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59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The modern king of comedy at his funniest, January 31, 2004
I still have vivid memories of being a kid and hearing Bill Cosby do his The Dentist sketch on a show called Solid Gold. It was easily the funniest thing I had ever heard in my life, and I went around telling everyone just how hilarious Bill Cosby was. At the time, I only knew Cosby from his Picture Pages segments on Captain Kangaroo and the Fat Albert cartoons, and I actually felt like some type of visionary when a little television vehicle called The Cosby Show debuted soon thereafter based to a large degree on the comedy you will find on both the album and video of Bill Cosby, Himself. A few of the skits in this performance were translated almost directly to the screen in the show's first few episodes.The Bill Cosby, Himself video is hilarious; I still laugh every time I watch it, no matter how many times I've heard the routines. There was a time when I practically had The Dentist memorized, but I still love to hear it (and I felt privileged indeed to hear that story told again on the occasion I had to see Cosby perform live some years after this video came out). Cosby's humor resonates so well with audiences because he is describing and joking about things we all know and understand to some degree. He doesn't need to use foul language or tell dirty jokes in order to reach his audience. He comes in, sits in a plain old chair in front of the live audience at Toronto's Hamilton Place Performing Arts Center, and just starts talking about the humorous things in life. The audience feels as if Cosby is one of them, and the connection between audience and comic is immediate and powerful. The comic material on Bill Cosby, Himself, deals primarily with family life - marriage, children, etc. He makes the birth of his first child a hilarious journey into the delivery room, explains that parents age and lose a lot of their intellect because of the brain damage that characterizes all of their children, explains how differently his parents treat his own children compared to the way they treated him, offers a wonderful illustration of the talent fathers have of getting out of doing things, and describes quite vividly some of the antics of his own five children over the years. He also describes the typical weekend activities of people who go out drinking and questions just how hangovers and nausea can be considered essential parts of "having a good time." Bill Cosby knows people, and he knows what will make them laugh; he is also one of the greatest storytellers in the world. He is at his funniest on this video, and I really can't imagine there is anyone out there who would not enjoy watching Bill Cosby, Himself. This is comedy at its very best.
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46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You will laugh so hard you will cry!!!, December 22, 2004
This review is from: Bill Cosby, Himself (DVD)
I was so happy to find out this was coming out on DVD. I owned the video of this and watched it so much I ended up wearing the tape out. This to me is Bill Cosby at his stand up best. After all these years I still find myself laughing hard, with tears running down my face like it's the first time I've seen his performance. Bill Cosby is an awesome story teller. Hiss set is simple. The stage, and a chair. He tells a story and he really has something to talk about. Unlike some of the comedians to today that cuss to fill in the space where they ran out of things to say. Bill Cosby knew how to be funny without all the foul language.
I love it when he talks about his wife going into labor and grabbing his bottom lip and lifting it over his head screaming "I want morphine!!!!!" "Mom can't have drugs; the father can have all the drugs he wants." He talks about how his parents want to get into heaven and treats the grandchildren better then they treated him as a child. Brain damaged children, feeding chocolate cake to the children for breakfast. How fathers are more fun then Moms because fathers are allowed to have gas. The Baby poo poo. He talks about being high and laughing for no reason. Drugs and paranoia, Getting drunk, going to the Dentist. Brain Damaged children saying "I don't know" when you ask them a question.
You can appreciate the material because you can relate to it. Some of what Bill talks about you may have experience yourself, and now you can laugh about it if you did not laugh about it before. Granted the sound quality is not the best, but considering this was taped in 1982 you can't really be too upset. Just turn up the volume and enjoy!!! This is a wonderful, wonderful DVD you should own to round out your stand up comedy collection. You will watch this over and over, and laugh each time you view this DVD.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Proof that comedy today has lost something, October 14, 2001
Being a guy who sometimes stays up late on Friday nights, I see a lot of comedians on those 2a.m. shows that run comedian after comedian. Almost every one them tells tasteless jokes, filled with comments about (bad) intimacy with the girlfriend or specific bodily functions. The tasteful comedian is a dying breed it seems. Humor has descended to its lowest common denominator.
Bill Cosby, Himself is great proof that you don't have to be tasteless and obscene to be funny. His comedy is clean, and has always been, which makes him a breed of performer I find to be very rare in today's market. It is this fact, and the fact that he somehow is able to capture life in its truthfulness and bring out the humor in it that makes him among the best comedians of the past 50 years.
For me, a guy who's had extensive dental work done, every time I see the dentistry bit, I can't stop laughing. He had it, right down to the sound of the pick on the teeth and the drill slipping. It wasn't funny when I was having it done, but Cosby somehow can bring it out. This is where his comic genius shines.
Cosby really is a genius. If you haven't seen this, it's definitely worth a look, as is just about any stand-up he's done.
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