October 31, 2024 • 24 mins
Award-winning comedian, writer, and producer Roger Kabler discusses his new documentary, "Being Robin," available to stream on Amazon and Apply TV on November 5th!
The spirit of Robin Williams comes roaring into the life of a sensitive artist named Roger, who finds himself questioning his sanity. Nonetheless, it mounts a hysterical live tribute to the beloved comic. "Being Robin" is a documentary following actor and comedian Roger Kabler, who believes Robin Williams' spirit visited him. The film explores Kabler's mental health journey through spiritual connection, homage, and inspiration. Driven by his experiences, Kabler created a popular stage tribute to Williams, blending documentary footage with reenactments to capture the humor and poignancy of Williams' legacy.
The spirit of Robin Williams comes roaring into the life of a sensitive artist named Roger, who finds himself questioning his sanity. Nonetheless, it mounts a hysterical live tribute to the beloved comic. "Being Robin" is a documentary following actor and comedian Roger Kabler, who believes Robin Williams' spirit visited him. The film explores Kabler's mental health journey through spiritual connection, homage, and inspiration. Driven by his experiences, Kabler created a popular stage tribute to Williams, blending documentary footage with reenactments to capture the humor and poignancy of Williams' legacy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Jam Rice Show, All about Movies.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You're listening to The Jam Proy Show, All about Movies,
and today my guest is median and documentary filmmaker Roger Habler,
and we're discussing a fascinating documentary entitled Being Robin. Welcome
to the show.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Roger to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I keep wanting to call you Robin, So I'm sorry
forget it happens. I know, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It's a weird coincidence, and get I get that. It's okay.
I don't go around acting like Robin much unless I
get unless he grabs me, and you know that that
happens sometimes.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, well you do look remarkably like him. There's no
doubt about that. So that's also fascinating. So you are affine,
definite doppelganger for sure. Let the audience know what Being
Robin is all about before we really get into a
documentary is out. Why don't you tell the audience what
Being Robin shamelin promotion.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
It's based on a true event that happens in my life.
I believe it was a spiritual event coupled with I'm bipolar.
So the therapist I was working with at the times,
this sounds like you're having some delusions, and I didn't know.
I still don't. I think that's the mystery of the movie.
So what happened was when real quickly I had been
out of show business for a number of years. I
was retired. I'm a painter. I do portraits and stuff.
And Robin Williams passed in twenty fourteen, and shortly after
(01:20):
I felt this overwhelming sense of his presence around me
and in me, and I started to behave that way.
And I had quite a dark spiritual experience with his passing,
and it was very shocking and I was scared. And
then it got funny and silly, and he would be
like grabbing my paint brushes and my girlfriend, and I
was like, whoa. I didn't understand, and I still really
(01:40):
don't what he was doing. But I threw him out
and I said, you can't be here. I don't know
what you want from me. And I threw him out,
and I recognized that he wanted more stage time, like
any comedian, but he's a spirit and I'm like, Okay,
I'm deluded, this is not happening. But then I thought,
if it is happening, who am I to deny Robin Williams,
so I wrote a show with him over my shoulder,
tell him what was funny what wasn't. We'd been doing
(02:02):
the show for ten years, and somewhere in the middle
of the run, I started filming the shows and I
built a movie around it based on my experience with
his spirit. And oddly enough, it took six years to
make the movie, and it's had a fascinating journey because
people are very moved by it. I don't know what
I was trying to do, but all of a sudden
there's a tension on it by a lot of lookie loose,
(02:23):
like what is this? It's not immediately apparent what it is.
So I'm happy about that. Is that it your question?
Our time is up? Thank you? How much money have
we raised?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Well? It is a remarkable documentary, and I was curious
about how you went about film it, for sure, But really,
you do believe in the audience does believe when we're
watching this film that you are Robin Williams reincarnated. There's
no doubt. You look so much like him, and your
(02:55):
performances are like him, and it's just for all of
us who were huge Robin Williams who were all devastated
when he passed away. So, yeah, you know you're bringing
us hope and cheer and happiness.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Well, that was my original intent to bring people together,
and I think it does. There's a darker side to it,
which is that we get to grieve together. And some
people said it's the beginning of closure, because myself included.
I watched the video of him the other day and
I started crying because it's one of the biggest losses
of my life. And I never met him. You've seen
me doing him on TV. And I got back to
me before he passed that he really liked what I did,
(03:28):
so I know he was aware of me. But the
process was I don't remember the question. I'm in the week.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Okay, you can just go It's all right, Okay, Janet.
Just how he be, how you decided to film this?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Okay, Yeah, that's getting back on the road. Went off
roading as usual. It's like bipolar, this can happen to you.
Oh there's another person here, come on in. It's actually
I'd like to do a political announcement. I answer the questions.
(04:01):
I was fascinated by what was happening, not just to me.
But for me, because I had been out of show business,
I grieved the loss of my career to drugs, alcohol
and bipolar. I was out. I couldn't do it anymore
under the skin for it. So I'm a painter. And
so when this happened, and I had said no a
number of times to doing anything that had to do
with show business because it really almost killed me, here
(04:22):
was a chance to help Robin in some weird way
and to be able to come back as a sober
person and sober for twenty one years and not have
a bad experience. So going out there on stage, I
just felt him escaping the confinement of not being a performer.
