Comedian and voice actor Joey Camen has claimed that Robin Williams used to “steal” jokes from other comedians before paying them off.
Camen made the claims during an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, when he was asked about encounters with the late Good Will Hunting star.
“I stayed away from the guy,” said Camen. “He used to steal material. He stole my material. He stole one of my bits and did it on the Mork & Mindy pilot. And I got really pissed.
“And he gave me a cheque for $300 and told me, ‘Don’t cash it til Tuesday’. I was really f***ing angry at the guy.”
Maron then asked whether the pair had “got into a big fight” over the incident.
“I’m not physical, I’m not a big guy. No. It was the fact... He stole from a lot of people,” Camen continued. “But the thing was, he only stole from people that he could get it away from. You didn’t see him stealing from George Carlin.
“[It was] people no one knew, or people who needed money. Some people could pay their rent just from him stealing joke. But the whole thing is, he’d steal your joke, do it on The Tonight Show, and you’d do your joke, and people thought you stole from Robin Williams. The worst thing you can do to a comedian is steal their material.”
Williams died in 2014; it was later revealed that the comedian had been suffering from Lewy body dementia.
The Independent has contacted a representative of the estate of Robin Williams for comment.
