I have a lot of respect for robin & I think he is a fantastic actor, both Comedy wise & in his more sombre roles. However, I found very little funny about this show. Maybe it's my Australian sense of humor or maybe I expected something more akin to Lee Mack or Dave Chappelle. Unfortunately it was neither...instead it was a nervous sounding robin doing impressions of Hasidic Jews, old southerners making stupid noises and then shooting off to some completely unrelated subject like heart surgery or Obama. After the first time struggling to sit it through it I thought...well maybe I didn't approach it with the right mindset. Maybe I was just not used to his style of comedy. So I watched it again and no..I stand by my original opinion. But hey comedy is like apples & oranges, just so happens i'm not a fan of citrus.
... View MoreThis comedy set is fine for people who laugh at any drug joke or penis joke, no matter how old or poorly constructed, but Robin Williams used to be so much better, more original and with a greater range of schtick. It's hard not to notice how often he punctuates a gag by announcing that it's "number one" of a series of observations. (Usually he does provide another but without numbering it.) His material about growing older rang true, and it was certainly fresher than a Jimmy Stewart imitation or a talking-vagina gag (both of which he does resort to), but I suppose that to focus on approaching the age of 60 would be to lose much of the audience-- at least the audience that we see photographed, who seem to be half Robin's age.
... View MoreRobin Williams' mind moves at a clip that is still unfathomable. He's reaching into his late 50's, and yet with a few bottles of water on stage (far less than he had at his 2002 Broadway show, but I digress) he can go on a series of topics with rapid-fire energy and a clarity that is incredible. His topics range from topical to more philosophical, but not exactly in the George Carlin sense. No, he has some more 'unique' ways of talking about the human condition, such as his closing act about how human beings would go about (or mostly just talk about) creating the male and female sexual organs. Just watching and listening Williams describe in full anatomical detail like it's interior decorating is some of the funniest and sharpest material of the decade.Some of the jokes may fall flat or not connect quite as much as Williams intends, but why carp? Just around the bend will be another joke that will rip your vocal chords out and have you glad he took you along the way. No one is spared- certainly not the past president Bush and his people- and there's always a voice or a character or vulgarity waiting to come out of his head and at the audience. It's mostly masterful work by a comedian who knows what he's talking about every step of the way, even if it would appear he might trail off and never come back to what he was talking about before. You'll want to re-watch it to see what you missed, or to just have the experience of some of his crazier stories like getting heart surgery ("Hm, a pig or a cow heart valve?") and the dangers of non-sexual-intended Viagra!
... View MoreI saw Robin Williams in concert in 2002 and was hoarse from laughing by the end of the concert. "Robin Williams: Weapons of Self Destruction" is the same sort of humor, except focusing on more recent topics (namely Sarah Palin). As always with Williams, he's always a joke or two ahead by the time you figure out a joke, and laughing the whole time. One or two of the jokes I had heard before, but it's still a hoot how he puts everything out, complete with various accents (his Scottish accent is always the best).This is certainly one of Williams's best. It shows that without a doubt, Williams is best in unrestrained form (I have no plans to ever see "Old Dogs"). Just hilarious.
... View More