We Need to Talk About Cosbycreator W. Kamau Bell was recently asked his thoughts onBill Cosby’s announced plans last monthto return to the stand-up stage for a 2023 comedy tour thatnobodyasked for.
While appearing at Sundance to collect a nonfiction Vanguard Award, the acclaimed director and executive producer of the Showtime docuseries offered these comments, according toTHR:
“It’s clear to me that there are people around Bill Cosby who feel the need to keep his name in the press. He’s 85 years old. I don’t know a lot of 85-year-old comedians on tour, especially with his history. I know that my name is forever going to be tied to Bill Cosby because of this project, and I’m proud of the work put into it and I stand by it, but I won’t be buying tickets if he goes on tour.”
Bell tracked his journey from “weirdo” comedy fan to stand-up comedian to journalistic storyteller and documentary filmmaker, as he gradually worked to sort and refine his unique perspective about the world around him. He said attributing credit where credit is due was always important to him, as he asked himself frequently on set, “Whose idea was this?”
“It was a way to remind myself that this was indeed my idea. I could only blame myself. It was comforting.”
Bell admits to being a reformed Cosby fan in the Showtime documentary series, which he narrates, and he credits his own outsider status as the driving force behind his series – which takes a multi-angle approach to explain how Cosby’s rise to prominence gave way to a long history of criminally devious behavior, aided and abetted by a profiteering network power structure.
Related:Bill Cosby Eyes Comedy Comeback, Plans 2023 Tour
Cosby’s Crimes
Cosby was convicted in 2018 of criminal sexual assault by a Pennsylvania court, however the decision was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2021 after serving just three years in prison.
Speaking to WGH Talk host Scott Spears last month, Cosby said about his decision to go back on tour in 2023:
“There’s so much fun to be had in this storytelling that I do. Years ago, maybe 10 years ago, I found it was better to say it after I write it.”
Simultaneously,five women filed a lawsuit last monthaccusing the former NBC sitcom star of sexual assault occurring at the height ofThe Cosby Show. The lawsuit coincides with New York temporarily suspending the statute of limitations on older sexual crimes with the Adult Survivors Act. In June 2022, Cosby was ordered by a California civil court jury to pay $500,000 to another victim whom he was alleged to have sexually assaulted in 1975, when she was 16 years old.
