Manic Comic Robin Williams Goes Over the Top in ‘Live’

“Everybody’s doing cocaine,” observes Robin Williams. “Baseball players have to go in front of a grand jury and say, ‘Yeah, I did cocaine, but can you blame me? It’s a goddamn slow game! Come on, Jack! I’m standing out in left field for seven innings and there’s a white line going down to home plate!”

During “Robin Williams Live”--a video presentation of his 1986 HBO comedy concert--Williams spits out one hilarious joke after another like a seasoned poker dealer rifling out cards at a Las Vegas casino. At times the words come tumbling out of his mouth so fast that even an alert viewer may feel compelled to keep a finger on the rewind button.

Williams isn’t the type of laid-back comedian who is simply going to hold a microphone and recite jokes. With a face bursting with animation and limbs that never seem to stop, this manic performer puts his entire body into his stand-up routines. On stage Williams isn’t just a comedian, he’s also a hip, modern-day clown and an impressionist who imitates everyone from Moammar Kadafi to Jerry Falwell.

Williams’ hyperactive persona and over-the-top imitations help bring an undeniable silliness to “Robin Williams Live.” Yet the humor here often reflects an underlying social concern and a keen understanding of the world as it was in 1986. His observations regarding such issues as the nuclear arms race and U.S. intervention in Nicaragua also serve to remind us how much the global political landscape has changed in the past seven years.

Still, most of “Robin Williams Live” is very applicable today. In regard to the proliferation of guns in America, Williams cracks: “Everybody here knows we’re armed and it’s escalating. It’s going to get to the point when we’re going to come home one day and people across the street will be going, ‘I’ve built a cruise missile to stop those kids from playing ZZ Top!’ ”

The most memorable segment of “Robin Williams Live” arrives when our irrepressible host gives us a knowing and uncensored look at sex, childbirth and parenthood. “(You dream) about your kid,” says Williams. “Dreams that one day your kid will be up there going, ‘I’d like to thank the Nobel Academy.’ Then you have this other dream where your kid’s going, ‘Would you like fries with this?’ You don’t know. It’s a crapshoot.”

Stand-up comedy doesn’t get much better than this.

“Robin Williams Live” (1986), directed by Bruce Gowers. 65 minutes. Rated R.