Bill cosby in Comedy

"Bill Cosby Collection" (04/19/2002) Comedy Cosby, Bill, EMI Music DistributionLegendary comedian Bill Cosby shares his addictive brand of humor on this extensive double album, which features his work from the 1970s.

"Why Is There Air?" (04/14/1998) Comedy Cosby, Bill, Warner ArchivesLiner Note Author: Stan Cornyn. Recording information: Flamingo Hotel; Las Vegas, NV (1964-1965); The Falmingo Hotel, Las Vegas, NV (1964-1965); The Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas, NV (1964-1965). Photographer: Ed Thrasher. Unknown Contributor Roles: Allan Sherman; Roy Silver. As the comedian's star continued to ascend, Bill Cosby's third long-player, 1965's Why Is There Air?, became his first to crack the Top 20. Family-friendly humor -- along with increased exposure on the mid-'60s TV talk and variety show circuit -- gave Cosby an edge that many of his contemporaries weren't privy to. Captured live at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, this 40-minute outing is packed with more classic ripping yarns that draw upon Cosby as a child and young adult. The stories become all the more riveting and relatable in great part due to his off-the-cuff and conversational delivery, which ultimately draws the listener in. For practically anyone growing up stateside in the '50s, '60s, or early '70s, Cosby's reminiscences of "Kindergarten" will assuredly conjure memories of being fed a "snack" of an "old, dried-up, brown, nasty-tastin', gag-ya, stick-in-the-throat graham cracker" with milk "that has been sitting on the radiator for about 80 years" to wash it down. Indeed, as Cosby concludes, "there's nothin' in the world better for a bunch of five-year-old kids than good ol' lukewarm, curdling milk." The artist also defines "idiot mittens" and provides insights regarding children who suffer from their first bouts of separation anxiety. "Personal Hygiene" and "Shop" give his audience a peek into Cosby's junior high school antics, including the comedian's experiences of the eternal vagaries, not to mention the awkward nature, of gym class and the relatable despondency of "...anything I every tried to make always turned out to be an ashtray." Cosby addresses his current state of affairs on "Baby" -- which finds our hero discussing the joys and paranoia of expectant fatherhood -- and one of his all-time classic routines, describing his observations when "Driving in San Francisco." Continuing with tales of his pre-showbiz days , both "$75 Car" and "Hofstra" deal with college life. The former includes the great philosophical debate of "Why is there air?" -- the answer of course being, to inflate volleyballs and basketballs. ~ Lindsay Planer 1965's WHY IS THERE AIR? is part of the classic string of comedy albums which helped make Bill Cosby's name in the mid-'60s. Cosby first came to national prominence as the co-star of the TV series I SPY. However, he was first and foremost a sharp, clever nightclub comedian, spinning stories based on his Philadelphia childhood and adolescence into comedy considerably more clever and occasionally more acerbic than people who know him from his '80s and '90s TV work might expect. The highlights of this album include the schooldays remembrances of "Kindergarten," "Personal Hygiene," and "Shop," but the final track, the eight-minute "Hofstra," is a Cosby classic. Painting vivid word pictures of a college football team's humiliating defeat, Cosby delivers one of his all-time classics, up there with "Noah" and "200 M.P.H."

