Meeting Bill Cosby

This past Thursday I got hooked up by Mayra with VIP tickets to see Bill Cosby. Not only did I get to see his show sitting in the second row, dead center, 8 feet in front of him, but I got to meet him before the show as well and take a picture with him.

I finally got to meet a comedy LEGEND! And if you note my comedy inspirations on my page, Bill Cosby is listed amongst them, and that was there before I even knew I was going to meet him. So don't think it was added as a suck up, because of meeting with him.

So the meeting with him was short. There was about 20 VIP people who got to meet him beforehand. The only reason I was able to meet him is because Mayra's boss is a bigwig who is on the Board of Directors for the OC Fair, which is where the show took place.

So me and Mayra walk up and shake hands with him. Mayra introduces herself and I tell him my name is Robert and he askes Mayra who I am. She tells him I'm a comedian "TOO". Now, I know that technically I'm a comedian, but this is Bill Cosby, one of the top 5 comedians probably of all time. I'm no where near his league. So when she said "too" I cringed a little. It's like someone who does amateur porn in his basement going up to Ron Jeremy and saying, yeah, I'm a porn star too. Yeah, you may do some porn, but your not up there with his status yet, no matter what your mom tells you.

So he's like "Oh really! Get out of here. Are you any good?"

How do you respond to this? Saying yes, makes you sound conceited. Am I good Bill? Hell yes, I'm good. I tell the best dick jokes in town.

But I can't say, nah, I'm okay or I'm decent, because even though it's Bill Cosby, you still have pride and want him to know you are funny and not just some hack off the street doing knock knock jokes. Plus, whenever you meet someone who does acting and comedy like I do, there's always a part of you that says, "Who knows, maybe he'll be like, hey why don't you open for me and do 10 minutes? And then I'll rock it, and he'll love it, and ask me to do more shows with him and then create a new sitcom for me and it'll all because of this one meeting with him!" It'll make a great E! True Hollywood Story, but isn't likely to happen.

So I respond with, "Yeah, I guess you can say I'm pretty good. I mean, I've performed on tv a couple of times." After this I felt like a big doofus and wanted to run away screaming like a little bitch. I've been on tv a couple of times? Is this really going to impress Bill Cosby who had one of the, if not the biggest, tv show hits? I was on SiTV and Live in Hollywood! Aren't you jealous of me now Cosby! Yeah, you may have hit tv shows, films, records and books, but I was on a show that came on nationwide at 1am Sunday mornings for a whole season before being cancelled! Take that!

So he responds to my pathetic attempt to impress him with a OOHH Really! TV huh!

This was very cool of him, because if I was him, I would have laughed in my face and smacked me and then said, what are you going to do about it? I'm Bill Freakin Cosby bitch!

Then he asks Mayra if I curse in my act. She didn't hear him at first, so she hesitated and my heart about dropped, because Cosby is a clean comedian who doesn't like comics who cuss. And yes, I may occasionally cuss if it's needed or if I'm in Oakland, but I try to stay clean these days. Finally, she says "no, he doesn't cuss. He's all about the college education." I'm not sure exactly how the college education was relevant or made any sense to the conversation, but I understand what she was trying to get at.

So we finish by taking our picture with him and then head out. The show was incredible. He sat there and did 1 hr and 45 min without even breaking a sweat. He's 69 years old and can do 2 hour shows like it's nothing. He sits most of the time with a mic attached to his ear, but he will still stand up to do some jokes or get on the ground to act out other bits. There was an audience of probably 5,000. It was packed, and everyone loved him. He can just tell stories all day and people will pay attention and laugh. I would love to be a comedian like him. I like to tell stories in my act, and to be able to do that much time is incredible. People struggle to get to 10 min, 30 min, and 45 min. Imagine doing 1hr 45 min and not even breaking a sweat.

So it was a great show. I got to finally meet one of the greatest comedians of all time. He's probably the biggest celebrity I've met so far in LA. I loved the show and most importantly, I'll soon have a new Myspace picture. And let's face it, it's all about getting the new Myspace Picture, right people!