Like an aged prizefighter, Bill Cosby walked onto the center stage, shoulders back, chin down. Turning toward the audience, he displayed his shirt with a grin. In black with yellow lettering, it read, “Oregon Rose Bowl 2012.” And the crowd went wild.
Sitting in a dressing room in the bowels of the Hult Center at U. Oregon, he lounged on a couch on a far wall, devouring take-out Chinese food out of two Styrofoam containers.
When asked about his writing process, Cosby reminisced about his days in Temple U. in a remedial writing class. Though he received lackluster grades due to technical grammar issues, the professor and his classmates thought the material was a hit.
“But I wasn’t ready for the big time. I just thought that perhaps I could sell this material to some comedians who were working in a nightclub downtown,” Cosby said. “And (one) comedian was nice enough to come out. And I had my Temple hoodie on, trying to look collegiate. He got after me for not having a suit and tie to come and see him.”
When questioned about the identity of the comedian who had given him a hard time about the way he was dressed, Cosby replied with a sly grin, “None of your business.”
“So, I said, ‘Well, I write comedy. I would like to see if you would like to buy.’ He read it, he said, ‘This … This is not funny.’ I said, ‘No, look!’ And I performed it for him. And he said, ‘It still isn’t funny,’” Cosby said. “Nobody wanted to do my material. Now I still use the same method. If I feel funny about it, it will start out just as particular thought.”
Cosby would go on to become the first African-American lead in television on the show “I Spy” and then to become loved in his role as Dr. Huxtable in “The Cosby Show.” His success has spanned decades.
Cosby has also spoken out against profanity and violence in the media.
“To be an actor and to feel that you put across an emotion, to have profanity in it, does not show the depth of an actor’s character,” he said. “This industry of entertainment really lost its way, succumbing to what I feel is really and truly the entertainment industry’s putdown of its customers and patrons.”
John Low, Cosby’s publicist, stood center stage before the show and let his gaze linger on the cavernous, empty auditorium. “Well, the audience is getting older, but the reruns are bringing in new blood all the time. But … there’s nothing wrong with a full house,” Low said.
Though the show was of mixed ages, the comedian had no problem connecting with the whole audience. He frequently bantered back and forth with the front row.
His new comedy tour is centered around a feature on his website called “OBKB,” which is a reference to his “Fat Albert” character Mushmouth and the comedic conversation flubs of adults and children.