CBS 5's entertainment reporter Liam Mayclem just penned a tribute of his own to the late Robin Williams, recalling his first encounter with the funny man when Williams stepped into his shot during Mayclem's coverage of the 1996 AIDS Walk. Williams, true to form, basically started mocking his reporter-ish tone, and, Mayclem writes, "I just stood aside and let him riff and he did for three minutes. I looked on amused and in pure awe that my comedic hero was imitating me. It was beyond flattering."
Mayclem also dug up the interview below, which never aired on the station, recorded during a press junket for the Disney film Old Dogs in 2009, in which Williams co-starred with John Travolta. As Mayclem puts it, "It was a stinky old dog of a film. [And] I find it most disagreeable doing a movie interview when you, the actor, and everyone else in the room knows the movie sucks." But, he says, Williams always played the game, and the brief interview has a few sweet and funny moments, including one in which Mayclem asks about Williams' then new home in Tiburon. "Tiburon," Williams jokes, "An old Spanish word for 'white people.'"
He also managed to work in some jokes about gay bears, and plushies.
As Mayclem says, "Those few precious minutes with him will remain with me always."
[CBS 5]