Robin Williams Reportedly Said He'd Buy an '80s Strip Club to Impress This Music Legend
Some people write love songs for their idols. Others name-drop them in speeches. Robin Williams? He walked into a London strip club and threatened to buy the whole place—just to impress David Bowie.
On Monday, July 21, The Guardian published a new interview with The Comic Strip Presents… creator Peter Richardson ahead of the show's remastered film screenings at Edinburgh Fringe. While reflecting on the wild early days of the British alt-comedy scene, the article resurfaced a jaw-dropping moment involving the late actor and the music icon.
Back in 1980, Williams reportedly turned up at the Comic Strip club—hosted inside the Raymond Revuebar strip club in Soho—with Bowie and made it clear he expected stage time. Comedian Alexei Sayle, who helped run the venue, recalled offering the Mrs. Doubtfire star a 15-minute slot.
'I told [Bowie] I'd do an hour,' Williams said. When Sayle refused, the Mork & Mindy icon responded, 'I'll buy the club!'
Unfortunately for Williams, the venue wasn't for sale. 'We don't own it,' Sayle told him. 'It belongs to a bouffant-haired pornographer.'
The Comic Strip, founded by Richardson with support from Rocky Horror Picture Show producer Michael White, helped launch the careers of comedy legends like Rik Mayall, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, and Adrian Edmondson. The shows were edgy, strange, and often risky—just what Channel 4 was looking for when it tapped Richardson to bring something new to TV.
🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬
That something became The Comic Strip Presents…, a tonally unpredictable anthology series that ran throughout the '80s and returned for occasional specials until 2016. 'It wasn't good television,' Richardson admitted. 'Because it wasn't repetitive, and television is about repeating a formula.'
🍳 SIGN UP to get delicious recipes, handy kitchen hacks & fun food news in our daily Pop Kitchen newsletter 🍳
Now 73, Richardson is remastering the series for theatrical screenings, which kick off next month. 'We've discovered that there is an audience around the country who want to see these films on the big screen and talk about them,' he said. 'It's fantastic that something we created 30 or 40 years ago is still creating laughter.'
As for Williams, he never did buy the club—or any club, for that matter—but he did go on to become one of the most beloved performers of his generation. He won an Oscar for Good Will Hunting, two Emmys, six Golden Globes, and five Grammys over the course of his career. He died by suicide in August 2014 at age 63, after battling undiagnosed Lewy body dementia—a rare and aggressive brain disease that was only discovered after his death.
Robin Williams Reportedly Said He'd Buy an '80s Strip Club to Impress This Music Legend first appeared on Parade on Jul 21, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 21, 2025, where it first appeared.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Saturday's Lotto jackpot estimated at £7.3m after no ticket wins top prize
Saturday's lottery jackpot will be an estimated £7.3 million after no players won Wednesday's top prize. The winning Lotto numbers were 17, 31, 47, 05, 58 and 09, while the bonus number was 35. No players matched all six main numbers, meaning the jackpot was missed, while no ticket-holders won £1 million by matching five of the six numbers plus the bonus ball. Set of balls L3 and draw machine Lotto3 were used in the first Lotto draw since the National Lottery paused over the weekend to enable the biggest technology upgrade in the game's 31-year history. In Lotto HotPicks, which uses the same numbers as the Lotto draw, no players matched all five numbers to win the £350,000 top prize. Two ticket-holders won £13,000 each after matching four of the five numbers. The winning Thunderball numbers were 19, 02, 27, 03 and 38, and the Thunderball was 11. No ticket-holders won £500,000 by matching all five numbers plus the Thunderball. One player matched all five regular numbers, which earned them £5,000.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Rare copy of The Hobbit sells for 'record-breaking' sum
An "astonishingly rare" first edition of The Hobbit has sold for a "record-breaking" £43,000 at auction. The copy of JRR Tolkien's novel is one of only 1,500 copies that were printed in 1937. It was discovered without a dustcover on a bookcase during a home clearance in Bristol. It was sold to a private collector in the UK through an online auction at Auctioneum in Bath, Somerset, earlier. Caitlin Riley, the book specialist from the auction house, said: "It's the quintessential auction story. Everyone dreams of finding a rare item hidden in plain sight, and here we are." More news stories for Somerset Listen to the latest news for Somerset The book, which was only expected to fetch between £10,000-£12,000 at auction, attracted hundreds of bidders from all over the world. Ms Riley said the book is in "absolutely beautiful condition" and she believed it sold for a record price for a first edition without a dustcover. "House clearances can be tricky, stressful and troublesome... this could have so easily been sent to landfill, or disposed of by someone who didn't realise it was there," she added. The book came from the family library of Hubert Priestley who was a famous botanist in the 1930s and brother to the Antarctic explorer and geologist, Sir Raymond Edward Priestley. Priestley had strong connections to the University of Oxford where Tolkien stood as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College. Both