12.5 – How to Write Like Robin Williams

Instructor:
Jerry Corley

Robin Williams often looked like pure spontaneity on stage, but this lesson reveals the deeper truth: beneath the wild energy was preparation, rehearsal, discipline, and a highly trained performance instrument. The PDF makes it clear that Robin kept notes, wrote set lists, rehearsed bits, and approached comedy with method—even if the final result looked completely free and chaotic.

This lesson explores the foundational elements that made Robin’s comedy so explosive: character work, accents, dialects, movement, improv, and the ability to stay fully open to the moment. His Juilliard training gave him tools in character, voice, movement, scene study, trust, and improv, all of which became part of the machinery underneath his stand-up.

Students will also see how Robin generated comedy by colliding relatable ideas with strong character filters. The lesson identifies patterns like Character + Setting, Character + Situation, Character + Outside Stimuli, and Situation + Character + Act-Out. These combinations help explain why his material felt so alive, visual, and dynamic.

The real takeaway is not “be Robin Williams.” It’s this: train the underlying skills that gave Robin his freedom. Build your voice, your character range, your commitment, and your ability to recognize relatable incongruity in real time.