Bill Irwin

I am the oldest of three. I was in charge of making sure my brother and sister were OK and also entertained so they didn't bother my mother, who had a job at home.

Competition between men is a fuel that's useful to us. We have to be careful that it doesn't tell the same story over too many times, but it's amazing how durable that story is.

It's shocking to think of the universe now without Robin Williams' energy, even muted.

I was a shy kid, wasn't necessarily an extrovert, but I couldn't help doing voices.

Here's my story: My mother and I were at Cirque du Soleil, looking down on Shiner doing his act. She was always tolerant of my being a clown, but I don't remember her rolling with laughter. But with Shiner, she could not sit up straight!

We want to be able to fly. We want to be able to sear somebody with lightning from across the room. Those are primal desires, to shoot somebody with energy.

Acting is all about relating to the people on stage with you, even in plays that break the fourth wall. Clowning, for the most part, is the opposite. If somebody in the audience sneezes, I can count on it: I don't even have to look at Shiner; he'll have his handkerchief out. It's all about all of us in the room together.

We used to have a photo of me in full clown makeup taken when my son was 5. And when he was 17 or 18, he said, 'Yeah, that thing used to scare me. I hated that photo.' So it is scary; clowning is scary to people.

Being nominated is a great thrill, and we like to say that all four of us were nominated, which means that our director, Anthony Page was nominated four times.

I do love the musical form, although it's often disappointing.

From the earliest memories I have, I liked physical, funny things.

What I love is the comedy of the body. It's a little highfalutin', but you can even say pre-verbal comedy. People laugh differently at stuff that isn't brought to them via the spoken word. It's from a different place; it's a different quality of laughter.