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He went on, of course, to appear in movies like Rocket Man and There's Something About Mary.
He's also a children's author and the voice of Newton on the popular animated series Ned's Newt.
Years later, the Calgary concert remains one of his most memorable gigs.
"I went to a restaurant in Calgary and got this crazy food poisoning and, for like four days, I couldn't even function," Williams explains.
"I remember just walking out to a field, curling up and laying on the ground. I felt like I was dying. I'm glad a hawk didn't swoop down and pluck my eyes out."
But the show, as they say, must go on.
"Then I had to perform that night. I did my act with the least amount of effort I could," he says. "I think I quite well considering I must have looked like a propped-up corpse." Ah, memories.
Perhaps, then, it is guilt which brings the actor back to Calgary for a rare stand-up gig Friday and Saturday at Yuk Yuk's?
"I want to give them, like, the 'real' show," he confirms, "I feel like I owe them for the Harland Williams: Dead in Concert show."
Seeing the native of Toronto in concert, dead or alive, is an opportunity that rarely presents itself these days.
"Oh, I know, man. It's been pretty hectic the last little while. I don't go out very often, but I love to go to clubs in cities I've never been before or clubs that helped me when I started. That's the case with Calgary," he says.
He has just finished playing a hitman opposite Bruce Willis in The Whole Nine Yards and is awaiting the fall releases of Superstar and Dog Park, both directed by Calgarian Bruce McCulloch.
There are always new episodes of Ned's Newt to take care of, plus roles in two new primetime cartoons. Tune to NBC to hear him on Sammy or Fox to hear him in the Claymation show Gary and Mike.
Yet, it isn't his voice for which Williams is stopped on the street.
"It's not like I'm an A-list movie star, but I guess I've got a face people remember. People just seem to know me wherever I go," Williams says.
"It's a little creepy... but it's fun. If it's my face, or my lines, or my bad acting, I couldn't tell you."
It's a diverse crowd who approach Williams at any rate.
"It's everything -- it's Dumb and Dumber, it's Wag the Dog. All the young kids recognize me from Half Baked, Rocket Man, Down Periscope."
We can expect some improvisation this weekend during his four shows. "They can expect kind of my twisted sense of humour, I like to talk about everything from ants to eskimos," Williams says.
"I like to get into the crowd and improvise with them. It makes every show a little different and it makes it edgier for me and the crowd because you don't know if I'm going to get a laugh or get a cabbage roll thrown at my head."
Well, Harland. We're not sure Yuk Yuk's serves cabbage rolls... "Some of the audience bring them. I know! Calgarians love their cabbage rolls."
Improv, voices, irreverent humour... it sounds a bit like another crazy Canuck comic whom Williams had the fortune and misfortune of being compared to as he worked his way up the circuit.
"To be compared to Jim Carrey is always an honour because that guy is such a great performer and such a great person. From that point of view, I don't mind it," Williams says.
"On the other hand ... he's a lot bigger and more physical. I'm more bizarre and quirky."