And for myself it was a dance of joy and
freedom in front of six hundred people and at a
(04:45):
casino in California, and I just felt Robin flying and
enjoying the laughter and experiencing what it was like to
go back on stage. I think he does experience things
through me. And I did the film when I did
it because I didn't know how else to rest my
experience other than on stage. And I thought about doing
a play of it, like on Broadway, kind of a
play with me I and Robin and going back and forth.
(05:07):
But the makeup wasn't there, and I really needed to
be able to see what I look like in the makeup.
So the film came around the same time as COVID.
I said, well, if I die from COVID, you know,
because before we had shots and medicine, I thought, I'm
not going to have a chance to do something of
depth and weight. In my career. It was always like nonsense.
Even though I was like on the camera, burnead show
and stuff, I didn't get to do something. So I
(05:28):
started compiling materials during COVID. Really actually I started writing
it and putting scenes together before COVID and hired a
crew to shoot a trailer. I'm going to try to
make my answers a little less lolomulence.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
No no, no, no, no, that's what it's radio.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
You're tuning in love it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I love it with my guests tuning. I mean when
it go and you know, and are excited and passionate
about what they're doing, and then they keep talking and everything.
So you're good, You're really good.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
So many good things about your show, and it's so
much up my all. If you want to take a
deep dive into the psychology or the nuts and bolts.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I'm all there, Yeah, well, let's let's let's talk about that.
Let's get at it, because you know this was a
toll on you obviously. Also you know it wasn't just
you know.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I have it slipt week and months. Yeah no, So.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Let's talk about that because you did try to, you know,
say hey, no, we're not going to do this, and
then for whatever reason, he kept being persistent. His spirit
today it was very persistent, and you finally gave into it.
What's that like for you psychologically? You know when this
all came about. Because I do believe that people can
definitely that's the right word I'm looking for, you know,
(06:41):
with spirits, that they can can.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Scandel or commune with spirits immune.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And can people can you know, speak with them. I
that's you know, one of the things that I do
believe can happen.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
You had some experience with that personally? Has that happened?
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Not anybody that I know, No, I have not from
the table, but I have seen you know, I'll be honest,
I've seen some psychics and they have been like right
on with people who have passed.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I mean like so right on it was like, you know,
it was definitely like, Wow, there's no doubt in my
mind that you have actually you have brought in this person.
So yes, I guess in that respect.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yet I really want to be clear to anybody who's listening,
and everybody who's listening, I'm not out to prove and
I never was to prove anything. We're very careful with
the wording in this film. Although I did feel possessed
for five minutes of him completely. I lost myself completely
during that initial experience, and I have in other times
(07:38):
and I've been on stage, I feel like I'm I'm
somewhere else and he's I don't even remember the show.
It's like disassociation. But I am not trying to prove anything,
And that is why I have refused to go to
psychics or mediums, even though I deeply believe in that
stuff and it's good for anybody who wants to do it.
But I really rather enjoy the mystery of this experience
(08:01):
and not knowing. And I had this scene in the
movie about having this conversation with Robin and saying, you know,
after everything you said and done, are you really here?
And he goes why do you have to know? And
I said, it's happened. I'm putting so much energy into this.
I'd like to know. And he goes, well, i'll tell you.
If you found out that it was real, you'd have
all these scientists chasing after you at the comedy clubs
(08:24):
with scalpels and microscopes trying to figure you out. And
if it's not real, you've publicly humiliated both of us.
So why do you have to know? I said, will
you tell me? Could you tell me the truth? Just
between you and me? Do you know? He goes, I
don't know either, And that part is in the movie,
(08:47):
and I have to say that is the absolute truth
of this film, is that I'm dealing with a spirit
that doesn't even know if he's here any more than
I know if he's here. That's the whole mystique of
the film. And it's done in a funny way. It's like,
I don't know if I'm here. I'm crazy. How do
I freaking know? You know, what's the reality? I don't know?
(09:11):
Enjoy it, go for the.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Ride exactly, But that's the whole thing. Anyhow, what's real
and what's really? You know, what's reality? And what's the illusion,
you know in life? I mean that's really that there's
that dimension right there, you know. And uh, I have
had that experience where I have been no not anybody
possessed me or anything, but I have done, you know,
(09:34):
speak speeches publicly and I kind of just ask Holy
Spirit to kind of speak through me, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
And there are times and I have no idea what
I have said. It just like you're saying. So it
is like spirit is coming, you know. However, we want
to look at that, you know, well.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
I think the gist of it, I'm going to put
my glasses on for a minute. Gain The gist of
it is when we open ourselves up and become available
to the muse or the spirit and be willing to
allow things to go through without trying to control everything,
including the script. We are a channel things move through us.
(10:14):
I can't even believe what I just said. I finished
the whole sentence and there were some big words in
there too, And I'm an idiot. How did that even happen?
Because of what you're saying, and it's wonderful. And I
think artists, actors, writers, painters all when they're in that
zone of being allowed to be open. Amazing stuff happened.
(10:36):
I don't remember doing it.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And he froze up a little bit there.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Roger over, Sorry, I just said I don't remember doing it.
