The funny man has heart trouble and is set to undergo valve replacement surgery. One of Williams’ last stops before his illness sidelined him was Ovens Auditorium where he provided the considerable public service of speaking truth about local priorities.

“You put $50 million into a NASCAR museum and your kids go to school in a trailer. What the bleep?” Williams observed.

Let that one sink in. A supposed disconnected celebrity parachutes into Charlotte, and on a city-owned and operated stage, more or less instantly discerns our situation with total accuracy, cutting through all the cover-stories and spin, and tells us we are completely nuts.

That’s not comedy, that’s philosophy.

Bonus Observation: The Charlotte Business Journal cut through the crap regarding the dire situation the local arts scene now finds itself in. As Erik Spanberg reports:

Amid the excitement of the $158.5 million in city-funded new and renovated arts venues, pressure is mounting on the ASC and its affiliates to persuade donors to step up in the midst of a numbing recession.

Next week, results of the ASC’s $11.2 million annual capital campaign will be announced. Two weeks before the campaign ended, donations stood at $5 million — 33% below the fund-raising total at the same point in 2008.

The news is even more troubling for the $83 million campaign to build an endowment to help arts groups pay the operating expenses in those shiny new buildings. For months, ASC’s total has been stuck at $61 million.

Gee, would it surprise you to know that we predicted this precise problem almost four years ago?