COMEDY REVIEW : Bigger-Than-Life Cosby Does It His Way

Bill Cosby floats above the comedy scene like one of those giant balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. With his amazing popularity, which has resulted in an ability to make pots and pots of money, you have to marvel at how big he’s become, at the shadow he casts.

There’s an ease to his expertise, and a personal confidence that seems to say all the adulation is justified. Cosby’s been getting people to laugh at his little stories and cool antic ways for years, from his early stand-up and record career to his anchoring presence on television’s phenomenally successful “The Cosby Show.”

He brought that oh-so-comfortable style, and his looming star status, to the Celebrity Theatre on Friday night for a couple of rare before-the-mike shows. Cosby--who, according to a Celebrity spokesman, plans to use the material for an upcoming comedy album--was welcomed like a favorite son and kissed goodby with a giddy standing ovation; the audience, at least at the second performance, was just happy to bask in his glow.

The man who even turned the huckstering of pudding into a warm, huggy ode to kids didn’t disappoint these fans with his anecdotal, always autobiographical tales of Cosby days. He reminisced about owning a Ferrari, learning how to ski, his daughters’ dubious scholastic adventures and a visit to the dentist, and the crowd roared.

During the show’s highlights, Cosby further demonstrated what a good-hearted raconteur he can be, the mainstreamer who amuses without drawing too much blood and can often fill the vacuum by gigging on himself.

But the performance couldn’t be called an unquestioned success. It may have been from the vista of simple idolatry--he was up on stage going at it, in his trademark bright sweater, for about two hours, a long time for any comic--but there were lapses and gaps that stood out, maybe even more so because of his stardom.

The main annoyance is that he can go on; there are times when a listener might feel like the captive of a funny uncle who doesn’t know when to stop regaling the family with his jokes. That feeling came up frequently during his skiing routine and the dentist bit. Even someone with Cosby’s great body language can only do so much with mimicking the ordeal of trying on ski boots or writhing under the dentist’s drill.

To be sure, there were good gags in both routines (his reflection on the lift chair as “the rudest thing on the face of the earth” and his description of the lift ride that took him “2,800 feet above God, I could see people going to heaven.”) but he couldn’t sustain the momentum.

Maybe it was his design to toss out every idea. That would make sense if, as reported, he’s going to use the shows on an album. He’ll have the benefit of the editing studio to pick out the more potent passages.

Anyway, when he was on, he was very on. Such as when his Ferrari story veered into a witty rumination on a friend who started a relationship with a woman 30 years younger. He didn’t have to spell out how uneasy society feels about such joinings, he just chatted about the time when his pal brought her over to meet Cosby’s wife and some of her friends. From there, he talked about the “women of the tribe” and “the tribal elders” closing ranks to judge the two, and it was all entertaining and insightful.

Cosby banged the drum for education, one of his concerns, during the takes on his kids’ poor performance in high school and college. These revelations about his daughters and their chums were gentle and cozy, but the ironies were full of the message to do well in school.

When he self-deprecatingly re-enacted how he used his influence and money to get one of his kids in a good Ivy League college (“Well, dean, does your campus need a hospital?”), it was more than a comic take. It also said something about how the disadvantaged who are unable to rely on such maneuvering had better not miss out on any educational opportunities that come their way.