The show, the painting, something goes through you, like you
were saying in your speech, and where do you go
during that time you're just observing or you're just enjoying it, or.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
What happens right exactly?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Oh no, it's not rhetorical. I'm asking you, asking me.
I'm putting the tables on you again. I'm curious.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Oh you're the table on me.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Okay, yeah, I'm sure your listeners and viewers would like
to know what goes on with you.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Ja. Well, you know, I think you're just you're you're
You're still present, but it's just like something's happening. It's
things exactly right. Things are coming out of your mouth
that you you know, you afterward to go. I have
no idea what I said, you know, but people responded
to what I had to say, so that was you know,
(11:31):
that's the positive thing, and you know, and I felt
good about what I have said.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
That's the gift. Yes, yeah, it works the other way
with some people too, they're just not aware that they're
being offensive, or they're not paying attention, or they're not
keened into anything or anybody that's in front of them.
They're not paying attention to their audience watching when yawn,
look at their watch skowl. You have to stay tuned
(11:55):
into your audience, right, Yes you do. Yes, it's a
dialogue in any.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Case, Yeah, you definitely do.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
The thing is with this movie. We showed a preview
of a rough cut a couple of years ago and
I ran into somebody who I didn't know said they
attended it, and they talked about the movie for hours afterwards,
and I said, that's not bad. I'm glad because most
of the movies I see, I'm like, what did I
just see? Unless it's a really good movie that affects you.
(12:23):
But they were caught up in the mystery, like this thing.
Is it a spiritual event? This is a mental thing?
Is it both? Is it my desire to somehow keep
Robbing alive because I loved him so much as a
human being that I got to somehow keep him alive?
And that is I think part of it too, to
the point where I couldn't stop being.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
That and you didn't try to stop now that are
you still continuing your performances.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I have a gig tomorrow Friday. You know, it's it's
not something I had planned or wanted. I said no
number of times. And there are people that said, you're
just cashing in on Robin's death. You're casting it on
Robin Williams. Did you talk to his family? And I
could defend myself, but the real answer is I didn't
plan this. It wasn't anything I wanted. Robin came and
(13:13):
clabored me over the heart with this, and at some
point I could no longer say no. I said, I surrendered.
I said, okay, you want to upend my life, my sobriety,
I'll give it a shot. And it really worked and
it's taken its toll this movie. My sister said, this
movie is killing you, is not killing me, but look
my eyes. I said, I'm going it's totally worth it
(13:38):
because we've got social media, We've got a million and
a half, you know, hits and twenty thousand fans and
all this controversy going on around the movie, and now
it's on It's on pre sale now on Apple TV
and it'll go on Amazon on November fifth. Thank god,
it's on the same day as the election, because you
(13:58):
know it'll be around for a while. But it's created
a stir that I wasn't expecting. This was never supposed
to be a Hollywood movie. I made it for me
and my friends and for Robin. I said, Robin, I
want to do this, but you know, I don't have
the means to make a big I'm not taking it
to Hollywood because if you took it to Hollywood, it
(14:20):
could end up on the shelf, like so many films
right right to happen. And if I was going to
make a movie about Robin Williams, I wanted to be
the one out there. It's the only movie made about
Robin Williams. And there's been a couple of great documentaries
about him. You should see Come Into My Mind and
Robin's Wish, which is a movie about his widow, Susan Starter.
(14:41):
They're both beautiful films.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Has Susan seen it this movie?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Oh, you don't know.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I've left the Williams people alone.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Okay, so the children.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I could have had lunch with Zach as all this
son a few weeks ago in la and I don't
know if he knows about me. We have a mutual friend,
and I said, look, if the movie gets big and
they know about it, I'd love to sit down and
talk to them about what it is. I think they
do know about it. I've been doing the show for
ten years. If they had any problem about it, I
think they would have approached me. But the movie is
kind hearted. It's a love letter to Robin. There's enough disparaging.
(15:15):
I went through it with thousands of dollars with my
lawyer to make sure we were good. So legally there's
no vision. There's no pictures or movies, clips or voice
of Robin and the movie at all. It's all me
and makeup. I experienced his death and that may be
a little tender for anybody close to him, but I've
had the support of some of his friends. You don't
know how I did approach his family with a letter
(15:37):
before I shot the film. I said, I'm doing this,
and you know we're not using his pictures at all,
and I'm doing it with love and respect. And they
didn't get back to me. The only thing I got
back was from his widow, which was I'm too busy
with my own film, leave me alone. I don't care
what you do.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
So I guess that's good. I guess that's good. I'm
sure they will be hearing that. I have to comment
on something Roger. Through this interview. There has been behind
you continually flashes light and it was a cross spirit. Actually,
it just like the spirit behind you that keeps coming yep,
(16:15):
right there, you know, and it just keeps flickering.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Those are cars. And I do this light through my
head thing intentionally so I can look more festive as
a human being. This is all set up, but the
truth of it is chance. I dig in these local dumps.
