Russell Brand: Robin Williams’ divine madness will no longer disrupt the sadness of the world
Such a moving piece from Russell Brand at The Guardian UK. Not that familiar with Brand, but very impressed by his moving words.
Russell Brand: Robin Williams’ divine madness will no longer disrupt the sadness of the world
I'd been thinking about Robin Williams a bit recently. His manager Larry Bresner told me that when Robin was asked by a German journalist on a press junket why the Germans had a reputation for humourlessness that Williams replied, “Because you killed all the funny people.”
Robin Williams was exciting to me because he seemed to be sat upon a geyser of comedy. Like he didn’t manufacture it laboriously within but had only to open a valve and it would come bursting through in effervescent jets. He was plugged into the mains of comedy.
I was aware too that this burbling and manic man-child that I watched on the box on my Nan’s front room floor with a Mork action figure (I wish I still had that, he came in a plastic egg) struggled with mental illness and addiction. The chaotic clarity that lashed like an electric cable, that razzed and sparked with amoral, puckish wonder was in fact harvested madness. A refinement of an energy that could turn as easily to destruction as creativity.
....Robin Williams could have tapped anyone in the western world on the shoulder and told them he felt down and they would have told him not to worry, that he was great, that they loved him. He must have known that. He must have known his wife and kids loved him, that his mates all thought he was great, that millions of strangers the world over held him in their hearts, a hilarious stranger that we could rely on to anarchically interrupt, the all-encompassing sadness of the world.
....What I might do is watch Mrs Doubtfire. Or Dead Poets Society or Good Will Hunting and I might be nice to people, mindful today how fragile we all are, how delicate we are, even when fizzing with divine madness that seems like it will never expire.
It's been a year of much loss and sadness. It's hard for me to write when things feel so personal. I think Russell Brand is right....he must have known all the love and appreciation was out there. It had to matter greatly, though it wasn't enough in the end.
= new reply since forum marked as read
But, not true understanding of the torment he lived with.
No words. Just
Except, I'll say, I love what both you and Brand wrote.
Maybe not when it's in the context of something trivial ("Yeah, I spelled wine on the rug; it can be cleaned. Get over it!"
, but I've heard it said in the context of someone who is grieving the loss of someone or something (e.g., a job) that was significant to them.
"It's been a month already, geez! They really need to get over it!"
I've actually heard someone say that about someone who was still openly grieving the loss of a loved one.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it."
Tony Randall, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)[/center][/font][hr]
