Can I Do It...til I Need Glasses? is a 1977 American anthology comedy film directed by I. Robert Levy and featuring an ensemble of comedians and character actors. It was Robin Williams's film debut, and a sequel to the very successful If You Don't Stop It... You'll Go Blind!!! (1975).
Plot Like its predecessor, Can I Do It... 'Til I Need Glasses? is a plotless collection of bawdy jokes, burlesque blackouts, and adult comedy sketches aimed at the collegiate audience.
Cast Roger Behr Jeff Doucette Walter Olkewicz Pat Wright Joey Camen Vic Dunlop Debra Klose Moose Carlson Roger Peltz
Appearing in sketches Ina Gould as Old Lady Angelyne as Little Red Riding Hood I. Robert Levy as Man on Bus Thelma Pelish as Angry Lady Ron Jeremy as Promoter Robin Williams as Lawyer / Man with Toothache Rod Haase as Omar
Reception Variety called it "a juvenile, unfunny screen version of some of the oldest and worst sex jokes in comedy history"."Film Reviews: Can I Do It ... Til I Need Glasses?" Variety. Nov. 14, 1979. 22. Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film was "lamely directed", and had something that "will insult almost everyone".Gross, Linda (November 7, 1979). "Montage of Old Jokes in 'Glasses'". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 22. A Dayton, Ohio reviewer was more charitable: "A lot of familiar jokes, most of them dirty, are strung together in this well-made anthology."Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio), Oct. 13, 1977, p. 29.
Re-release and court case Robin Williams, an unknown comedian at the time, was paid $150 to appear in two short segments (as an attorney, and as a hillbilly with a toothache) that did not make it into the original cut of the film. The movie returned a profit on its small budget -- although not as much as the former If You Don't Stop It... film. After Williams became a star on the TV series, Mork & Mindy, producer Mike Callie spent two weeks in December 1978 sorting through the deleted footage until he located the "lost" Robin Williams scenes, recut the film, and rereleased it with Williams given top billing.
Williams and his management took legal action against Callie and the film's distributor for "false and misleading advertising", and, during a court hearing, Callie agreed to modify the newspaper and TV ads so that they would no longer imply that Williams was the star of the film. The revised screen credits, at the very end of the film, have a "curtain call" of the film's individual cast members. A still photo of Williams is inserted at the very end, with the caption: "And of course...Robin Williams."
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