This town was founded in seventeen fifteen, and I find
really cool bottles and stuff in the ground, very cool,
most of this stuff. Here's a toy soldier from World
(16:41):
War One. Wow iron, And I find some really here's
a Medison light bulb. This has been in the ground
for over one hundred something years.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Where do you live, Actually this one may not be
that old. I live in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, so there's all
this old.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Oh kind of old things.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
That's what I do when I'm not and I have
to go to the woods into nature, and that's where
I hang out with Robin, we do most of rehearsing
in the woods.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
You show that a lot in the film, particularly in
the snow.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
He did a lot in the snow all year round recently.
And there's this bench in a clearing where I go
and he and I sit, just like in Goodwill Hunting,
and we have these talks, and you know, one of
the last talks we've had, because I haven't talked to
him in a bit, I've let go. I think when
the movie was done, there was a letting go. And
(17:32):
one of the last things that he said to me
was that I want my family to see this picture.
And I said, Robin, I'm not contacting your family. They
will have to find their way to it. Because I'm
really glad that you feel that way, because in the beginning,
when I said, Robin, what do you think and he went,
you know the movie, he said, there's moments of greatness,
but it's not what I was thinking. And I kept
(17:54):
working on it, and at some point he said, I'm
really grateful to you for doing this, which is kind
of like departing contestant get a gratitude. And then then
the time a couple of months ago and he said,
I really want my family to see this. And that's
just me maybe in my imagination. But if you're using
your imagination, you're not gonna have Robin Williams criticizing your movie.
(18:14):
He's not going to go I mean, I have mixed
feelings about my own movie, But when I imagine or Robin's
very present in the woods sometimes. I remember one time
I'm just walking and I said, Robin, you want to
rehearse and that's how we did it, and he goes, okay,
I'll take it from here, and I'm like, what is happening, No,
you go ahead, I'll I'm going to work. And I
(18:35):
suddenly was completely free of myself, of my body and
my voice and my face. And I never felt more
other than the time I felt his death, completely separated
from him and just let him go and take me.
It was incredible, but I was a little frightening. And
the other time, one more time, I said, you know
how exhausting this show is to do, and he goes,
(18:56):
you know how difficult it is to come back to
life in your schleppy body.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Sounds like something you would say.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
It was very I can't do his voice because my voice,
my own voice. It's actually a blessing. Just sound like this.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
He said, you have a little laryngitis, for I have
a lot of alias, a lot of laryngitis.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I'm actually having some surgery done on my vocal courts
to get to get back to work. I need to.
I need to have some work done on it. On Halloween,
I'm going to be a mine.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Well you do do that a little bit in the
movie too, So.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yes, well, Robin wasn't mine before you know he did it.
That's his whole presentation. If you look his hands, very splayed,
you know, he does a lot of mine, very prosive.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Oh, everybody, you have to seek this interview out on
YouTube for sure, because you have to see everything that
Roger's doing. That's one thing to listen to it, but
it's another thing. You just that you look right like
you just look like him and there's no makeup there.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Start now, Oh no, when I do a show for
a couple of days, I'm just like, release the toilet paper.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's like weird stuff, and it's just it occurs because
the spirit's so alive in me. And then people are like,
you need to stop now. But it's Halloween and it's
a radio show, it's an interview. Sit Okay, I'm behaving.
Ask the next question quickly, what was.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
The most difficult part of film maintenance?
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Being a director and an actor at the same time,
it's hard to direct yourself. If I had just been
able to be the act I would have been able
to go off and prepare various performance issues. I mean,
the hardest part has been of the whole process, was
dealing with the lawyers and the aggregator, which is the
(20:50):
people who distribute and making the film to their specifications.
So making the film was a breeze. It took me
two years to edit it, though I went through five editors.
That's really hard to edit something, to find your composition,
to find this way of telling a story in shards,
because there's only one long scene it goes for about
(21:12):
three minutes. The rest of them are these little shards
like a kaleidoscope. As one critic put it's very kaleidoscopic.
You get these little bites and like somebody who's bipolar,
like myself, you have these brief moments and like Robin
has these little tiny plays and they're over like that.
And they wanted the movie to feel like that and
the difficulty wasn't being an actor and a director. But
(21:36):
the beautiful thing about the film is that it doesn't
look like anything else. It's genre fluid. There are some
beautiful shots of the landscape and four K, very expensive
camera work cut into these sort of grainy, blurry vintage
shots of me performing or as a child. There's one
shot that's completely on a telephone. But if you have
(21:58):
a movie that's completely shot in okay, you see this
beautiful thing. But if you have a movie and you
don't know what's coming next visually or sonically, then you
are waiting for the next thing. So there's this sort
of intentional idea of giving people these surprises constantly and
basting them in what the hell. My favorite moment in
my show is when I look out at these silence
(22:20):
in the audience and go, this is my favorite part.
