Stephen Colbert has this thing he does on his show — The Colbert Questionert, pronounced "Colbaire Questionnaire" — in which he asks guests fifteen questions that supposedly enable us to "know" them. A friend made me answer it the other day and one of the questions is: "Name something you own that you really should throw out."
My answer? My Bill Cosby records.
Actually, I should probably throw out all my records. There are a thousand in my living room and among those, there are maybe ten I might want to listen to again but don't have on CDs or as MP3 files. I also do not have a working record player. But "My Bill Cosby records" sounded like a clever response…and I probably will never listen to them again. It's not just that I think he's guilty of heinous crimes. I just never found his records — or him on TV — uproariously funny.
My qualified admiration for him as a comedian all flows from seeing him perform live at Harrah's in Reno in the early eighties. Had he not done it all sitting down, I would call his act one of the three-or-so greatest stand-up performances I've ever seen. (Albert Brooks would be one of the others and I'm not sure who'd fill out the list…probably Carlin, maybe Klein.)
But I still kinda have that quandary about separating the art from the artist…and not just about him. There are comic book guys and authors and other kinds of folks who produce creative work who disappointed me as human beings for one reason or another. I dunno how many of you could look at their work and enjoy it just as much after that disappointment. I don't think I can.
If you told me Mr. Cosby was performing down the street from me doing the same kind of show he did in Reno and doing it just as well, I don't think I'd go. Even if my attendance would not put another dime in his pocket and would not be taken as forgiveness or denial of his misdeeds, I don't think I'd go.
I've been thinking about this since I read about a four-part documentary that is soon to commence on Showtime. It was written and directed by comedian W. Kamau Bell and — well, here: Watch this trailer…
It starts next Sunday night and I just set my TiVo to record all four parts. I'm not sure what it will tell me about William Henry Cosby Jr. that I don't already know. I'm just thinking it might help me figure out how to deal with the kind of disappointments I mentioned a few paragraphs ago. I'll let you know if it does.