 Robin really kind
 of hit it quickly,
and I had not gone into
comedy at that point.
Our backgrounds were
similar in the sense
that he had gone to Juilliard,
he'd gone to a theater school,
and I went to the
Yale drama school,
but he had gone as a performer.
I'd gone as a writer.
And I was doing
comedy on the side,
and Robin had kind of
started pursuing it,
and then Mork & Mindy
and I saw him on that,
and then, you know, and
then Jonathan Winters,
who I'd been a big
fan of, and it was like
he was one of those
guys you kind of go,
he's Jonathan Winters on acid
is the kind of
simplistic way to put it.
So I had kind of
always tracked him,
and it was always,
I always found his,
you know, his comedy was
just like nothing I'd seen.
Damn it, the poor
woman might be trapped.
-Allison.
-Her name is Allison?
-Allison. Allison.
-Allison? Allison.
Allison, this is the police,
we know you're in there.
(audience cheering)
Allison, if you come out,
we won't have to have
a fight, Allison.
Come on out.
We're gonna throw
in stuff in there
if you're not
coming out, Allison.
We've got the dogs out here.
(barking)
Allison, we brought your mother.
"Ali, come out.
"Ali, come out of the
bathroom now, girl."
Allison, we brought
Rabbi Tom with us too.
"Ali, what are you
doing in there?"
Ever since you've been
hanging out with the shiksas
you've been a different girl.
(audience laughing)
Allison, damn it,
girl, come out!
She's safe in there.
Dad, it's okay, I'll find her.
I feel like those native guys.
(singing gibberish)
Oops, this man's backing
up in these people going,
"Shit, we paid good
money to get stepped on!"
Hold on, I got the chair.
Don't be afraid (gibberish)!
Sorry, well, she's gone now.
Well, I guess she
won't be coming back.
She won't be needing this then.
(audience cheering)
I listened to a lot
of Jonathan Winters,
and because Maude Frickert
and all of these characters
that he had created
that were all,
you know, off the charts.
And Jonathan Winters
was kind of like
the American interpretation,
excuse me, of Monty Python,
and kind of this absurd
collection of things
that he he had come up with,
this absurd concept of ideas.
Like Jonathan, who
was also like stereo
in terms of his comedy,
and Robin's was like
quad surround sound.
So it was a totally
different, you know,
one thing would
bounce to the next,
and there didn't
seem to be any...
There seemed to be a
logic, a fluid logic
to what he was doing, you
know, only to himself,
but yet you were comfortable
to follow him along
to whatever path he was taking,
which was kind of stunning
at that point in time.
So it was really, when you
watch comedy take a turn,
and he was one of those people
who made comedy take a turn.
And meanwhile I had, when I
really went to Comic Relief,
I was still kind of,
I believe had not,
my career had not really kind
of taken off in that sense.
I mean, I was doing
fine, I was very happy,
but I had always
wanted to do that,
and so, for me,
it was an honor.
It was like being recognized.
All you ask for is some
crumbs of recognition
(laughs) from time to time,
and that was really
an important one.