When you're all looking at me, going what the hell
is this? But they're riveted as critics that they called it. Roger.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
I can continue to talk to you further, but time
is up. But that's how the audience again, where they
can see being.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
It's available for pre order. Now I knew I had
this on Apple TV. You can pre order it today
and then the rest of the channels, which you'll be Amazon, Google,
and I think Xbox. I didn't know it was a game,
but I guess you could play V Robin Xbox, my
(23:00):
Soft and there's a couple other ones that don't remember
their names. But that's coming out all of that November fifth,
which is election day, so you can watch our democracy
blow up, or you can watch Being Robin.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
You may have to find someplace to laugh after the election,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I may want to wait till after.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I mean, you know, well, what a pleasure to have
you on this show. I wish you much success with
Being Robin, and everybody seek it out. If you're a
Robert Robin William's fan and loved him as much as
we both do, you have you have to, you know,
find this movie. You definitely have to find it. And
he was bulloved by everyone. I don't think he had
(23:41):
anybody who didn't love him, So thank you.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
I agree, And I just want to say thank you
to you and everybody that's listening who loves Robin. Thank
you so much for supporting this little film. It means
a lot to me. It means the world give me
a chance.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Welcome, Thank you so much. I have a blessed you too.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Jan Royce Show All About Movies,
The Jam Rice Show, All about Movies.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You're listening to The Jam Proy Show, All about Movies,
and today my guest is median and documentary filmmaker Roger Habler,
and we're discussing a fascinating documentary entitled Being Robin. Welcome
to the show.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Roger to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I keep wanting to call you Robin, So I'm sorry
forget it happens. I know, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It's a weird coincidence, and get I get that. It's okay.
I don't go around acting like Robin much unless I
get unless he grabs me, and you know that that
happens sometimes.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, well you do look remarkably like him. There's no
doubt about that. So that's also fascinating. So you are affine,
definite doppelganger for sure. Let the audience know what Being
Robin is all about before we really get into a
documentary is out. Why don't you tell the audience what
Being Robin shamelin promotion.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
It's based on a true event that happens in my life.
I believe it was a spiritual event coupled with I'm bipolar.
So the therapist I was working with at the times,
this sounds like you're having some delusions, and I didn't know.
I still don't. I think that's the mystery of the movie.
So what happened was when real quickly I had been
out of show business for a number of years. I
was retired. I'm a painter. I do portraits and stuff.
And Robin Williams passed in twenty fourteen, and shortly after
(01:20):
I felt this overwhelming sense of his presence around me
and in me, and I started to behave that way.
And I had quite a dark spiritual experience with his passing,
and it was very shocking and I was scared. And
then it got funny and silly, and he would be
like grabbing my paint brushes and my girlfriend, and I
was like, whoa. I didn't understand, and I still really
(01:40):
don't what he was doing. But I threw him out
and I said, you can't be here. I don't know
what you want from me. And I threw him out,
and I recognized that he wanted more stage time, like
any comedian, but he's a spirit and I'm like, Okay,
I'm deluded, this is not happening. But then I thought,
if it is happening, who am I to deny Robin Williams,
so I wrote a show with him over my shoulder,
tell him what was funny what wasn't. We'd been doing
(02:02):
the show for ten years, and somewhere in the middle
of the run, I started filming the shows and I
built a movie around it based on my experience with
his spirit. And oddly enough, it took six years to
make the movie, and it's had a fascinating journey because
people are very moved by it. I don't know what
I was trying to do, but all of a sudden
there's a tension on it by a lot of lookie loose,
(02:23):
like what is this? It's not immediately apparent what it is.
So I'm happy about that. Is that it your question?
Our time is up? Thank you? How much money have
we raised?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Well? It is a remarkable documentary, and I was curious
about how you went about film it, for sure, But really,
you do believe in the audience does believe when we're
watching this film that you are Robin Williams reincarnated. There's
no doubt. You look so much like him, and your
(02:55):
performances are like him, and it's just for all of
us who were huge Robin Williams who were all devastated
when he passed away. So, yeah, you know you're bringing
us hope and cheer and happiness.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Well, that was my original intent to bring people together,
and I think it does. There's a darker side to it,
which is that we get to grieve together. And some
people said it's the beginning of closure, because myself included.
I watched the video of him the other day and
I started crying because it's one of the biggest losses
of my life. And I never met him. You've seen
me doing him on TV. And I got back to
me before he passed that he really liked what I did,
(03:28):
so I know he was aware of me. But the
process was I don't remember the question. I'm in the week.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Okay, you can just go It's all right, Okay, Janet.
Just how he be, how you decided to film this?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Okay, Yeah, that's getting back on the road. Went off
roading as usual. It's like bipolar, this can happen to you.
Oh there's another person here, come on in. It's actually
I'd like to do a political announcement. I answer the questions.
(04:01):
I was fascinated by what was happening, not just to me.
But for me, because I had been out of show business,
I grieved the loss of my career to drugs, alcohol
and bipolar. I was out. I couldn't do it anymore
under the skin for it. So I'm a painter. And
so when this happened, and I had said no a
number of times to doing anything that had to do
with show business because it really almost killed me, here
(04:22):
was a chance to help Robin in some weird way
and to be able to come back as a sober
person and sober for twenty one years and not have
a bad experience. So going out there on stage, I
just felt him escaping the confinement of not being a performer.
And for myself it was a dance of joy and
freedom in front of six hundred people and at a
(04:45):
casino in California, and I just felt Robin flying and
enjoying the laughter and experiencing what it was like to
go back on stage. I think he does experience things
through me. And I did the film when I did
it because I didn't know how else to rest my
experience other than on stage. And I thought about doing
a play of it, like on Broadway, kind of a
play with me I and Robin and going back and forth.
(05:07):
But the makeup wasn't there, and I really needed to
be able to see what I look like in the makeup.
So the film came around the same time as COVID.
