Robin Williams Stopped Going to Comedy Clubs So He Wouldnt Steal Jokes After a Furious Comic Threw Him Against a Wall and Demanded $300

Before passing away in 2014, Robin Williams brought joy to many people’s lives with his comedy and witty persona. He used this on screen and flourished in lead roles for films like “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Night of the Museum,” and “Flubber.”

Damon Wayans recently resurfaced some surprising details about Robin Williams’ comedic practices during a recent appearance on “Club Shay Shay.” He revealed that Williams occasionally committed acts of plagiarism by stealing jokes from other comedians. While this may come as a shock to many, there are others who have been aware of Williams’ acts for some time. In a 2010 episode of the “WTF” podcast, the “Jumanji” actor shared that he had to stop attending comedy shows to avoid the temptation of stealing other comedians’ jokes.

Explaining himself, Williams told Marc Maron on the show, “In the old days, if you hung out in comedy clubs, which I was doing almost 24/7, you hear things. And then, if you’re improvising, you’re all of a sudden repeating (jokes) and going, ‘Oh, shi–!’ My brain was working that way.”

It seemingly happened enough times that Williams’ only solution was to stop going to the clubs all together. 

“I had to go through a period when I’m not going to hang out anymore,” he said. “I can’t because I don’t want to be getting into that thing.”

In the 2018 biography, “Robin,” written by author Dave Itzkoff, the not-so-hidden secret about Williams’ theft was publicized in a 1979 Los Angeles Magazine article, where several comedians claimed to be a victim of the budding funnyman. One comedian even made claims that he threw Williams against a wall and demanded $300 on the spot for swiping his material. Another comedian, David Brenner, had harsh words for Williams after falling victim to the “Mork & Mindy” actor one too many times.

“Tell Robin if he ever takes one more line from me, I’ll rip his leg off and shove it up his a–!”  Brenner recalled telling Williams’ agent, according to Richard Zoglin’s 2008 book “Comedy on the Edge.”

Several other comedians have since come forward to speak on Robin Williams, including Joe Rogan and Damon Wayans, who during his April 4 “Club Shay Shay” appearance, dug up the old claims about the beloved actor’s agent often cutting a check on stolen material on the spot.

“Robin would come off stage, and a comedian would be like, ‘Hey, he just took my joke.’ He would write him a check for $75 because he knew Robin was all stream of consciousness and he would steal. He was known. Comedians would go, ‘I’m not going on because Robin’s here,’” he said.

But again this isn’t anything Williams has denied. On the “WTF” podcast, he dubbed himself the “bank of comedy.”

Williams added, “I just paid sh–loads of cash. And then after a while, I went, ‘I bought that line already!’ and I had to pay again. I went, ‘Oh f–k, I’m sorry.’”

John Witherspoon, another late comedian who worked with Wayans’ younger brothers Marlon and Shawn on their show “The Wayans Bros,” confirmed Williams was a joke swiper as well. 

On the “AllOutShow” in 2014, he said that Williams would use other people’s material on his ’70s sitcom “Mork and Mindy.” 

“That’s why he was so funny. He taking everybody’s best material,” he said. 

Another comedian, Joey Camen, told Maron on “WTF,” “He used to steal material. He stole my material. He stole one of my bits and did it on the ‘Mork & Mindy’ pilot. And I got really pissed.”

He went on to add, “And he gave me a check for $300 and told me, ‘Don’t cash it till Tuesday’. I was really f—ing angry at the guy.”

Comedian Richard Lewis didn’t believe Williams was paying comedians what their jokes were worth. 

According to Cracked, he said, “Robin could take a premise or a joke and then go off on it and make it better because he was a genius. But a premise is gold. If a young comic has four, five minutes and he’s going to go on ‘The Tonight Show,’ and all of a sudden, Robin does three of his jokes, he’s f-cked. So, yeah, there’s real reason for some of these people to have tremendous hostility.”

Williams committed suicide in 2014 at age 63. He was initially diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in May, a few months before he passed away. But, in October, about two months after his passing, an autopsy on his brain showed that he was misdiagnosed. The condition he really had was Lewy body dementia. He left behind his third wife, Susan Schneider, and his three adult children from his first two marriages.