SUMMARY: Madcap, frenetic, lightning fast: On stage, Robin Williams was seemingly impossible to contain. But a new documentary, "Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind," tries to pin down the man whose public persona was often quite different from the private life. Jeffrey Brown reports.
SUMMARY: From the "birther" controversy to beauty queens, this year's presidential election has granted endless fodder for late-night comedians. How do Seth Meyers and his fellow talk-show hosts strike a balance between political analysis and humor? Meyers joins Jeffrey Brown to discuss the antics of Donald Trump, why Meyers travels with his desk and his show's biggest competition.
SETH MEYERS, “Late Night With Seth Meyers”: My new set, it's technically really just the same furniture in a different place.
JEFFREY BROWN: You even brought your own desk.
SETH MEYERS: My own desk, yes. When a man hosts a show he builds a relationship with the desk, and you can't just–
JEFFREY BROWN: Not just any desk.
SETH MEYERS: You can't be promiscuous with the desk. You have to be loyal to one desk.
So yeah, we brought it down.
Good evening, everybody. I'm Seth Meyers. This is “Late Night”. We're in Washington D.C.
JEFFREY BROWN: The nation's capital, a destination, Seth Meyers told me, that fits with the DNA of his show.
SETH MEYERS: They thought it was totally normally to just start walking off the stage while Hillary was giving an answer.
Where is he going? What's back there, the ash heap of history?
JEFFREY BROWN: Biting, direct, sometimes using raw language — Meyers' monologues have become increasingly political.
DONALD TRUMP (R), Presidential Candidate: Barack Obama was born in the United States, period.
SETH MEYERS: President Obama was born in the United States, period? (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you, exclamation point!
JEFFREY BROWN: Targeting Donald Trump in particular.
When we met in the Warner Theater last Friday, just before the leak of the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape, I asked about the daily focus on Trump.
SETH MEYERS: Well, it's really because of what he's doing. You know, we're not going out and sort of — we don't feel like we're making ad hominem attacks on him and just every day saying, “We got to find something on him.” You know, it's on the front page of the paper every day. You know, we do feel pretty strongly about everything. You know, I feel like comedy these days particularly is allowed to have a point of view.
SUMMARY: Carl Reiner never thought about going into comedy growing up. That was until he met Mel Brooks. A friendship that started in 1961 with the “2,000-Year-Old Man” skit, the two close friends now have a nightly movie date. Reiner gives his Brief but Spectacular take on his comedic career.
SUMMARY: Growing up in Palm Springs, Iranian-American Muslim comedian Negin Farsad yearned to fit in. But as she grew older amid rising Islamophobia, Farsad realized she had her own people, and she could use her comedy to do more than make people laugh -- she could make them think. Farsad gives her Brief But Spectacular take on being an Iranian-American Muslim female comedian lady.
SUMMARY: Called the nation's "satirist in chief," Jon Stewart’s comedic rants and skewering of the daily news have had far-reaching influence on media and politics. Now he's leaving "The Daily Show" after 16 years. Jeffrey Brown looks back at Stewart’s impact.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): One last zinger, one last laugh, one last bow. Jon Stewart takes his leave of “The Daily Show” tonight.
Jeffrey Brown has our look.
JON STEWART, Host, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart: Whose team are we on in the Middle East?
(LAUGHTER)
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): Jon Stewart has been called the nation’s satirist in chief, and recently he went at it, once again, with the commander in chief.
JON STEWART: We’re fighting with Iraqis to defeat ISIS, along with Iran, but, in Yemen, we’re fighting Iran with Iraqis and Saudis.
(LAUGHTER)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: That’s not quite right, but that’s OK.
(LAUGHTER)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: But, look…
JON STEWART: Whose team are…
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Look, here’s…
JON STEWART: Who are we bombing?
JEFFREY BROWN: It was President Obama’s seventh appearance on Stewart’s “Daily Show,” and his last.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I’m issuing a new executive order that Jon Stewart cannot leave the show.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
JEFFREY BROWN: But Stewart is leaving, after 16 years of a kind of faux newscast that took daily events and gave them a comedic, often pointed twist.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): A fast-talking space alien, a manic genie with a gift for improv, an inspirational teacher with a love of literature, and a blazing stand-up comedian, all just a handful of the roles that propelled Robin Williams into the entertainment stratosphere.
Jeffrey Brown has our look at the work of the Oscar-winning actor.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): This afternoon, the Marin County, California, Sheriff’s Department said that Robin Williams had died by asphyxia by hanging.
LT. KEITH BOYD, Marin County Sheriff’s Office: Mr. Williams’ personal assistant became concerned at approximately 11:45 a.m., when he failed to respond to knocks on his bedroom door.
At that time, the personal assistant was able to gain access to Mr. Williams’ bedroom and entered the bedroom to find Mr. Williams clothed, in a seated it position, unresponsive, with a belt secured around his neck.
JEFFREY BROWN: Word of his death broke yesterday evening and led to an outpouring of shock and sadness from fans, friends and colleagues.
On Twitter, comedian Steve Martin wrote: “I could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams, mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul.”
Friend and colleague Billy Crystal wrote simply: “No words.”
And late-night host Conan O’Brien appeared shaken as he announced the news during his show.
CONAN O’BRIEN, Host, “Conan”: I’m sorry to anyone in our studio audience that I’m breaking this news. This is absolutely shocking and horrifying and so upsetting on every level.
