The advice from Robin Williams that changed Eric Idle’s life: “that works in all situations”
Oh, to be a fly on the wall for Robin Williams and Eric Idle’s conversations. The two became friends at some point in the midst of their illustrious careers, having appeared together in Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of the Baron Munchausen in 1988. They came from very different spheres of the comedy world. Idle was a member of Monty Python, which remains one of the most (if not the most) influential comedy acts of all time, and he’s known for surrealism, musical satire, and sketch comedy. Williams came from stand-up, and was known for his lightning-fast delivery, improvised tangents and impressions, and razor-sharp observational comedy.
Both men were and continue to be giants in the comedy landscape, and although they embodied different styles of humour, they forged a deep and lasting friendship that endured until Williams’ death in 2014. They went on trips together and worked together once or twice, and Idle has said that the comedian was his closest friend in the industry. When he was asked to speak at Williams’ funeral, he wrote a song for him instead.
Being the absurdly famous celebrities that they were, the two men had more than one opportunity to see how the other responded to fans who came up to them in the wild. Idle quickly realised that his friend had a very different approach to him, and it got him second-guessing his whole mindset. In a conversation with Conan O’Brien on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, Idle explained that, for decades, whenever a fan would come up to him, he would, without fail, tell them to fuck off.
“They would laugh and go away, you know,” he said. “That was good enough for them… and that became a thing.” There is a certain charm about having a Python tell you to eff off. In some ways, it’s almost preferable to having them graciously shake your hand and scribble an autograph. But Idle was touched by how Williams dealt with those situations.
“I watched Robin and his empathy, and remembering that this is somebody’s moment in their life and it’s a big moment in their life,” he said, “Because they love you, they want this moment, so if you are a shit or dismissive, it’s a nasty memory.”
These days, if a fan comes up to Idle, he makes a point of shaking their hand, introducing himself, and making sure to get their name. “Then you’re on a one-to-one human basis with them, and you’re not some kind of god, and they’re not some abject fan,” he explained. “And I think that works in all sorts of situations where you remind people that they’re people and we’re just here at this moment.”
He was a fan of Williams’ comedy, of course, but when he talks about him, it’s clear that Idle admired him most as a person. He tries to emulate his late friend’s approach to fan interaction, but what really sticks with him about Williams is how easily that sort of warmth came to him. “That generosity and kindness – combined with the wit of the man – is not a common combination,” he concluded.
