Toronto: Before the late Robin Williams enthralled television audiences on 'Mork and Mindy' he was a star on the stand-up comedy circuit in the 1980s.
The political satirist Will Durst had the unenviable task of following the master when he debuted at the legendary stand-up comedy club Holy City Zoo in San Francisco, where Williams started his comedic career.
"There were 15, 20 people in the club before (Williams) came on stage. He came on and word went up and down the streets. There were a bunch of nearby bars and everybody left them and wandered over to the Zoo. The place was packed, all the way out to the hall, onto the sidewalk, people were trying to peer in, just to watch him. And I had to follow him. When I hit the stage, it was like a massive movement out, like the great exodus," laughs Durst.
"That was quite a baptism."
Williams and Durst are highlighted in "3 Still Standing," a new documentary featured later this month at Toronto's Hot Docs, North America's largest documentary festival.
The film marks one of Williams' final appearances on screen.
It also spotlights Larry "Bubbles" Brown and Johnny Steele, all credited for helping to launch a comedy revolution in San Francisco in the `80s with the likes of Dana Carvey, Rob Schneider and Paula Poundstone.
"There's a story Dana Carvey tells," Robert Campos, the producer of the documentary told The Associated Press. "He was at an open mic watching these comedians up on stage and he thinks, `Oh I can do that,' and then some guy goes up and blows the roof off the stage and Dana thinks, `Oh, I can't do that,' and it's Robin Williams."
"I mean you can go to any tiny comedy club in the country and there's a picture of Robin with the owner arm-in-arm," adds Campos. "He just really loved to perform. It's like Jerry Seinfield and Jon Stewart say, once you're a stand-up, you're a stand-up, there's something pure about that form."
"It's like malaria, it's in your bloodstream," jokes Durst.
Campos and his wife and co-producer Donna LoCicero said they felt compelled to make the documentary because they were huge fans of the San Francisco comedy scene in the `80s. Campos said that when they told Williams about the project, he said, "I love these guys, let's do it!"
The documentary, which also has been making the film circuits around the U.S., includes interviews with Williams in 2013 - a year before his suicide on Aug. 11, 2014.
This year's theme at the Hot Docs festival is comedy. Other notables in that genre include the opening night film, "Tig," a profile of Tig Notaro made in the wake of the stand-up comedian's discovery that she had breast cancer.
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