I saw Bill Cosby recently on the Daily Show where he was talking about his Comedy Central special; it wasn't a particularly good interview and I ended up skipping it before it finished. Despite that I thought I would check out his special as I do remember liking him and his unique style, but was wary that he hadn't held my attention for 10 minutes so maybe I wouldn't make it through the special. Fortunately Cosby is a lot better with a fixed routine rather than working partially on the fly with Jon Stewart and I do have to disagree with the couple of people leaving comments here saying how sad and unfunny it was.
However I must also disagree with the couple giving it perfect scores and praising it to the rafters, because this special is good, but not great. Cosby proves himself a good story teller and this is the approach of the show, funny stories rather than rapid punch lines – I can understand some may be used to "sound bite" comedy with lots of one liners, but to not have that is also OK. He is natural with his material and this helps the delivery a lot too – not many people would do a show sitting down but he does it and it works. The problem is with the material – it seems very old fashioned and lacking energy. This does suit his style for the evening but it is really very one note in its approach.
We start with him explaining how men make the mistake when they go from "girlfriend" to "wife" that they think the friend bit still applies; then he goes through the various hardships of marriage – most of which are the poor put upon men under the thumb of the domineering and unreasonable woman. This continues with stories using himself and his wife as the subjects and it really doesn't wander much from this theme. This "her indoors" material is very dated and while it is gently amusing, it is not as funny as the audience response suggests, nor is it particularly comfortable to spend 90 minutes having a pop at women and little else. It does show how good his delivery is though because he makes a lot of it work with his chemistry and charm with an audience, but he cannot do it all.
In the end what we have is a comfortable pair of slippers – familiar, imperfect, but well worn and comfortable. Those looking for sharpness or novelty need not bother here, and those that do should not set their sights too high. It is still funny in a gently amusing way (with a handful of good laughs in there) but generally it is very old school in its content and style.
However I must also disagree with the couple giving it perfect scores and praising it to the rafters, because this special is good, but not great. Cosby proves himself a good story teller and this is the approach of the show, funny stories rather than rapid punch lines – I can understand some may be used to "sound bite" comedy with lots of one liners, but to not have that is also OK. He is natural with his material and this helps the delivery a lot too – not many people would do a show sitting down but he does it and it works. The problem is with the material – it seems very old fashioned and lacking energy. This does suit his style for the evening but it is really very one note in its approach.
We start with him explaining how men make the mistake when they go from "girlfriend" to "wife" that they think the friend bit still applies; then he goes through the various hardships of marriage – most of which are the poor put upon men under the thumb of the domineering and unreasonable woman. This continues with stories using himself and his wife as the subjects and it really doesn't wander much from this theme. This "her indoors" material is very dated and while it is gently amusing, it is not as funny as the audience response suggests, nor is it particularly comfortable to spend 90 minutes having a pop at women and little else. It does show how good his delivery is though because he makes a lot of it work with his chemistry and charm with an audience, but he cannot do it all.
In the end what we have is a comfortable pair of slippers – familiar, imperfect, but well worn and comfortable. Those looking for sharpness or novelty need not bother here, and those that do should not set their sights too high. It is still funny in a gently amusing way (with a handful of good laughs in there) but generally it is very old school in its content and style.