Bill Cosby: Far from Finished

This is Cosby at his best. Those saying this is a departure from his other stuff must not remember his other stuff.

Saying people will be offended by this is not knowing his other material. In "Bill Cosby: Himself", he "accuses" both his wife and his parents of abuse, his dad of loving his son more than his daughters, a wife of husband abuse in full view of an airplane full of passengers, pretty much everyone is an alcoholic/drug user, etc.

You can't believe Cosby has no respect for his wife of 48 years or his kids, or a lady at the security company. (Edit: Although based on his actions that have come to light, it might be easy to think he has no respect for his wife, or any woman.)

If you want to laugh, watch this show. If you want a tear in your eye, read the shirt he puts on the back of his chair.

I saw Bill Cosby recently on the Daily Show where he was talking about his Comedy Central special; it wasn't a particularly good interview and I ended up skipping it before it finished. Despite that I thought I would check out his special as I do remember liking him and his unique style, but was wary that he hadn't held my attention for 10 minutes so maybe I wouldn't make it through the special. Fortunately Cosby is a lot better with a fixed routine rather than working partially on the fly with Jon Stewart and I do have to disagree with the couple of people leaving comments here saying how sad and unfunny it was.

However I must also disagree with the couple giving it perfect scores and praising it to the rafters, because this special is good, but not great. Cosby proves himself a good story teller and this is the approach of the show, funny stories rather than rapid punch lines – I can understand some may be used to "sound bite" comedy with lots of one liners, but to not have that is also OK. He is natural with his material and this helps the delivery a lot too – not many people would do a show sitting down but he does it and it works. The problem is with the material – it seems very old fashioned and lacking energy. This does suit his style for the evening but it is really very one note in its approach.

We start with him explaining how men make the mistake when they go from "girlfriend" to "wife" that they think the friend bit still applies; then he goes through the various hardships of marriage – most of which are the poor put upon men under the thumb of the domineering and unreasonable woman. This continues with stories using himself and his wife as the subjects and it really doesn't wander much from this theme. This "her indoors" material is very dated and while it is gently amusing, it is not as funny as the audience response suggests, nor is it particularly comfortable to spend 90 minutes having a pop at women and little else. It does show how good his delivery is though because he makes a lot of it work with his chemistry and charm with an audience, but he cannot do it all.

In the end what we have is a comfortable pair of slippers – familiar, imperfect, but well worn and comfortable. Those looking for sharpness or novelty need not bother here, and those that do should not set their sights too high. It is still funny in a gently amusing way (with a handful of good laughs in there) but generally it is very old school in its content and style.

Bill Cosby has been an artist who has always been around who I never took the time to familiarize. Growing up, he was always the Jello guy and then later the host of the hilarious Kids Say The Darndest Things. A few Youtube clips aside, I have not seen any of his standup specials in completion.

The simplicity and universalness of Cosby's comedic material is the price of admission. Most of the act is themed towards dissecting love and marriage. The highlights for me were his opening bit about people's expectations of him swearing on Comedy Central, a bit about chess, and another where Cosby uses audience interaction to build a surprise twist.

Cosby's drawled out diction makes it hard to focus on what he's saying. I zoned out a few times because he took so much time between words. Maybe this is a case of me not being previously familiar with his past stand up specials, but there was much rewinding on my part. It is ultimately something one just tunes to or doesn't.

Cosby's persona and ability to act out his concepts makes up for it. His facial expressions are world creation; they instantly transport the viewer and place them where he wants to them to see the absurdity of his jokes. His persona is likened to an senile man trying to prove that his mind is still working. Don't be fooled, he's still very sharp. There's one noteworthy hilarious moment where he barks at the audience for finishing one of his punchlines. It still boggles my mind how he can rouse that much energy on stage sitting down.

Anybody who wants a laugh for an hour, I recommend it. Anybody can enjoy it.

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I do not and can not know the truth behind the accusations against Bill Cosby. I do know that there is no one on earth who has never done something they may be ashamed of. If the claims against Bill Cosby are true, then of course I agree that those actions were totally wrong and I speak out against them boldly. But I am not perfect either, and Bill Cosby has done amazing things to bring joy and racial unity with his career.

I have been looking forward to Cosby's return to the stage, ever since Comedy Central began advertising the hell out of it weeks in advance. However, upon viewing, I couldn't help but to feel sad for the ol' legend himself. Unfortunately, most of his jokes were either so incoherent that didn't make sense and couldn't land a genuine laugh, or they simply weren't that funny. As a good friend of mine said "he's telling life stories... amusing anecdotes at best". Of course he elicited the occasional laugh or giggle in me, but the atmosphere throughout the entire thing just felt uncomfortable.

In contrast, the audience was often losing it with laughter. It genuinely makes me wonder: Were the laughs cued? Did they simply laugh in respect? Or even pity? I'm really confounded, and unsure of where it went wrong. Bill Cosby is a very funny man, but it seems something was lost in translation. In the end I question comedy central more than anyone, after all, I can't see any other reason to air this with so much publicity other than to exploit him.

On a positive note, it was great to see the man back in the spotlight and on the stage! I really appreciate his performance as well as his willingness to perform, because if it failed in every other area, it at least succeeded in satisfying that thirst fans like myself have for some more Cosby.

2/10