I Am Skooter	«01. 8.12 . home . 01.20.12»
So here's us, on the raggedy edge. And did you get my message / On the People's Radio? I wrote it in Alberta /Across the prairie spine. — Rheostatics, Northern Wish

Bill Cosby: 50 Years in Showbiz

The New York times posted a great article celebrating Bill Cosby’s 50 years in show business. The man’s been receiving accolades for years, and they’re all deserved. In a day and age where being funnier seems to be a synonym with being louder (I’m looking at you Sam Kinison) and crasser (I’m looking at you Chris Rock) Bill Cosby has remained a very funny while staying clean. I’m not saying those other guys aren’t funny, it just seems like a cheap, easy way out sometimes.

I saw Cosby live once. It was the end of a very hard summer for me. I was fifteen, and things weren’t good at home for me largely due to circumstances of my own making. I’d asked to leave Toronto and wanted to move to Cranbrook to live with my father. There was screaming, there was shouting and in the end my mother let me do what I wanted. She packed my stuff and put it on a bus and I was gone.

As these things so often happen, what I thought I wanted wasn’t what I actually wanted and things didn’t work out in Cranbrook. After a few weeks and before the end of the summer I finally screwed up the courage to call my mother and tell her I wanted to come…home. We talked for a few minutes about the trouble I’d been causing and she said yes without evening thinking about it. That’s what parents do. Good ones anyway. That was a hard call to make. She could have made it harder. She didn’t.

When I got home she asked me if I wanted to go see Bill Cosby with my Aunt & Uncle. She’d bought three tickets for a show at Exhibition stadium and she was giving up her own so I could go. It was a warm, dry memorable night in Toronto. The Blue Jay’s were on the rise and shortstop Tony Fernandez and outfielder and home run legend George Bell were in the audience. Cosby took the stage in a Jays jersey. He joked with the players, ran through some material and closed his show with his justifiably famous The Dentist routine. I’d probably heard that routine dozens of times but seeing it live was an entirely different thing. That man is capital F Funny. If he has an equal, I can’t think of who it might be. Lily Tomlin? Steve Martin? Maybe.

I’m sure I didn’t realize how much that night made me feel like I was at home at the time. Typical of most teenagers, I suspect it just felt like another night.

I’m not sure if my mother ever got to see him live. I don’t remember her mentioning it. I might have to make up for that sometime.

Cosby’s performing days are winding down—and tickets cost an abolute fortune I’m sure—but if he comes to your town don’t miss seeing him. You won’t regret it. That’s my commitment to you.

Posted by skooter at 12:59 PM This entry is filed under Entertainment.
This entry is tagged: Articles, Bill Cosby, New York Times, Television