Robin Williams Albums (5)
What The Critics Say
Robin Williams has been surprisingly successful at locating cinematic vehicles that provide him with an opportunity to use his special comic gifts, namely a rapid-fire associational ability that finds him jumping from topic to topic as audiences, barely able to keep up, laugh at the juxtapositions as much as the jokes, and a talent for mimicry that extends beyond every known accent to include the imagined voices of a variety of inanimate objects. He has been so successful, in fact, that he has done relatively little of the work that best employs his attributes, standup comedy. But in 2002, after 16 years off the road working in Hollywood, Williams undertook a tour of North America chronicled on this two-CD set. Unlike the simultaneously released Live on Broadway DVD, which depicts the tour's final performance in New York City, the CD is culled from shows around the continent, though the material is essentially the same. While extremely topical, it demonstrates that the 50-year-old comedian remains what he always was, a baby boomer whose sensibility is informed by the drug humor of the 1970s. Sober as he may be today, Williams still comes across as the funniest guy at a pot party, his obscenity-laced raps filled with the facile leaps of logic a doper could best appreciate. That said, he is, as usual, hilarious, and not infrequently witty. His attack on golf, rendered, naturally, in a Scottish accent, is devastating, and his reflections on growing older hit home with his aging fans. The album's first disc contains the basic show, while the second disc devotes individual tracks to each of the cities on the tour, during which Williams speaks in local accents and tells local jokes that are well-appreciated by his listeners. Forget the films; this is what Robin Williams does best. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Reality...What a Concept'
Release Date 1/1/2002
Tracks 11
Label Laugh.com
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What The Critics Say
Comic genius Robin Williams was riding high with his starring role on the hit television sitcom Mork & Mindy when he recorded 1979's Reality...What a Concept, his debut comedy album. It was recorded live at the Copacabana in New York City and the Boarding House in San Francisco. Reality...What a Concept reached the Top Ten and went gold, which is more a testament to Williams' soaring popularity than the actual quality of the album, despite the fact it won the Grammy award for best comedy recording. Quite simply, Williams' maniacal, improvisational style at the time did not lend itself to cohesiveness. Williams had difficulty harnessing his own explosive brilliance, and as a result Reality...What a Concept is disjointed. The funniest tracks are "Kindergarten of the Stars," "Reverend Earnest Angry," "Shakespeare (A Meltdowner's Nightmare)," and "Tank You, Boyce." Williams' youthful exuberance and zaniness are evident, but he didn't make a focused, outstanding comedy album until several years later with A Night at the Met, which also benefited from the fact that he'd kicked alcohol and drugs. As of early 2002, Reality...What a Concept had not yet been reissued on CD. ~ Bret Adams, All Music Guide
'A Night at the Met'
Release Date 4/18/1994
Tracks 16
Label Sony Mid-Price
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What The Critics Say
With Robin Williams at the cusp of what would become a very successful film career, A Night at the Met served as a kind of standup swan song for him. He had already made a considerable impression on the public, both as the lovable alien Mork and through his frenetically paced standup routines, but cocaine addiction threatened to derail his skyrocketing career -- the fuel for his fire was serving to burn him out as well. Cleansed of that addiction, A Night at the Met found Williams full of the same energy and maniacal pace that endeared him to his audience in the first place -- only, this time, the fuel was strictly internal. Overcoming addiction left Williams with a smorgasbord of hilarious and poignant material at his disposal and his wry and intelligent musings on the dangers of overindulgence held extra weight, because he had been there. Ruminations on drugs, relationships, and the Reagan administration were observationally dead-on and served up with a side of Williams' trademark, telling sentimentality. The sentimental and the hilarious reached a crescendo when the subject matter turned to the birth of his son. Among the pregnancy and pee jokes, Williams injected serious concerns for the future with a glimmer of hope that all might not be as dismal as it seemed. Hilarious, poignant, outrageous, and heartwarming, A Night at the Met came at a unique time -- capturing Robin Williams at both his career and personal best. ~ J. Scott McClintock, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Robin Williams brings his own manic shape-shifting gifts as actor and comedian to a hilarous, unpredictable reading. He preserves the basic strengths of this lively tale while injecting a uniquely crazed vision that will keep parents at least as happy as their enraptured kids. Ry Cooder adds his own brilliance as arranger and chief picker in this series of instrumental vignettes that evoke a story's larger-than-life Old West milieu. ~ MusD, All Music Guide
'Throbbing Python of Love'
Release Date 1/1/1983
Tracks 14
Label Casablanca
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