The most humorous and
the least likely to succeed they said,
As they voted,
huddled together, in Larkspur;
Like conspirators
defining the lines on my palm.
I stand here looking
back at the blur,
The blur my life may
have been;
And all I can do is think
to myself, did I make her laugh enough?
Plump, alone and
craving her smile,
I put on a voice, a funny
one I’d like to think,
And looked her way,
did I make her laugh at all?
I put on another
voice and another and another.
That is where it all
started,
No, not in Larkspur-
it began my dear
In my very own Windy
City, decades back.
Computer games and
video games,
They came and they
went;
The voices, they
grew;
They grew every day,
in numbers
And in tone.
One little spark of
madness, a gift I treasured,
Was it really the
source of all the gladness?
Or was it what
spread in to darkness?
One little spark of
madness, I wouldn’t lose it,
This I said to
myself, I’ll admit.
Between “The World
According to Garp” and “Mork and Mindy”
I had to say goodbye
to my good friend… John
At Chateau Marmont
Hotel in Angeltown.
As I made you laugh
and drew you in to the center of
The narratives of “Patch
Adams” and “Bicentennial Man”
I had to lend my
voice for “Blame Canada” for a missing Mary.
One little spark of
madness, a gift or a curse?
One little spark of
madness, I wouldn’t lose it,
This I said to
myself, I’ll admit.
The world seems
dark,
But I will fight it
out.
Yes, I think I will.
The voices grow,
louder and louder;
Fighting loud whispers
and strange tongues
All I can do is
think to myself, did I make her laugh enough?
Did I make you laugh
enough?
Note:
- The reference to John is John Belushi (Robin Williams and Robert De Niro were the last stars to see John Belushi alive, albeit on separate visits to Bungalow #3 of the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles on the day Belushi died of a drug overdose in March 1982.)
- Mary refers to Mary Kay Bergman. When "Blame Canada", a song from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999), was nominated for a Best Song Academy Award, it was Robin Williams who performed the song at the ceremony because the actress who sang the song in the film, Mary Kay Bergman, had committed suicide a few months prior to the awards show.