I said, well, if I die from COVID, you know,
because before we had shots and medicine, I thought, I'm
not going to have a chance to do something of
depth and weight. In my career. It was always like nonsense.
Even though I was like on the camera, burnead show
and stuff, I didn't get to do something. So I
(05:28):
started compiling materials during COVID. Really actually I started writing
it and putting scenes together before COVID and hired a
crew to shoot a trailer. I'm going to try to
make my answers a little less lolomulence.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
No no, no, no, no, that's what it's radio.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
You're tuning in love it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I love it with my guests tuning. I mean when
it go and you know, and are excited and passionate
about what they're doing, and then they keep talking and everything.
So you're good, You're really good.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
So many good things about your show, and it's so
much up my all. If you want to take a
deep dive into the psychology or the nuts and bolts.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I'm all there, Yeah, well, let's let's let's talk about that.
Let's get at it, because you know this was a
toll on you obviously. Also you know it wasn't just
you know.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I have it slipt week and months. Yeah no, So.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Let's talk about that because you did try to, you know,
say hey, no, we're not going to do this, and
then for whatever reason, he kept being persistent. His spirit
today it was very persistent, and you finally gave into it.
What's that like for you psychologically? You know when this
all came about. Because I do believe that people can
definitely that's the right word I'm looking for, you know,
(06:41):
with spirits, that they can can.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Scandel or commune with spirits immune.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And can people can you know, speak with them. I
that's you know, one of the things that I do
believe can happen.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
You had some experience with that personally? Has that happened?
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Not anybody that I know, No, I have not from
the table, but I have seen you know, I'll be honest,
I've seen some psychics and they have been like right
on with people who have passed.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I mean like so right on it was like, you know,
it was definitely like, Wow, there's no doubt in my
mind that you have actually you have brought in this person.
So yes, I guess in that respect.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yet I really want to be clear to anybody who's listening,
and everybody who's listening, I'm not out to prove and
I never was to prove anything. We're very careful with
the wording in this film. Although I did feel possessed
for five minutes of him completely. I lost myself completely
during that initial experience, and I have in other times
(07:38):
and I've been on stage, I feel like I'm I'm
somewhere else and he's I don't even remember the show.
It's like disassociation. But I am not trying to prove anything,
And that is why I have refused to go to
psychics or mediums, even though I deeply believe in that
stuff and it's good for anybody who wants to do it.
But I really rather enjoy the mystery of this experience
(08:01):
and not knowing. And I had this scene in the
movie about having this conversation with Robin and saying, you know,
after everything you said and done, are you really here?
And he goes why do you have to know? And
I said, it's happened. I'm putting so much energy into this.
I'd like to know. And he goes, well, i'll tell you.
If you found out that it was real, you'd have
all these scientists chasing after you at the comedy clubs
(08:24):
with scalpels and microscopes trying to figure you out. And
if it's not real, you've publicly humiliated both of us.
So why do you have to know? I said, will
you tell me? Could you tell me the truth? Just
between you and me? Do you know? He goes, I
don't know either, And that part is in the movie,
(08:47):
and I have to say that is the absolute truth
of this film, is that I'm dealing with a spirit
that doesn't even know if he's here any more than
I know if he's here. That's the whole mystique of
the film. And it's done in a funny way. It's like,
I don't know if I'm here. I'm crazy. How do
I freaking know? You know, what's the reality? I don't know?
(09:11):
Enjoy it, go for the.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Ride exactly, But that's the whole thing. Anyhow, what's real
and what's really? You know, what's reality? And what's the illusion,
you know in life? I mean that's really that there's
that dimension right there, you know. And uh, I have
had that experience where I have been no not anybody
possessed me or anything, but I have done, you know,
(09:34):
speak speeches publicly and I kind of just ask Holy
Spirit to kind of speak through me, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
And there are times and I have no idea what
I have said. It just like you're saying. So it
is like spirit is coming, you know. However, we want
to look at that, you know, well.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
I think the gist of it, I'm going to put
my glasses on for a minute. Gain The gist of
it is when we open ourselves up and become available
to the muse or the spirit and be willing to
allow things to go through without trying to control everything,
including the script. We are a channel things move through us.
(10:14):
I can't even believe what I just said. I finished
the whole sentence and there were some big words in
there too, And I'm an idiot. How did that even happen?
Because of what you're saying, and it's wonderful. And I
think artists, actors, writers, painters all when they're in that
zone of being allowed to be open. Amazing stuff happened.
(10:36):
I don't remember doing it.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And he froze up a little bit there.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Roger over, Sorry, I just said I don't remember doing it.
The show, the painting, something goes through you, like you
were saying in your speech, and where do you go
during that time you're just observing or you're just enjoying it, or.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
What happens right exactly?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Oh no, it's not rhetorical. I'm asking you, asking me.
I'm putting the tables on you again. I'm curious.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Oh you're the table on me.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Okay, yeah, I'm sure your listeners and viewers would like
to know what goes on with you.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Ja. Well, you know, I think you're just you're you're
You're still present, but it's just like something's happening. It's
things exactly right. Things are coming out of your mouth
that you you know, you afterward to go. I have
no idea what I said, you know, but people responded
to what I had to say, so that was you know,
(11:31):
that's the positive thing, and you know, and I felt
good about what I have said.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
That's the gift. Yes, yeah, it works the other way
with some people too, they're just not aware that they're
being offensive, or they're not paying attention, or they're not
keened into anything or anybody that's in front of them.
They're not paying attention to their audience watching when yawn,
look at their watch skowl. You have to stay tuned
(11:55):
into your audience, right, Yes you do. Yes, it's a
dialogue in any.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Case, Yeah, you definitely do.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
The thing is with this movie. We showed a preview
of a rough cut a couple of years ago and
I ran into somebody who I didn't know said they
attended it, and they talked about the movie for hours afterwards,
and I said, that's not bad. I'm glad because most
of the movies I see, I'm like, what did I
just see? Unless it's a really good movie that affects you.
(12:23):
But they were caught up in the mystery, like this thing.
Is it a spiritual event? This is a mental thing?
Is it both? Is it my desire to somehow keep
Robbing alive because I loved him so much as a
human being that I got to somehow keep him alive?
And that is I think part of it too, to
the point where I couldn't stop being.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
That and you didn't try to stop now that are
you still continuing your performances.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I have a gig tomorrow Friday. You know, it's it's
not something I had planned or wanted. I said no
number of times. And there are people that said, you're
just cashing in on Robin's death. You're casting it on
Robin Williams. Did you talk to his family? And I
could defend myself, but the real answer is I didn't
plan this. It wasn't anything I wanted. Robin came and
(13:13):
clabored me over the heart with this, and at some
point I could no longer say no. I said, I surrendered.
I said, okay, you want to upend my life, my sobriety,
I'll give it a shot. And it really worked and
it's taken its toll this movie. My sister said, this
movie is killing you, is not killing me, but look
my eyes. I said, I'm going it's totally worth it
(13:38):
because we've got social media, We've got a million and
a half, you know, hits and twenty thousand fans and
all this controversy going on around the movie, and now
it's on It's on pre sale now on Apple TV
and it'll go on Amazon on November fifth. Thank god,
it's on the same day as the election, because you
(13:58):
know it'll be around for a while. But it's created
a stir that I wasn't expecting. This was never supposed
to be a Hollywood movie. I made it for me
and my friends and for Robin. I said, Robin, I
want to do this, but you know, I don't have
the means to make a big I'm not taking it
to Hollywood because if you took it to Hollywood, it
(14:20):
could end up on the shelf, like so many films
right right to happen. And if I was going to
make a movie about Robin Williams, I wanted to be
the one out there. It's the only movie made about
Robin Williams. And there's been a couple of great documentaries
about him. You should see Come Into My Mind and
Robin's Wish, which is a movie about his widow, Susan Starter.
(14:41):
They're both beautiful films.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Has Susan seen it this movie?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Oh, you don't know.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I've left the Williams people alone.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Okay, so the children.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I could have had lunch with Zach as all this
son a few weeks ago in la and I don't
know if he knows about me. We have a mutual friend,
and I said, look, if the movie gets big and
they know about it, I'd love to sit down and
talk to them about what it is. I think they
do know about it. I've been doing the show for
ten years. If they had any problem about it, I
think they would have approached me. But the movie is
kind hearted. It's a love letter to Robin. There's enough disparaging.
(15:15):
I went through it with thousands of dollars with my
lawyer to make sure we were good. So legally there's
no vision. There's no pictures or movies, clips or voice
of Robin and the movie at all. It's all me
and makeup. I experienced his death and that may be
a little tender for anybody close to him, but I've
had the support of some of his friends. You don't
know how I did approach his family with a letter
(15:37):
before I shot the film. I said, I'm doing this,
and you know we're not using his pictures at all,
and I'm doing it with love and respect. And they
didn't get back to me. The only thing I got
back was from his widow, which was I'm too busy
with my own film, leave me alone. I don't care
what you do.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
So I guess that's good. I guess that's good. I'm
sure they will be hearing that. I have to comment
on something Roger. Through this interview. There has been behind
you continually flashes light and it was a cross spirit. Actually,
it just like the spirit behind you that keeps coming yep,
(16:15):
right there, you know, and it just keeps flickering.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Those are cars. And I do this light through my
head thing intentionally so I can look more festive as
a human being. This is all set up, but the
truth of it is chance. I dig in these local dumps.
This town was founded in seventeen fifteen, and I find
really cool bottles and stuff in the ground, very cool,
most of this stuff. Here's a toy soldier from World
(16:41):
War One. Wow iron, And I find some really here's
a Medison light bulb. This has been in the ground
for over one hundred something years.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Where do you live, Actually this one may not be
that old. I live in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, so there's all
this old.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Oh kind of old things.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
That's what I do when I'm not and I have
to go to the woods into nature, and that's where
I hang out with Robin, we do most of rehearsing
in the woods.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
You show that a lot in the film, particularly in
the snow.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
He did a lot in the snow all year round recently.
And there's this bench in a clearing where I go
and he and I sit, just like in Goodwill Hunting,
and we have these talks, and you know, one of
the last talks we've had, because I haven't talked to
him in a bit, I've let go. I think when
the movie was done, there was a letting go. And
(17:32):
one of the last things that he said to me
was that I want my family to see this picture.
