Bill Cosby is 5 Percent!
On Saturday Jan. 21st Me, some Chaperones and some Students from my L.I.F.E. Program went to see Bill Cosby at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel here in Atlantis (Niagara Falls, NY). As an Employee at the SNCH I have had the wonderful opportunity to network with many people in different Departments and build good relations. One of those networks is with the Director of our Entertainment Department Karen who (through conversation) encouraged me to put in a request with our Executive Office to get tickets donated to my Program for my Student s to see Bill Cosby. After following through with her advice, I was successfully able to secure 15 tickets ($60 each) for us to go to the show!
Now to give you alittle insight into the show first I gotta’ give you a perspective of the audience, 85% Colored (White) and Middle Aged (between 40-55). The rest of the audience was comprised of people of different ethnicities, ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. Starting on time, Bill Cosby came out and got directly into conversation. It’s funny because he wasn’t performing, acting or even doing comedy as some people “think”, he was just being himself and sharing his perspective on life situations! I think that people have underestimated Bill Cosby’s sense of self identity and political consciousness as well, b.u.t. he is indeed a very, very political person! Even more so than a Chris Rock or Dave Chapelle simply because Bill Cosby is a lot wiser in his subject choice and his ability to articulate it without offending someone. Here’s an example of what I mean when Bill Cosby got into talking about ethnicities:
“Back in the early 1960’s when I worked with Warner Brother’s it was very segregated. I mean all of the stage hands were white and there were no black people anywhere. I had the opportunity of working with this one African American who was very, very light skinned who happened to get into the union at the time. You know he was very, very light skinned, his hair wasn’t tightly rolled and his features….his feature’s you know they weren’t very Sphinx-Like or like those of the Nubians. And you know, different ethnicities have way of identifying eachother regardless of where they may be. For instance if your Italian and your working around all Polish people and another Italian person walks in you look and at them and kind of give them a kind of wink and a nod (of acknowledgement)! Well, when I met Hernandez and we seen eachother he gave me “The nod” as if to say “Yeah I’m here and they have no idea who or what I am.”
Seeing Bill Cosby gave me a new appreciation for people who exist in the sphere of Comedy. Comedians are Magicians are like Alchemists! To have an ability to cut across all ethnic, age and socioeconomic divisions and transmute a subject to articulate it’s universality it’s the work of a Master! Laughter is “Understanding” and to have the ability to instantaneously get people all to agree is Supreme Enlightenment! Here are some of the humorous lesson’s Bill Cosby dropped about different subjects:
Age, Doing the Knowledge and Trust
“As you get older you learn to just not say anything. Me and my Wife Camille often sit in the house for hours in the same room without saying a word and it’s beautiful, it’s peaceful. When she asks me to go places I don’t even ask anymore, I just go. I know she’s not going to take me to someplace weird like a XXX Adult Porn Shop or something like that.
Women and eating the Right Foods
“As you get older your wife starts to talk to you and treat you like a Little Leaguer or something. She starts laying your clothes out and stuff and you can’t even eat what you want anymore. She gets your food and gives you what she wants you to eat. I was at this party one time for this 1 year old person and 18 other 1 year old people who don’t even know it’s a party, and I was sitting at a table full of other Grandparents and Great Grandparents and all of our wives were in the kitchen pulling the skin off of stuff and rinsing gravies and sauces off. My wife brought my a half of turkey leg with sink water still dripping off of it and this one guy sarcastically asked any of the other fellows at the table if they wanted to try his cold slaw that had been rinsed off, you can still smell the mayonnaise!”
Potting Training and Living a Beast Life
“ My daughter has been trying to Potty Train her child and she had her sitting on the toilet on top of the snap on chair that’s the size for children. You know it snaps right on to the toilet. My daughter is all intellectual and she’s sitting across from her 2 year old daughter reading a book called Everybody Poop’s (Bill rolls his eye’s in the back of his head and say’s “ya think”!). She’s reading her this book about some broccoli traveling through this and that and it’s making juices here and etc.. . See, my Father trained us. He just took us to the park one day, took all of our clothes from us and told us we can either use the bathroom like other human beings or live with the animals! I’ve never had a problem since.”
Word is Bond
“Back in 1967 I lost the key to the house and my wife made sure she told me that she had to change every lock in the house. Since 1967 I have never had a key to my house! I will leave to tomorrow and a fellow will pick me up from the airport and drive me to my house. This fellow has a key and he doesn’t even live there, yet I still do not have a key.”
Bill Cosby is has often been called “America’s Dad” and I can see why! As Father, he has been able to touch audiences of people (especially Caucasians) far and wide with a sense of knowledge, direction, discipline and compassion that only a Father has. As a Comedian, it is also indicative of having a higher consciousness! Not only must you be aware of current events and global affairs but you must also be well read (books, situations and people) in order to critically analyst your subject matter to see the humor in it. No Comedian is not dealing with a high level consciousness and Bill Cosby has been one who has been doing it for over 40 years! It tells you something that he’s swift enough to make a 6 year Original Boy and an 85 year old Caucasian laugh at the same time!
In closing, I would like to say that those people who seem the most neutral, who appear the most accommodating are often times the most politically dangerous! Don’t sleep on Bill Cosby, we have a jewel within our midst! In the truest sense of the concept “Father of Civilization”, Bill Cosby is a living example of this. If you ever hear that he’s coming to town don’t hesitate to go see him, you will not be disappointed!