JEFFREY BROWN: President Obama released this statement, saying: “Williams made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most.”
Robin Williams began his career in stand-up comedy and was known from the beginning for his almost out-of-this-world improvisational wit, speed, and energy.
ROBIN WILLIAMS, Comedian: I’m melting.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Help me. Help me.
You’re not going to help me, are you?
(LAUGHTER)
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Nanu nanu.
JEFFREY BROWN: His big break, in fact, came in the late ’70s, playing an alien on the television show “Mork & Mindy,” where his character would often check in with his outer space superior.
ACTOR: A spaceship from the planet Necroton landed on Earth.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Oh, no, not the Necrotons. Our arch enemies?
ACTOR: No, they’re a hockey team.
(LAUGHTER)
ACTOR: Of course they’re our arch enemies.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Good retort, sir. That’s one for you, eight million for me.
(LAUGHTER)
JEFFREY BROWN: Williams moved to film, sometimes combining his frenetic comedic style with more serious subject matter, as when he played a rebellious armed services deejay in the 1987 movie “Good Morning Vietnam.”
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Hey, this is not a test. This is rock ‘n’ roll. Time to rock it from the Delta to the DMZ. Is that me, or does that sound like an Elvis Presley movie? Viva Da Nang.
JEFFREY BROWN: In 1989's “Dead Poets Society,” he was an unconventional English teacher at a boarding school attempting to inspire his students.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.
JEFFREY BROWN: More hits came in the 1990s in a variety of roles, including “Mrs. Doubtfire,” where he played a father pretending to be a British nanny in order to see his children.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Euphegenia Doubtfire, dear. I specialize in the education and entertainment of children.
Surprise.
JEFFREY BROWN: And Williams won an Oscar for his supporting role as a South Boston psychiatrist in 1997's “Good Will Hunting.”
ROBIN WILLIAMS: You’ve never held your best friend’s head in your lap, and watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help.
JEFFREY BROWN: Through the years, Williams returned to stand-up comedy, performing for U.S. troops overseas, winning a Grammy for a comedy album in 2002, and appearing multiple times at the Kennedy Center’s Annual Mark Twain Awards.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Some of you are under indictment. You know who you are.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBIN WILLIAMS: So, we ask you please to turn off your cell phones and your ankle bracelets. Enjoy the evening.
(LAUGHTER)
JEFFREY BROWN: Yet, throughout the many highs, he struggled with alcohol and drug addiction and with depression, and would make reference to it in his comedy routines.
Just this summer, he checked himself into a rehab clinic to help maintain his sobriety. And, today, the coroner said Williams had been seeking treatment for depression.
Robin Williams was 63 years old.
SUMMARY: The death of Robin Williams, beloved American comedian and actor, has sparked an outpouring of shock and sadness. Jeffrey Brown joins A.O. Scott of The New York Times and Budd Friedman, founder of Improv Comedy Club, to look back at the “exuberance, sweetness and generosity” of William’s talent.
JOHN OLIVER, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”: If we let cable companies offer two speeds of service, there won’t be Usain Bolt and Usain Bolt on a motorbike.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHN OLIVER: They will be Usain Bolt and Usain bolted to an anchor.
(LAUGHTER)
JEFFREY BROWN: The highly divisive debate over who controls Internet speed and access, so-called net neutrality, is hardly standard comic fare.
JOHN OLIVER: The point is, the Internet in its current state is not broken, and the FCC is currently taking steps to fix that.
(LAUGHTER)
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): But it’s just the kind of policy and political subject that John Oliver tackles, often in surprising depth, on his new HBO comedy program “Last Week Tonight.”
JOHN OLIVER: We need you to channel that anger.
JEFFREY BROWN: His admonition to viewers to write to the FCC even briefly shut down the agency’s comments section of the Web site. Born in a suburb of Birmingham, England, Oliver studied English and joined a comedy troupe at Cambridge University. He performed stand-up in festivals, pubs and clubs around England, before coming to this country and joining “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” in 2006, eventually sitting in as host while Stewart took time off.
The new program has probed, poked fun, and raised serious questions around a variety of news topics, from India’s elections to Supreme Court decisions.
SUMMARY: The actors at Brave New Workshop have been writing and performing satire longer than any other theater in the United States. "MN Original" of Twin Cities Public Television takes a look at the pioneering comedic theater with an alumni list that includes Al Franken and Louie Anderson.
BRAVE NEW WORKSHOP (performance): I love you so much, Bloopeekins. Oh, I am over the moon that we are finally married. Thank you, Minnesota. Thank you, Minnesota.
LAUREN ANDERSON: Humor’s such a great tool to get things out.
BRAVE NEW WORKSHOP (performance): It is so nice to see another loving couple finally getting married. Oh, no. No, we’re not getting married. We’re getting divorced.
LAUREN ANDERSON: Once you’re laughing with people you have a shared experience with them, and people that have shared experiences relax a little bit. They calm down. They feel closer to each other. And when you feel closer and more connected you’re able to discus things in a way that you wouldn’t if you felt isolated.
SUMMARY: Pioneering comic Jonathan Winters brought his own brand of wild, improvisational stand-up to television in the 1950s, and continued to perform for nearly five decades. Winters died Thursday at the age of 87. Jeffrey Brown remembers the comedian with a look back at his career and an interview excerpt with Jim Lehrer from 1999.