And I said, Robin, I'm not contacting your family. They
will have to find their way to it. Because I'm
really glad that you feel that way, because in the beginning,
when I said, Robin, what do you think and he went,
you know the movie, he said, there's moments of greatness,
but it's not what I was thinking. And I kept
(17:54):
working on it, and at some point he said, I'm
really grateful to you for doing this, which is kind
of like departing contestant get a gratitude. And then then
the time a couple of months ago and he said,
I really want my family to see this. And that's
just me maybe in my imagination. But if you're using
your imagination, you're not gonna have Robin Williams criticizing your movie.
(18:14):
He's not going to go I mean, I have mixed
feelings about my own movie, But when I imagine or Robin's
very present in the woods sometimes. I remember one time
I'm just walking and I said, Robin, you want to
rehearse and that's how we did it, and he goes, okay,
I'll take it from here, and I'm like, what is happening, No,
you go ahead, I'll I'm going to work. And I
(18:35):
suddenly was completely free of myself, of my body and
my voice and my face. And I never felt more
other than the time I felt his death, completely separated
from him and just let him go and take me.
It was incredible, but I was a little frightening. And
the other time, one more time, I said, you know
how exhausting this show is to do, and he goes,
(18:56):
you know how difficult it is to come back to
life in your schleppy body.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Sounds like something you would say.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
It was very I can't do his voice because my voice,
my own voice. It's actually a blessing. Just sound like this.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
He said, you have a little laryngitis, for I have
a lot of alias, a lot of laryngitis.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I'm actually having some surgery done on my vocal courts
to get to get back to work. I need to.
I need to have some work done on it. On Halloween,
I'm going to be a mine.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Well you do do that a little bit in the
movie too, So.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yes, well, Robin wasn't mine before you know he did it.
That's his whole presentation. If you look his hands, very splayed,
you know, he does a lot of mine, very prosive.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Oh, everybody, you have to seek this interview out on
YouTube for sure, because you have to see everything that
Roger's doing. That's one thing to listen to it, but
it's another thing. You just that you look right like
you just look like him and there's no makeup there.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Start now, Oh no, when I do a show for
a couple of days, I'm just like, release the toilet paper.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's like weird stuff, and it's just it occurs because
the spirit's so alive in me. And then people are like,
you need to stop now. But it's Halloween and it's
a radio show, it's an interview. Sit Okay, I'm behaving.
Ask the next question quickly, what was.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
The most difficult part of film maintenance?
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Being a director and an actor at the same time,
it's hard to direct yourself. If I had just been
able to be the act I would have been able
to go off and prepare various performance issues. I mean,
the hardest part has been of the whole process, was
dealing with the lawyers and the aggregator, which is the
(20:50):
people who distribute and making the film to their specifications.
So making the film was a breeze. It took me
two years to edit it, though I went through five editors.
That's really hard to edit something, to find your composition,
to find this way of telling a story in shards,
because there's only one long scene it goes for about
(21:12):
three minutes. The rest of them are these little shards
like a kaleidoscope. As one critic put it's very kaleidoscopic.
You get these little bites and like somebody who's bipolar,
like myself, you have these brief moments and like Robin
has these little tiny plays and they're over like that.
And they wanted the movie to feel like that and
the difficulty wasn't being an actor and a director. But
(21:36):
the beautiful thing about the film is that it doesn't
look like anything else. It's genre fluid. There are some
beautiful shots of the landscape and four K, very expensive
camera work cut into these sort of grainy, blurry vintage
shots of me performing or as a child. There's one
shot that's completely on a telephone. But if you have
(21:58):
a movie that's completely shot in okay, you see this
beautiful thing. But if you have a movie and you
don't know what's coming next visually or sonically, then you
are waiting for the next thing. So there's this sort
of intentional idea of giving people these surprises constantly and
basting them in what the hell. My favorite moment in
my show is when I look out at these silence
(22:20):
in the audience and go, this is my favorite part.
When you're all looking at me, going what the hell
is this? But they're riveted as critics that they called it. Roger.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
I can continue to talk to you further, but time
is up. But that's how the audience again, where they
can see being.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
It's available for pre order. Now I knew I had
this on Apple TV. You can pre order it today
and then the rest of the channels, which you'll be Amazon, Google,
and I think Xbox. I didn't know it was a game,
but I guess you could play V Robin Xbox, my
(23:00):
Soft and there's a couple other ones that don't remember
their names. But that's coming out all of that November fifth,
which is election day, so you can watch our democracy
blow up, or you can watch Being Robin.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
You may have to find someplace to laugh after the election,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I may want to wait till after.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I mean, you know, well, what a pleasure to have
you on this show. I wish you much success with
Being Robin, and everybody seek it out. If you're a
Robert Robin William's fan and loved him as much as
we both do, you have you have to, you know,
find this movie. You definitely have to find it. And
he was bulloved by everyone. I don't think he had
(23:41):
anybody who didn't love him, So thank you.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
I agree, And I just want to say thank you
to you and everybody that's listening who loves Robin. Thank
you so much for supporting this little film. It means
a lot to me. It means the world give me
a chance.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Welcome, Thank you so much. I have a blessed you too.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Jan Royce Show All About Movies,
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