Paul Feig, best known for his hilarious Bridesmaids movie, revealed that the beloved Robin Williams ruined his chance at a stand-up career.
If you’ve not watched the film, you’ve certainly missed out. It’s got Kristen Wiig, it’s got Melissa McCarthy, it’s got it Maya Rudolf... It’s really got it all.
The brains behind such a funny flick is none other than Feig, a big-time Hollywood director who has hits under his belt such as The Office and the new Ghostbusters reboot, so you know he’s funny enough to be a comedian, right?
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Well, that could have been his path in life had the late comedian Williams not sabotaged his career ‘a couple of times’.
It all began when Feig attempted to break into the Los Angeles scene, where Jay Leno, Williams and Jerry Seinfeld dominated.
Feig claimed that Williams would want to perform an unscheduled set, which would then cut into his own time.
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Feig told Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his podcast, Dinner’s on Me: “I got sabotaged by Robin Williams a couple of times when I finally got to be a performer at The Improv.
“I still wasn’t one of the main guys so I’d have a later spot. I remember like, once it was my time to get up, there was a full audience and I was so excited and they come up like, 'Oh, Robin just wants to get up and do a quick set first' and I’m like, 'cool'.”
That’s when Williams took to the stage and ended up pushing back Feig’s time in the show, and when Williams had finished, the audience left.
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Feig shared: “He did an hour and he finished and everybody left except for one woman who was waiting for her husband to come back from the bathroom.”
However, it’s not uncommon for this to happen in the comedic scene.
Even Dave Chappelle did an impromptu half an hour set at the Carolines on Broadway because he was visiting his Chappelle’s Show co-star Charlie Murphy in 2009.
Seinfeld does the same in New York’s comedy clubs to test out new material on unsuspecting fans. It’s like an art.
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Feig said he didn’t want to rustle weathers of club owners in Tinseltown, and so didn’t make a fuss when Williams interrupted his set.
He said: “You were so held hostage, if you will, by The Improv and The Comedy Store because those were the... that’s the place.
"That’s where you’re going to get discovered, that’s where you’re going to be a big shot so you had to do anything to stay in their good graces, to impress them.”
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However, that’s not why he left that aspiration behind.
It was also because he was ‘losing the spark for it’ and didn’t want to be a ‘miserable’ guy doing comedy.
It definitely paid off because now he’s worth a whopping $35 million, according to recent figures, and that’s not a small amount of cash.
Maybe Williams provided a blessing in disguise for the director?
Williams sadly took his own life in 2014 at the age of 63, but he continues to be remembered and loved for not only his work in television, but also for his memorable kindness.
Topics: Robin Williams, Film and TV, Celebrity
Britt Jones