TORONTO (AP) – Before the late Robin Williams enthralled television audiences on “Mork and Mindy,” he was a star on the stand-up comedy circuit in the 1980s.
The political satirist Will Durst had the unenviable task of following the master when he debuted at the legendary stand-up comedy club Holy City Zoo in San Francisco, where Williams started his comedic career.
“There were 15, 20 people in the club before (Williams) came on stage. He came on and word went up and down the streets. There were a bunch of nearby bars and everybody left them and wandered over to the Zoo. The place was packed, all the way out to the hall, onto the sidewalk, people were trying to peer in, just to watch him. And I had to follow him. When I hit the stage, it was like a massive movement out, like the great exodus,” laughs Durst.
“That was quite a baptism.”
Williams and Durst are highlighted in “3 Still Standing,” a new documentary featured later this month at Toronto’s Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival.