Robin Williams Thief? Bitter Comedian Rivalries Bared In New Book

In the upcoming book "Comedy at the Edge," which chronicles the rise of stand-up in the 1970s, David Brenner tells author Richard Zoglin he once threatened to attack Robin Williams for stealing his material and using it on HBO. Calling up Williams' agent, Brenner warned, "Tell Robin if he ever takes one more line from me, I'll rip his leg off and shove it up his [bleep]!" Williams tells Zoglin he was simply "sampling" material from others.

Richard Belzer, who plays Det. John Munch on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," was perceived as lazy and full of himself by other comics when he would play at Catch a Rising Star. Paul Reiser told the author, "There were nights people would feel very entitled - I'm a big shot and [bleep] you. A lot of near-fistfights. Belzer was one of those guys who was very indulged. He was given the run of the house, whether high or drunk." Added Bill Maher: "I never once saw [Belzer] do a set sober."

Read more book details here

Comments

[Trittydi]

Are we supposed to take any of the headlines in this section seriously?
*

[WigWamWag]

They are just bits of filler material from a news feed such as AP and UPI. Articles are clearly cherry picked by the editors. The objective may be to keep the reader interested, not educated.

[DanOregon]

Anybody know if there is a comedy data base so if you come up with a funny bit you can be sure someone else hasn't thought of it before?

[WigWamWag]

The people in the business study the history of the jokes and many of them know the basic origination.

A fresh new joke is hard to find.

Just listen to Letterman. Leno and other comics, they depend heavily upon staff writers and stupid musical sidekicks. Some of the writers, especially Letterman's, are very weak and obviously uncreative. It becomes the same old slop day after day.

There only one current master of improvisation, that is Robin Williams.

The ever-mugging chicky monkey Craig Ferguson (late late show on CBS) is good too. Check him out.

[StealthisBlog]

Probably the closest to a searchable database would have to be Robert Orben's Comedy Newsletter. Not sure if it is still published but their files must have been astounding!

[nalevansky]

why no mention of Dennis Leary. Perhaps the cruelest thief of all? yes, Mort Sahl, a giant among pygmies. David Brenner?

[GhostofBillHicks]

Denis Leary ripped off Bill Hicks BIG TIME.From his smoking bits to his "fake" assassination that Bill did at the end of his act(they show just how obvious Learys "theft" was on a YOUTUBE clip). I wish Hicks was still alive,he would show these guys how its done.Bill would tear BushCo. a new one,he was FEARLESS!
Bill Hicks,another dead hero.Wish you were here,man.

[emerger]

What's the difference? Did Leary ever make YOU laugh. I couldn't stand his BS tough-guy delivery. It was like force-feeding punchlines.
Good thing for Leary that Adam Sandler came along to wear the crown of most undeserving 'comedian' of all-time.

[Alvin4NY]

The funniest thing I can think of regarding Dennis Leary is that he shared an apartment with Mario Cantone. Now that would be a funny sitcom.

[srvblooze]

For my money, Belzer is not now, nor has he ever been, funny.

[Steamboater]

Agreed. Belzer is abore.

[YellowPanties]

I like Richard Belzer and think he's both funny and clever.

[kingofscotts]

Don't forget dumb as a rock.

[pelosiforpresident]

You can't own a joke.

[cuthbertallgood]

You can if you write that joke. Just like anything else that a person writes, it is intellectual property.

[kingofscotts]

Your screen name and your post match perfectly!

[WigWamWag]

You can own a joke if it is copyrights protected. That does not mean that it will be totally protected from everyone who is a whoring thief. Enforcing the copyrights protection is the hard part. You will need a good lawyer.

Two years of my creative work went up in smoke. A bad agent who striped out what he wanted and sold it to different buyers under his own name ripped off eighty five percent of my fist book. The FBI eventually caught up with him. He only went to jail for 5 years for stealing the intellectual property of many others. I know other writers that have had their material stolen without compensation or recognition.

It is a strange feeling to hear your own words coming out of some else's mouth. Some times the thief is so clueless that they actually have forgotten where they obtained it and may even think they come up with the material themselves. If the theft is intentional, it may be a felony.

