Robin Williams is Extremely Funny in His Portland Performance

It was a rare opportunity to see one of the best stand-up comedians alive today. Robin Williams hadn’t toured in six years and luckily his “Weapons of Self Destruction Tour” stopped in Portland

For an hour and a half Robin Williams ran at a spitfire pace, telling about three hours worth of jokes. Starting with a series of local jokes “I see you’re drinking a Sam Adams, that isn’t the only Sam that enjoys a little head in this town” to his trademark penis jokes (as he reenacted a committee meeting to design the penis), Robin Williams hit a home run every time he went up to bat.

I’ve been to my fair share of stand-up performances (most recently Eddie Izzard and Henry Rollins) and no-one comes even close to landing so many extremely funny jokes as Williams.

What struck me the most about Williams was just how energetic and youthful he is.  Fighting a cold his horse voice never stopped him in his explosive comedy and he bounded around the stage like a man half his age.

Some of the funniest jokes of the night came between Williams a woman who was signing for some deaf audience members. Williams often uses faux sign language in his act, and his interplay with the interpreter was  Williams at his absolute best.

After Williams finished his set everyone in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall rose to their feet in a complete unanimous standing ovation. Williams returned to the stage and continued his set for another half hour. “It feels great, my regular routine is over and now I get to play!” What followed was pure, raw unadulterated Robin Williams and perhaps the best case made that Robin Williams in the funniest man alive.

Telling jokes like John Coltrane played the sax, William bounced and riffed like no other comedian can.  Robbins did an entire riff on porn, including celebrity porn with impersonations of Jimmy Stewart, Betty Davis and Katherine Hepburn all doing porn. The capper was an impersonation of Christopher Walken doing porn!

The evening’s finale was an impromptu country western song that was inspired by an audience member’s t-shirt. It showed off the sheer genius comedy of Williams and was a perfect cap to an amazing night.

Hopefully it won’t be another six years until Williams goes on tour again, no matter how long it is, I can tell you it will be worth the wait.