Robin Williams was apparently so eager to impress Eighties music legend David Bowie that he reportedly threatened to buy London’s iconic comedy club, The Comic Strip, just so he could perform stand-up for the rock star.
In a new interview with The Guardian, The Comic Strip Presents creator Peter Richardson reflected on the early days of the British comedy scene, when the venue that launched the careers of star comics, including Adrian Edmondson and Dawn French, was one of the city’s hottest comedy joints.
Richardson recalled one night, when the late Mrs. Doubtfire star turned up, demanding to perform to impress his guest, Bowie.
Comedian Alexei Sayle, who helped run the club, offered Williams a 15-minute slot, but that wasn’t good enough for the Good Will Hunting actor, who responded: “I told [Bowie] I’d do an hour.”
When Sayle rejected his request, Williams exclaimed: “I’ll buy the club!” to which Sayle replied: “We don’t own it. It belongs to a bouffant-haired pornographer.”
Founded in 1980 by Richardson with assistance from The Rocky Horror Picture Show producer Michael White, The Comic Strip additionally jump-started the careers of popular comedians Rik Mayall, Jennifer Saunders, and Nigel Planer.
The location’s success eventually led to the creation of their hit eight-season sitcom, The Comic Strip Presents, which featured the performers’ alternative comedy and further boosted their individual careers, making them household names in British comedy and beyond.
Richardson has since worked to remaster the show, which will screen in theaters at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe next month.
“It’s a great thing,” he told The Guardian, “to show them in the cinema. You don’t often get to share comedy television with an audience, and it changes the whole experience: people laughing around you. We’ve discovered that there is an audience around the country who want to see these films on the big screen and talk about them. It’s fantastic that something we created 30 or 40 years ago is still creating laughter. I love it.”
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While Williams didn’t end up purchasing the club, he did go on to establish himself as a legendary Hollywood actor. Before his tragic death by suicide in 2014 at the age of 63, he starred in more than 100 films and TV shows.
He earned three Best Actor Oscar nominations for 1988’s Good Morning, Vietnam, 1990’s Dead Poets Society, and 1992’s The Fisher King. In 1998, he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Good Will Hunting, alongside Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
He received nine Emmy nominations, of which he won two for Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Performance for 1987’s Carol, Carl, Whoopi and Robin and 1988’s ABC Presents A Royal Gala.
