It's hard to resist the brute force that is Robin Williams. Even in his mid-fifties — two decades past his heyday as America's court jester and six years into his return to stand-up — the man still talks faster than most people think and on Friday he capered madly in front of the first of his sold-out crowds at Massey Hall.
From his opening rabbit punches at Yorkville snobs, Stephen Harper and the Quebecois though the inevitable digs at the White House and the changing fortunes of Wall Street ("up and down — it's manic-recession") the nearly two-hour set saw Williams as lively as he was 20 years ago in his landmark Live at the Met, bounding around the stage like a hairy ballerina.
Dressed all in black, guzzling bottle after bottle of water, he riffed on some unsurprising old standards, such as earthquakes in California ("God's Etch-o-Sketch") and cell phones, before moving on to what looked to be more personal thoughts on alcoholism and a funny, extended bit about the Devil taking phone calls from the likes of Bush, Cheney and the Clintons. "You guys made Watergate look like a fraternity prank," said Williams, as an admiring Devil, to the VP.
The thing about Williams' act is that a lot of the individual gags aren't that great. ("Crackberry" — yeah, never heard that one before.) Delivered by a more sedate comic, you'd see them coming from five miles away. But put a zillion of those jokes into every breath, and back it up with the entire periodic table of cartoon-y voices and, bam, you've got something. Enough to have the crowd on its feet when he first appeared on stage, and again when he came back for an encore.
Although, since we're on the subject, some of those voices are long overdue for retirement, even if Williams isn't. That means you, Swishy Gay Voice. And you too, Buck-Toothed Chinaman.