“We are going to laugh,” comedy legend Bill Cosby stated plainly in anticipation of playing the Fox Theatre Sunday afternoon. “I’m going to sit there and try to hurt your face.” His career has spanned five decades and grown to include the titles of actor, best-selling author, producer, director, philanthropist and education activist.
An attempt to list his credentials, accomplishments or create an itemized account of Cosby’s ground-breaking existence in the entertainment industry would be pointless. Grammy Awards, Emmy Awards, Kennedy Center Honors … and the list goes on – and on.
But he’s back on the road doing what initially made him a household name. He’s bringing his trademark humor back to the audiences that have grown up (and in some cases grown old) with.
The decision to take his show back on the road was as simple as his having new material that he wanted to share.
“I like to deliver things that have the family picture,” he told The American. “People can laugh at decisions that I have made. Wives can look and see a husband who he thinks he’s hot stuff.”
Cosby offered few specifics on exactly what can be expected from his show – but not because it’s top secret. Surprisingly, he never knows himself until the show is already underway.
“There are people who you can tell time by watching their act. That’s not me,” Cosby said.
“Once I enter and the applause happens, I sit down and start talking. That’s when I start to put my routine together. Then, I’ll start talking and I’ll switch. The hilarious thing is that because I’m 73 years old, the critics are saying, ‘He wanders as he’s talking.’ I did that when I was 31, and I’m still working that way.”
Cosby’s impression of our city is the perfect setting for the focus his show.
“St. Louis … I love St. Louis,” Cosby said. “I just enjoy whenever I’m playing the city – it’s such a wonderful mixture of the South and the East, and the people seem to come together. St. Louis has a great family feel about it.”
Whatever he says during his set, Cosby’s plan is to create an afternoon of laughter based on how much the audience can relate to what he’s talking about.
He recalled with fond memory the last time he was at the Fox Theatre some years back and a husband and wife introduced themselves during a meet and greet.
“They looked at me and just started laughing,” Cosby said. “They said, ‘We were just talking about before we came here what you were talking about, and we started to laugh so hard because you were saying what we were saying.’”
He’s proud of the fact that entire families – children, parents and grandparents included – can come to laugh together at the mirror-image situations shared by Cosby and his own family.
“I want people to say, ‘We are going to sue you for peeking into our house. I don’t want to be America’s Dad or America’s Uncle,” Cosby said. “Thanks, but no thanks. I just want to be America’s friend’.”
The mood as he talked about his career in comedy and this weekend’s performance was extremely light. He admitted that he completely separates the community and education aspect of his celebrity from his routine and his profession.
Though he shies away from the notion of being “America’s Dad,” the real-life father offered invaluable words of wisdom with respect to the industry that made him a star.
“There is a tendency for us to feel that people are okay because the news and TV tells us that this person is exciting,” Cosby said. “As parents, we need to look at who they are following and ask, ‘Are these people helping us as we are trying to govern our children?’”
But even though he won’t work out the details until after he’s introduced, none of the serious issues that Cosby has been associated with – most recently, education reform – will be a part of the show, primarily because it’s not funny.
“All of that is out of the building,” Cosby said. “We’re not going to solve much, but we are going to feel good. I’ll say this last thing: don’t wear any mascara.”
Bill Cosby will perform live at the Fox Theatre on Sunday, October 24 at 3 p.m. For more information, call (314) 534-1111.
