Bill Cosby happily imparts parental wisdom at every turn

• Reprints

Bill Cosby’s 1964 album “I Started Out as a Child” will be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame on Feb. 12. | GETTY IMAGES

Updated: March 11, 2012 8:22AM

Sometimes, you will see a comedian whom you like from his or her television work and their act is radically different than their onscreen persona.

That’s the not case with Bill Cosby. The guy you remember from TV is the guy you’ll see live. His stage show is for people of all ages, although younger children and teens might not appreciate the humor.

“You find out as a parent that the five-year-old talks more than the nine-year-olds,” he said. “The nine-year-olds have started to make a connection that you’re more like a warden. You go through that phase of parenting where you really wanted to be a friend, but you didn’t realize through that process that the child really thought you were a servant named Mommy. Now you get to a place where they can do things, so you give them orders. The person who used to be a servant is now giving orders.”

Those nuggets of wisdom and more can be heard when he comes to Joliet’s Rialto Square Theatre on Feb. 10.

Maybe you know Cosby from his color barrier-breaking role on 1965 show “I Spy,” (where he won three consecutive Emmys). Maybe you watched the 1970s-era Emmy-winning cartoon “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids,” which he created and produced. If you’ve raised children in the last 12 years, it’s likely you’re familiar with the Emmy award-winning series “Little Bill” (based on his bestselling book series.)

But perhaps Cosby’s greatest contribution to American culture is “The Cosby Show,” the sitcom about a close-knit, upper-class African-American family that ran on NBC from 1985-92.

Cosby also recently released the New York Times best-seller I Didn’t Ask to Be Born (But I’m Glad I Was). The publisher came up with the clever title, he said. He wanted it to be Digression-ology, which is what he says he does onstage.

“The first chapter [is about] if the Native Americans knew back then what they know now, this country would not look the same, and it’s hilarious.”

Cosby has been married to his wife, Camille, for 48 years. They have five children and three grandchildren.

“You know, it’s the last child because the parents give that child to the siblings [to raise],” he quipped. “The parents give up. They are no longer interested in justice; they just want quiet.”

Cosby is eager to share more parental wisdom: “The worst parent in the world is one that is trying to make friends. Why would you make friends with somebody who doesn’t have a job, is always begging, late for this and late for that, showing no signs whatsoever of having any goals set? That’s called your kid. You’ve got to raise it.”

On shopping: “The husband’s whole thing, behaviorally, is to find some place to sit down. Right away. And let her go on about what she’s doing.”

On forgetfulness: “Kids forget things all of their lives, but when older people forget, people call it dementia. That’s an old people prejudice. It’s discrimination. From 60 on, you can’t forget anything, but your whole life as a parent, the kids have been forgetting things.”

On his standup show: “It’s the kind of relationship that we can connect with, but it really and truly is master storytelling. You are entertained by what I’m saying and you can form your own pictures of something, and you laugh, because generally I have hit the mark on the explanation.”

Cosby will soon have another career accolade: His 1964 album, “I Started Out as a Child,” will be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame Feb. 12.

“I am very . . . egotistical and protective of those first five albums I ever made. Because I feel those first five should be in the Hall of Fame, period. They speak of human behavior and connections,” Cosby said. “I say thank you, but I also feel that ‘Noah,’ ‘Bill Cosby’s a Very Funny Fellow,’ ‘Wonderfulness, ‘I Started Out As A Child,’ ‘To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With’ and ‘200 MPH’ . . . those things belong in (the) LP Recording Hall of Fame. There was a time in the late ’60s where I had four LPs in the Billboard Top 10. And I wrote every single word. And you thought I was just another pretty face.”

He’s also a comedian, writer, educator, actor, husband, father and grandfather. He was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center in 1998, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2009. The Paley Center for Media, at its locations in New York and Los Angeles, is celebrating Cosby’s 50 years in show business with programming through early March.

Annie Alleman is a local free-lance writer.