Though Williams knew he was older than most comedians when he jumped back in at age 37, he made it his mission to get good — and fast. He says he did so by working three times as hard as everyone else.

“You can let people be funnier than you, but don’t let them outwork you.”

Comedy is something that comes naturally to Williams.

“It’s not like you can enroll in a course at SIUE,” he says. “I just got sober. I was getting older, and I got up there. It was either (crap) or get off the pot. Do you want to be the funniest person you can be or the funniest person at the end of the bar? I traded my barstool with a stage with another bar stool.”

Though Williams sometimes addresses his past struggles with drinking in his set, he says comedy isn’t his therapy.

“Some comics like Richard Lewis will tell you comedy is therapy for them. Maybe it’s therapy for me in ways I don’t realize. For me, I just tell the truth or some version of the truth. All comedy is about embellishing the truth to make it funny. There’s always a kernel of truth in it. As long as it’s your truth, it comes off more genuine, and people remember it more.”