"Wonderfulness" (04/14/1998) Comedy Cosby, Bill, Warner ArchivesBill Cosby cracked the Top Ten album chart with 1966's Wonderfulness, his fourth long-player in less than two years. This was indeed a sizable feat for a comedian during the height of the mid-'60s British Invasion, but not surprising in the case of Cosby. His exposure on the talk and variety television circuit of the mid-'60s had increased thanks to his co-starring role in the NBC-TV network program I Spy. Once again, he is caught in the act of being one of his era's funniest standups, and one who never resorted to debasing his craft by filling his repertoire with cheap sex, drugs, or race-related jokes to garner a laugh. Instead, he remains faithful to his proven successful equation of easily relatable narratives -- in front of a typical nightclub audience at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe. The 15-minute-long epic "Tonsils" is among the artist's most beloved raps, and takes the listener through a wide-eyed child's perspective of the entire procedure from sore throat to the battle-like "us or them" mind games that Cosby and his fellow kiddie comrades play on each other. Particularly memorable is the ice cream chant that Cosby leads his hospital cohabitants in and how by the end of the ordeal their priorities had radically changed. Equally as charming in its innocence is "The Playground" -- where he discusses the theory that the "grown-ups" of his time were trying to "bump us off" by clearing perfectly good fields and vacant lots in order to build potentially dangerous "monkey bars." To wit, he muses, "We lost 124 kids in one day." To the same whimsical effect, "Go Carts" recounts with genuine fondness a youthful ingenuity that inspired him and his pals to "borrow" all of the neighborhood baby coach wheels for use in the "Go Cart Championship of America" and the 900 cop cars that await the "winner" of the race. "Chicken Heart" is another of Cosby's more involved works, featuring some unforgettable incidents when -- against his parents' orders -- he tunes in an episode of Lights Out. The concluding "Niagara Falls" marks an interesting diversion, as the artist actually spoofs a man whom he warmly refers to as "his boss" -- old-school showbiz legend Sheldon Leonard, who was also the producer of the aforementioned I Spy. The story of Leonard's swimming in frigid Lake Niagara on his honeymoon predates the Seinfeld concept of "shrinkage"; however, the premise remains the same. ~ Lindsay Planer Anyone whose first experience with Bill Cosby was through the cartoon FAT ALBERT may be surprised to discover that some of those characters and stories date back to the comedian's earliest stand-up work. (Anyone whose first experience with Cosby only dates back to his 1980s role as Cliff Huxtable has been missing out altogether.) "Chicken Heart," a remembrance of listening to scary radio dramas (the story later became an entire "Cosby Kids" episode), is one of those classic Cosby combinations of narrative, character voices, and microphone sound effects that picks up hysterical velocity at the story's climax. WONDERFULNESS has a number of other standout pieces. "Tonsils" tells the story of a hospital visit in which Cosby and his two fellow patients are promised "all the ice cream in the world you can eat." "Go Carts" recounts a race down Dead Man's Hill ("It was called Dead Man's Hill because it went straight down, for about a quarter of a mile, and then it emptied out onto a freeway"). "The Special Class" and "Niagara Falls," about a couple of adults, are just as funny.

"When I Was a Kid" (05/03/2005) Comedy Cosby, Bill, DGC (David Geffen Company) (USA)Personnel: Bill Cosby (spoken vocals); Judy Collins (vocals). After signing with Uni Records in 1970 and issuing several albums' worth of material dealing in primarily adult themes, Bill Cosby triumphantly returns to weaving yarns about his youth and childhood acquaintances: Fat Albert, Dumb Donald, and of course, his brother Russell. This would also become the basis for his Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids animated series that became mandatory viewing for millions on Saturday mornings between 1972 and 1985. The continuity of story lines featuring his family which commenced with I Started out As a Child (1964) are virtually seamless with those told on this disc. This is evident in "My Father" and "My Brother Russell," highlighting the silly nature of kids and the often too-serious nature of adults. If anything, the intervening years seem to have given Cosby a degree of empathy conspicuously absent from his earlier monologues. Undoubtedly, this can be traced to the birth of Cosby's own children and the correlation between being a kid and having one. With his off-the-cuff delivery style, Cosby retains a freshness when verbally retracing incidence such as "My Hernia." "Buck Jones" hearkens back to the familiar "9th Street Bridge" saga from Revenge (1967), recalling "the gang" at the movies. The shorter observational pieces on "Snakes and Alligators" as well as "Dogs" and "Frogs" are less about children and sound like extensions of tracks such as "Dogs and Cats" from 200 M.P.H. (1968). The success of reviving this timeless cast of characters spawned the LP Fat Albert (1973). Sadly, though, Cosby very rarely incorporated these timeless and ageless characters into his latter-era standup. ~ Lindsay Planer