He didn’t ask to be born (but millions are glad he was)
Icon Bill Cosby returns to Central PA with new stories and more laughs

By Michael Yoder
Press photo

Bill Cosby has played many roles on his way to becoming a popular icon - Naval sailor, high school dropout, bartender, collegiate athlete, storyteller, singer, author, teacher and intellectual.

He went from failing 10th grade and only scoring 500 on the SATs to receiving his doctorate in education and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has remained a fixture in the collective imagination for six decades, popularizing bad sweaters and Jell-O Pudding Pops and having the uncanny ability to make us laugh about the everyday nuances of family life that cross racial divides.

Cosby can be called many things, but just don't call him a dreamer.

"I don't like to talk about dreams," Cosby says. "I'm talking about reality and goals. I'm not dreaming."

Cosby released his newest book, I Didn't Ask To Be Born (But I'm Glad I Was), in November of 2011, and he returns to Lancaster this month for an appearance at the American Music Theatre. In fact, Lancaster holds special significance for Cosby, who created a scholarship at Franklin & Marshall College in the name of his son, Ennis, who was killed in a shooting on the Los Angeles freeway in 1997.

Speaking from his hotel room in New York City in December, Cosby says most of his newest stand-up material comes from I Didn't Ask To Be Born, which consists of a series of quirky monologues and stories about his life.

While the monologues are not what he calls "spicy stories," Cosby does come out and tell the story of his first love - Bernadette Johnson - and how he took a bath in Canoe cologne to win her affection.

His monologues have an remarkable way of reflecting the commonality of the American family.

"Part of the show, people will be thinking, 'How did he get in my house,' and the other part of it is, 'I'm suing him, because somehow he found out some information about us,'" Cosby says. "The third part, which is very important, is that you find out you're not alone."

Cosby's ability to weave humorous tales dates back to his days at Temple University when he had to take a remedial English class. He was 23 years old and had just spent four years in the Navy helping to care for Korean War veterans.

He was instructed to write a composition about one of his life's "firsts." Rather than focusing on the first time he rode a bike or made a tackle in football, Cosby decided to write about the first time he ever pulled a tooth. He went back to his room, stood in front of a mirror with a legal pad and a No. 2 yellow pencil and crafted his story.

Cosby turned the story in, and two weeks later when he didn't receive his paper back from the teacher, he thought he had done something wrong. Instead, the teacher read the story in front of the class, citing it as a perfect example of what they were looking for.

"That was the beginning and the opening up of what I do now," Cosby says. "I am now putting down thoughts that I think happen to be funny."

But not everything is jokes and laughs in Cosby's world. The comedian is known to go on unruly rants on a variety of topics during interviews, and ours is no exception. The conversation takes a turn from comedy to current events, touching on everything from sports to politics. When asked about some of the things bothering him today, all he can do is laugh.

"Oh, this is not going to be good, man," Cosby says with a chuckle, before diving in to the topic of Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. He says he grew to like Tebow this season after sports pundits wrote off the team and his unorthodox playing style. He says the Denver offense reminds him of old-time football - the single wing formation made popular by famed coach Glenn "Pop" Warner.

Cosby says he also appreciates Tebow's ability to overcome adversity and succeed as a team member.

"It's important to me that we not lose the eye directed at this young man who the media seems to want to laugh at," Cosby says. "Tebow talks about the faith that one is able to continue all the way to the end."

Also known as someone who won't shy away from controversy, Cosby shifts his attention to Penn State and the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal. He takes the media to task for creating the "Jump on Joe" Paterno bandwagon, noting that Paterno was turned into a scapegoat by a group of people that had been looking for him to leave the university for years.

Cosby says there was no clarity in the first weeks of the controversy to get an honest understanding of what the media knew before the story broke and all the deep running emotions surrounding the heinous accusations. However, Cosby was quick to point out Sandusky's own transgressions, including the images of him wearing a Penn State Wrestling sweat suit after he was arrested for the second time.

"Whatever it was that Sandusky is or has, why would you let something like that continue?" Cosby says. "What was it Sandusky had that, to this day, this guy can feel comfortable wearing - in the heat of all of this - a Penn State Wrestling sweat suit? How dare you. How?"

Cosby says stories like Tebow and Sandusky are symptoms of the 24-hour news cycle and a disrespectful media organization he sees as "people at a buffet who never really tasted the food on their plate" and are constantly looking for the next story without any depth of thought on the real issues.

That unruly dialogue, Cosby says, has crossed over to all parts of society, creating a political system where politicians are able to come back to prominence after making fools of themselves - or even worse. He says the media loves talking heads and will do anything to parade them back out into the spotlight.

"It's entertaining to show the public that there are two men running for the office of President of the United States who are lighting up the idiot board, and they make heroes of them," Cosby says, although he wouldn't point out who he thought was on the idiot board for the current election cycle.

He shares his thoughts on how out-of-whack politics has become, noting that someone like Abraham Lincoln would have never been elected president today because he didn't have money.

When asked how to get the money out of politics, Cosby simply laughs. "I think you've got the wrong window," he says. "I'm just in charge of complaints. I don't do answers."

And when asked what people can expect in his current live performances, Cosby laughs again.

"Well, none of the things you and I have been talking about," Cosby jokes. "We're not going to run those things out."