men knew fellow author C.S. Lewis and it is likely that they knew each other. "It's the connection to Tolkien and the important provenance that makes this book so special. It's not just any first edition; it belonged to someone who very likely called Tolkien an acquaintance," Ms Riley said. She added it was astonishingly rare to find a first edition in such good condition. "Being a children's book, most of them have seen children's hands, children's colouring pens in some cases, so to have one that appears to be completely unread and never enjoyed is really, really astonishingly rare," she said. The Hobbit is one of the most successful children's novels, with more than 100 million copies sold. The story is set in the fantasy world Middle-earth and follows the hobbit Bilbo Baggins on a quest to find treasure. The rare edition that was sold also includes rare drawings by Tolkien himself. Follow BBC Somerset on Facebook and X. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. More on this story Home clearance unearths rare copy of The Hobbit Rare round egg sells at auction for £420 Menu signed by Albert Einstein sells for £18,000
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
‘Hamilton' turns 10: Lin-Manuel Miranda announces movie theater release to celebrate the Broadway musical's anniversary
The film version of the hit show will debut in theaters on Sept. 5. Rise up, Hamilton fans: The Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning Broadway musical is coming to a movie theater near you. On Tuesday's episode of The Tonight Show, Lin-Manuel Miranda announced that the feature film version of his hit musical Hamilton will make its theatrical debut on Sept. 5 in celebration of its 10th anniversary. Hamilton premiered on Broadway a decade ago today, on Aug. 6, 2015. 'I have an announcement!' Miranda, who created and originally starred in the musical, said. 'So, tomorrow is the 10-year anniversary of Hamilton, and we've been celebrating all year. But we have one more way to celebrate. We filmed most of the original cast performing in Hamilton in 2016, and we always wanted to release it theatrically, but then the pandemic hit, and so we decided to release it on streaming so that everyone could see it at home whenever they wanted. But, Sept. 5, you will be able to see Hamilton in movie theaters nationwide and in Puerto Rico.' The film will be released in theaters in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico on Sept. 5, in the U.K. and Ireland on Sept. 26, and in Australia and New Zealand on Nov. 13, per Variety. A special screening of Hamilton, organized by the Public Theater, will take place on Sept. 3 at the Delacorte Theater in New York City's Central Park. A limited number of advance tickets will be available for purchase, followed by a free ticket lottery and free standby line the night of the event. Hamilton premiered on Disney+ in July 2020. The movie functioned as a live recording of the actual Broadway production, filmed at The Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway in June 2016, with much of the original cast performing together. Among the original cast members included in the film In addition to Miranda are Daveed Diggs, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Leslie Odom Jr. and Phillipa Soo. The month that it premiered on Disney+, Hamilton had the largest audience of any streaming program in 2020, Forbes reported. Celebrations for the Broadway musical's tenth anniversary — referred to affectionately as 'Hamilten' — are well underway. Tonight, at 7 p.m., an invite-only anniversary performance of Hamilton will take place at the Richard Rodgers Theatre and will serve as a fundraiser for the Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition. A fan-focused matinee took place at 1 p.m. today, too. Tickets were priced at $10 apiece and were distributed through a lottery. Former cast members have also taken to social media to commemorate the milestone. Broadway star Javier Muñoz, who famously took over for Miranda as Alexander Hamilton in July 2016, shared a lengthy tribute to the Hamilton creator on Instagram on Wednesday afternoon. Muñoz concluded his Hamilton run in January 2018. 'It all comes down to one relationship, one colleague, one friend; Lin Manuel Miranda. My place in this journey was singular. It was exactly where I was meant to be,' Muñoz wrote. 'The list of blessings in the form of friends, chosen family, opportunities, evolution, falling in and out of love, social change, overcoming, and becoming, is too long to spotlight each. None of it IS without Lin Manuel. I'd say yes and jump off any cliffs with you, my friend. Thank you.' Soo, who received a 2016 Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in Musical for her portrayal of Eliza Schuyler, also shared a series of photos on Instagram. 'What a ride. 10 years. Eternally grateful. Love you all, thanks for the love. ❤️ @hamiltonmusical #hamilten,' the Doctor Odyssey actress wrote. Cephas Jones, who originated the role of Peggy Schuyler, posted several photos as well. 'Look at where you are… Look at where you started…. TEN YEARS AGO WE OPENED ON BROADWAY. Forever grateful. This show changed my life and gave me a forever family. ❤️,' she wrote. The original Broadway cast of Hamilton reunited earlier this year at the 2025 Tony Awards, where they performed a medley of tracks in honor of its 10th anniversary. With Miranda helming the ship, the cast serenaded audiences with performances of hit songs including 'My Shot,' 'Non-Stop,' 'The Room Where It Happens,' and 'The Schuyler Sisters.' Solve the daily Crossword