In the case of Robin Williams using Richard's material, it is my guess that Belzer probably stole the original material from someone else. Did Richard Belzer formally copy write his material under legal guidelines? Based on stage and camera performances one is left to wonder if Richard Belzer actually ever had ANY material or a viable standup act.

That is any easy supposition since he drunken Belzer has NO SENSE OF HUMOR.

What ever jokes Robin tells they are a big improvement over anything sloshing around in Richard Belzer’s crude brain.

[InternationalObserver]

I'm no comic, but often when watching stand-up I'm thinking: "that would be funnier if you said it this way" and "you could double the zing by adding this line" .... I'm not surprised comics steal. No-one minds hip hop artists "sampling". Maybe they should pay royalties on jokes borrowed?

[WigWamWag]

Correction: Some of the origional artists do mind hip hop artists "sampling". It is the same as stealing. Maybe they should pay royalties on jokes stolen? Yes just like stealing music. Paying for the right to use the material would be a small start and it is often the only legal option.

[metaphysicist]

you think the funny people have it bad...

you should see NASCAR!!!

[OhDear]

"David Brenner never had material. Robin does not even need writers. Brenner is just making the accusation so his name and Robins appear in the same sentence."

Well, no -- he has been accused by just about everyone. Ask any comic.

[Steamboater]

Put a wig on Brenner and he looks like Streisand in drag.

[WigWamWag]

Put a wig on Richard Belzer and he looks like Rudy G. in drag....only meaner than being pissed off...

Now that's funny (Larry the cable guy voice).

Sorry Steamboater I couldn't resist stealing and modifing your joke. Please do not sue me.

(Larry the cable guy voice again). Lord knows that's not right, help those poor starving pigmies in Africa. Git er done!

[radlib1]

Robin Williams is a genius. Richard Belzer is not.

[kitchenrat]

belzer: "you know how storks walk? if people walked like that, what would a chair look like?" way beyond williams if it were the only bit he ever did.

[BadChristian]

"There's a Terrorist In My Soup"
David Brenner?


"In this age of terror, David Brenner is dishing out large spoonfuls o flaughs. We need him, and by writing this book Brenner is thumbing his prominent nose directly at Al Queda."
- Bill O'Reilly

http://www.davidbrenner.net/book.html

This one is bound to do better... Looks like he's dropping more names.

[abbiehoffmansghost]

Read the whole thing and you'll see that Elayne Boosler left a gig because Emo Phillips opened and she didn't like his act. Fuck Elayne, Emo's the man. He's a funny man and I miss Diane Ford as well.

[gretchenart]

I will never forget the night I met Elayne Boosler--I was actually escorted into a comedy party by Robin Williams by chance, saw her at the party and told her how much I liked her Philadelphia show I had seen the year before. She stuck her nose in the air, looked down on me like I was a piece of shit under her shoe, grunted and turned on her heel and hurried in the other direction.
To this day I will not go anywhere near Elayne Boosler, don't read her posts on Huffpost, and think, quite frankly, she is an arrogant. self-righteous nobody who thinks she is better than her public, not realizing that if her public turns on her, she will have no more career in the blink of an eye!

[WebHubbleTelescope]

That's pathetic. Within the past few months I heard Elayne give kudos to Emo on the radio. She mentioned in particular one joke that Emo did during one of his "Joke Shredder" routines:

"The strangest thing just happened -- I found the mailman's head in the toilet bowl. It was weird because it was Sunday."

Elayne said it was the funniest thing she had heard in a while. So much for the book's authenticity.

[cuthbertallgood]

Hey if you like Emo Phillips, do you know 'Meet the Parents' was based on a short film he did? Yes it is true. $$ for Emo.

[martinchill]

i used to hang a microphone over the t.v. and record the pryor movies and HBO and Showtime comedy sets on 8-track when i was a kid... carlin, williams, tim thomerson, gary muledeer, robert klein, david steinberg... and belzer and brenner.

did they ALL do coke?

[peepeeray]

Belzer's just mad because all the networks passed on his idea in the early 70s about a space alien (Mack From Ack) who shacks up with a earthling woman in Minnetonka. He had a stupid skit about it, going around in suspenders and saying dumb spacey things like Yanoo Yanoo! and Shizfut! What a dope.