My parents had a special chance encounter with Robin Williams. This must have been during the 80’s, although I’m not sure exactly when. Maybe my sister remembers. It was at a museum here in NYC, the last day of an exhibit by an artist that had designed all sorts of chairs or something. It was late in the day, and the place just so happened to be empty except for my parents and Robin Williams and his wife at the time.
The exhibit was pretty dour and uninteresting. Both couples were quiet and respectful of the art though—that is, until they realized that all four of them thought the art was ridiculous.
Robin began riffing on the art they saw, and my mom followed suit, holding her own with one of the great riffmasters of all time. They did voices and personalities for the chairs, and in front of one chair in particular, where all four were in total silence, staring, unsure what to even quip about it, my mom said, simply, “Oy”, as both a commentary on the overwhelming jewishness of the chair, and a demonstration of the voice the chair would have. This caused Robin to absolutely lose it, laughing damn near to tears.
My mom made Robin Williams laugh damn near to tears with a single word.
I can only imagine the laughter she’ll get out of him, should their souls cross paths in the wherever-they-are.
Rest in Peace to two of the funniest people this planet has ever known.