In 1992, my Maw-Maw took my big sister and I to see "Aladdin". Needless to say, we loved it and still stands to this day as one of our favorite Disney animated movies, and the one that always touches on personal nostalgia for me. Needless to say, the one character who stood out the most was noneother than the perfectly-cast Robin Williams as the Genie. It's because of that character that I still call my sister by the nickname, "Al". We grew up with Mr. Williams' work, whether it was seeing him as Mork, Popeye, a grown-up Peter Pan in "Hook", a loving father disguised as an elderly nanny in "Mrs. Doubfire", having to deal with a killer board game in "Jumanji", or even Batty Koda in "FernGully: The Last Rainforest". As I got older, I grew to admire his serious roles in movies like, "The Fisher King", "Dead Poets Society", "Good Will Hunting", and "Good Morning, Vietnam". Any of his stand-up specials, new or old material, are hilarious; check 'em out when you can. No matter who (or what) he portrayed, he'll always be the Genie of phenomenal cosmic power with itty-bitty living space to me.

True story: around the summer of my first year at Spartanburg Methodist, a talent show was being held, and I thought it'd be fun to enter and do some of my impressions of popular characters. I've never really gone out and said it much, but Robin Williams has always been my major influence, no, my full-out hero, when it comes to silly humor and voice-acting. Aside from the obvious manifest destiny of cartooning, I'd like to voice-act, and it was because of Mr. Williams' character, Daniel Hillard, in "Mrs. Doubtfire". I was incredibly nervous and couldn't even begin to match how Williams could do voices, but I was nevertheless influenced by him when getting up there and doing impressions of Gollum, Hank Hill, Fozzie Bear, even George W. Bush as Conan the Barbarian and Elmer Fudd as Darth Vader. There were other contestants, including some of my friends, who all have amazing talents, all deserving of winning first prize, and even to this day, I'm still blown away that I won, just for doing some silly voices. I continue to do impressions and silly voices as much as possible, whether I'm reading to my nephew or just when anybody needs some cheering up, and it's because of my comedic hero, Robin Williams.

My deepest condolences goes out to his family and friends. Thank you for the memories and the influence you've had on me and countless others. Robin, we ain't never had a friend like you.