, but my grandmother and I watched it together, so my theory was if she thought if was inappropriate she would have turned it off. Now that I'm older I realize she wouldn't have. But there was Robin on Mork and Mindy and Happy Days and SCTV! He was there for my formative years with his manic humor. And no one of my generation can forget the mega success of Hook followed by Aladdin. I can't even count the number of times my friends and I in college got together and just watched Aladdin, well, sang along to Aladdin, just as comfort viewing. As for the number of times I watched Toys... I don't even want to guess, it was one of those films that was so odd that whenever it was on I just watched it all. As I aged I started watching other films of his, my discovery of Kenneth Branagh and Terry Gilliam led to so many favorite films that Robin is in, Dead Again being at the forefront. And I will never forget the time my friend Sara became obsessed with Good Will Hunting and watched it on a loop while recovering from having her wisdom teeth removed. So many memories. In fact it's because of Robin Williams that I will NEVER go to the bathroom during movies. I missed the end of Hook and was traumatized for years. Robin was just in my life, watching movies at home with friends or going out to the theater with my family, he was always there. And this book brought home that fact to me. I'm not one of those people who will forever mourn him. He randomly trends on Twitter because people miss him. I don't. But he was, unbeknownst to me, so much a part of making me me that this book was a very personal experience. Yes, it's uneven and spends the bulk of it's time on his early career and not enough on his fame, but I can forgive it that. I can forgive it a lot of the nostalgia.
Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths
