I just love me some Robin Williams, I find him oddly sexy and very funny. So this would come as no surprise to you that when he came to Cleveland I went to his show and seduced him afterward… with a little help from my friends, duct tape, and chloroform.
My story begins many, many years ago, I was a senior in high school. I heard he was coming to the Playhouse with his “Live on Broadway” tour and I was going to go no matter what, and so I started to shop for tickets and put my money aside.
I was working at the theatre and I had mentioned this to a few of my friends who were also excited and wanted us to all go as a group. It took me a while to agree because originally I was going to get the best seats possible but I decided going as a group would be fun and I said I would go.
WELL… as I waited to hear back from everyone, the time was quickly slipping by, I also left this in the hands of someone else to get things together and when I checked into it, the tickets were sold out. I freaked. I should have just gotten tickets by myself and everything would have been ok. I was 18, working two jobs, didn’t have a serious list of real bills yet, and lived with the parents, so I had some $$ to spare.
The Internet wasn’t super popular or was, I don’t remember but I didn’t have the resources to search for tickets. Stubhub or Craigslist had yet to be invented yet, so I cried to my mom who put me in touch with her broker. I still never found out why she had a broker but it was cool, we drove down to his place and made a deal.
I don’t remember what all he had or if he only had the two tickets but he was selling them as a pair for $300, I think that’s what it was, even though face value was $95.00. I didn’t care because I was seeing this show no matter what.
I called my friend Brett and asked if he wanted to go with me, he didn’t have the money but I informed him it was on me. Either he was going or I was going by myself. So it was a date.
April 6th, 2002 rolled around and from the little I remember, I think we were late. I recall parking and running like crazy folk down the dark streets of Cleveland. We had pretty good seats, I believe, we were right on the isle from what I can remember. The ticket read ORCH side X 201 / ORCH4, not really sure what that meant.
Robin’s act was hilarious, I mean tears rolling down my face. I got the CD and I listened to it all the time, pretty much know it by heart. It was my 2nd big comedy show since Whoopi Goldberg the year before, so I was already living the dream.
At some point during the show I screamed “I love you Robin!” and he said something back but I can’t remember what that was, I’m sure if you listened to the live Cleveland tape (if there is one) you could hear Robin and I share a moment.
Anyways… after the show, we went out to the side of the building where there was a small crowd waiting. Since I had met Whoopi the same way, I was pretty sure we would get to see Robin as well, I just didn’t know how I would react.
When he came out, I think instantly I started crying, I’m talking like a baby. I was afraid to approach him, I even wrote a letter for him (which I don’t have a copy of and I’m glad I don’t because I am sure it was horrific). I handed it to security and asked for him to give it to Robin, he agreed but then gave back to me saying “You give it to him yourself”.
I was causing a scene.
After I continued to cry, some lady pushed me up towards Robin, I could hear people saying “Awe” and “how cute” and shyly I made my way to him. He looked at me and smiled, I reached up and touched his face. I know, I know I’m surprised I wasn’t put in a chokehold or something, but everyone including himself, let me do it (His face had that 5 o’clock shadow feel, Mmmm). If we said anything to each other, I don’t remember, did I give him a hug? I don’t know. I handed him the letter, he signed my book, we took the picture and I made my way back to my friend.
I got a picture of my friend and Robin and then a few other random ones, that’s about all I remember of the night.
If you look closely, you can see how red my face was from crying AND if you look just a smidge closer you could see that Robin’s eyes are tearing up too, at least that’s what I’ve been telling myself for years. I think he was genuinely touched, or maybe very frightened.
OK now fast forward to 2009, Robin was back on the road with his “Weapons of Self Destruction” tour and I wanted to go. However, I was getting married that year in Vegas, followed by a big party two weeks later back at home, so like a good girl, I opted out to save the money and focus on the important things in life.
We ended up renting it and liked it a lot, the show started slow and was all political which is not interesting to me at all, but once he got past that, we were rolling in our seats.
OK, now skip forward to September 24th, 2011 when Robin comes back for the third time, but this is a special Cleveland addition. On March 13th, 2011, Mr.Williams underwent heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and as a “thank you” he put on a benefit, a “Heart to Heart with special guest David Steinberg”.
This was not your typical standup comedy show, he and David sat on two chairs opposite each other and just talked. It was very interesting but not as entertaining as I would have liked, however it was Robin and I could watch him all day. I got a few recordings, one in particular of him doing an impression of Jack Nicholson (The love of my fantasy life) but I will have to look for it. I had dragged my husband along and warned him that I was planning on waiting for Robin to come out, he wasn’t the happiest of people but he knew how much it meant to me and thus went along with it.
When the show was over we made our way out back and waited for Robin, good thing it was a nice evening because Robin had a small gathering/dinner and popped out almost two hours later. At one point my husband left and got something to eat, came back and ate in the car.
David Steinberg came out shortly after and before Robin, he pretty much just walked right by everyone. He did stop to let whoever take “one picture” and then darted away and into his car.
Finally, Robin came out and people got excited, it wasn’t a huge crowd and actually most of them were the guys that sell their shit on eBay and of course a few stragglers.
My husband slowly staggered to where the crowd had gathered and took a few random pictures. I slipped back and waited for my turn, one kid asked if he took my picture if I could use my camera to take his picture and email it to him. I agreed since, at this point, Pat was nowhere in sight. When it was finally my turn, I handed Robin my program from the show and I also had our first picture together blown up, in which I wanted him to sign that too.
See how patiently I’m waiting off to the right there? Look at those vultures! Action shot – that’s the back of my head.
Ok, so we are going to pause for a moment and backtrack. I had this planned for weeks and I might have had the day off. I printed out the picture of the two of us from 2002 and wanted to get a silver marker for him to sign since the picture was pretty dark. My laziness kicked in and I didn’t look for a marker or go out and buy one, instead, I waited for my husband to get home. We ended up all over the place looking for a damn silver marker and Mr. Dodge was not very happy anymore, finally, we found some but it was like a pack of 6 and a waste of money (We still have those markers and they are used on occasion).
Back to the present time – So I walk up to Robin and he signs my program and then I hand him the picture and he snags it up and starts to sign it… OH I forgot to mention, he has his own marker and it was blue. I tried to stop him, and he did, looked at me and asked what? But I panicked and was like never mind, he said something and once again I can’t remember what it was so he just finished what he was doing and then prepared to get his picture taken.
You can barely see it but it like stretches to my teeth, I wish I would have had him sign it “To Lauren” but you know me, nervous Nelly. Do you see why I wanted a silver marker now?
At this point, Pat had shown up and was taking some pictures and that kid was also taking the picture, so this is what happened. While I was looking at Pat, Robin was looking at the kid, so both pictures that were taken neither of us had looked at the same camera.
My anxiety set in and I needed to get a better picture, so as he was finishing up and getting ready to walk away, I jumped back in and asked for another picture. I made up a story that it was blurry, Robin stopped looked at me and said “This one will probably be blurry too” and then we took a selfie.
This is like my favorite picture of all time!!
I should have licked his face or shoved my tongue down his throat but my husband was close by AND he was my ride home so I had to play it cool.
I won’t comment on how wasted Robin looked and he acted differently than the last time I met him and by different, I mean more meek and quiet but who am I to judge? He, like before took his time with everyone and for someone with as much star status as himself, I think was very awesome, especially since he didn’t have to.
Would I go see Robin again and try to snag him outback? Ahh Yeah. He is like my #2, I love everything about him…even all the hair on his body.
This was a great experience and I’m glad I got to share it with all of you.
Thank you, means a lot to me for any support that is shown towards my blog and my interests.
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Stalk ya later.
R.I.P. Robin Williams
Thank you for reading!
Robin was such a beautiful and tortured soul. 🙁