Joan Rivers Praises Robin Williams in Resurfaced Interview

An interview from 1986, revived by Playboy, shows the respect and awe comedienne Joan Rivers had for her colleague Robin Williams.

Here’s the part of that interview that stands out the most.

“Playboy: Jack Gould, former television critic of The New York Times, called you “quite possibly the most intuitively funny woman alive.” So whom does America’s most intuitively funny woman find funny?

Rivers: I change; but at the moment, my favorite is Robin Williams. There’s nobody like him. His mind is just wonderful. I respect him because he does what I do. I’ve seen him get up at The Comedy Store, work out a whole Carson shot and then come on Carson and make it look like it’s easy. He takes nothing for granted. He knows exactly what he’s doing.

Robin Williams is one of those people I’ll wait in the rain to see. Richard Pryor is another, and I’ll also wait for Bill Murray. And Lily [Tomlin], of course. I also adore Eddie Murphy, mainly because he has respect for his elders; he knows I’m going to die. One day we pull into a parking lot and another car screeches to a halt.

Eddie, one of the major kings of comedy, jumps out, runs over, picks me up, spins me around, says, “Come over and meet my girl,” takes me to the car, introduces me to the girl — and this kid has just made Beverly Hills Cop and has 72 retainers.”