One of Us

In a matter of minutes, Facebook was flooded with commentaries and condolences for Robin Williams.  Within that span of time, I received a couple of text messages with the news; including one from a friend who hasn't texted me in over a year.  And of course, I followed suit and sent out a text of my own to someone else.

Everyone wants to be Paul Revere.

It's become some sort of a ritual in this age of instant communication and viral news:  A celebrity dies and within minutes, everyone knows.  Then, those with limited vocabularies break out words like devastated and crushed.

But this was different.  This was one of those rare moments when someone famous dies and it feels personal. 

I'll be honest and admit I was never a big fan of his comedic work.  He was the original Jim Carey; loud, obnoxious and a little overwhelming for my taste BUT he had me, he lured me into his brilliant and versatile talents with his serious roles.

There are only two movies with one scene in each that have ever given me chills:  The latter being when we realize Bruce Willis is dead in The Sixth Sense and first and foremost, the infamous Oh Captain My Captain scene in Dead Poets Society.

I suppose the reason most celebrity deaths hit us hard is we have attached certain figures to certain memories.  As soon as I heard the Robin Williams news today, I immediately was transported back to my senior year of high school in 1989.  I relived that moment of sitting in a theater with some friends trying to appear unaffected by this poignant and emotional movie called Dead Poets Society.  Poetry is so gay, I whispered to a friend.  He said nothing back.  And I felt foolish trying to prove to a friend that I was a tough guy.


I suppose the reason Robin William's death feels so different that any other recent celebrity death is because he was one of us.  Most celebrities seem unapproachable; living these perfect lives.  This man was flawed.  He was human.  His demons didn't lurk in the dark.  He exposed them to the light of his audience.  Us. And he never apologized.

It isn't unique that a comedian would kill himself or suffer from drug addiction.   Drugs and suicide are the occupational hazards of being a comedian.  And there's this ominous paradox where most comedians tend to be introverted but crave the spotlight while using humor as nothing more than a defense mechanism to mask their own darkness.  And on some level but to a lesser degree, that is something I can personally relate with.

I was introduced to Robin Williams during his ill placed cameo on Happy Days.  At the time, as a young boy, it didn't really occur to me how ridiculous some alien showing up at Arnolds and freezing the whole Happy Days gang really was but maybe it was simply because I was distracted by the fact that his alien powers were no match for the Fonz.  Those powerfully cool trademarked thumbs up sign by the Fonz were simply unfreeze-able. 

And looking back now, maybe that whole Happy Days scene between the Fonz and Mork was a perfect illustration of who Robin Williams was... just a flawed human being who seemed larger than life but in reality, he was just one of us.