Dana Carvey on witnessing a pre-fame Robin Williams perform: ‘He was so confident, completely spontaneous’
Dana Carvey is best known for his performances as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, where he starred for seven seasons between 1986 and 1993, and, of course, for famously playing the role of the loveable Garth Algar in Wayne’s World. When it comes to Carvey’s big inspirations, it’s perhaps unsurprising that he has a soft spot for Robin Williams.
Carvey, reflecting on significant moments in his carer, once explained the first time he ever saw Williams perform, back when Williams was an unknown talent. It was in San Francisco where Carvey first caught wind of a comedy show taking place over the bridge in Berkley, an event that happened to feature a young Robin Williams.
“So I’m like 20, 21,” Carvey said of his first trying to become a big shot actor on the So, How’d You Get Here podcast with Tony Defrancesco and Angelo Restaino. “It seemed like outer space, like trying to be an alien or be on the moon or be President of the United States.”
“I didn’t know anything about it, and I saw something in the local paper,” Carvey continued, “The San Francisco Chronicle, in the entertainment section. It’s a little article about stand-up comedy in Berkeley at the Los Alamandra Café. It’s Saturday night; I skipped San Francisco.”
Carvey decided to hit up the show with two of his friends. “We went into this hippie bakery dive, and there are 20 people in the audience, maybe,” he said. “We’re just sitting there. Comedians are coming up that aren’t famous. I know some of them even to this day.”
The student circuit in Berkeley was a place for young comics to cut their teeth, and Carvey was one of the hopefuls. “They were good but not intimidating,” he said. “I took a paper out of my pocket or a napkin and started making notes on little bits that I would do. They said after the show at 11pm, you could do open mic.”
It was that night that a young man by the name of Robin Williams stole the show, even though he had received just two dollars for his entertainment services. “I had a couple of beers, and I’m waiting,” Carvey continued. “Then this guy comes up, and he’s sort of like, ‘Woah, what’s this?’ He’s moving around the stage; he’s so confident, he seems to be completely spontaneous. He’s not even really on the mic a lot.”
“So I fold up the napkin and put it in my pocket going, ‘Hmm, maybe there’s a lot of this guy.’ It was Robin Williams,” Carvey added. “He was the two-dollar guy. He had stuff like having a beret and holding up and going, ‘Oh, for those of you on acid, this is a frisbee.’ I went up afterwards, and I bombed.”
Evidently, Williams was one hell of a performer to follow.
