Bill Cosby Still the Same O'G

ONE OF THE FUNNIEST CATS IN THE INDUSTRY STILL AT IT AT 73 YEARS OLD

Bill Cosby's calm, home-spun delivery on the phone is the same carefully crafted style of storytelling fans see when he performs live.

The beloved 73-year-old comedian, actor and author with the ability to be funny without resorting to profanity will play the Orpheum Theater in Sioux City, Iowa, on Sunday.

During a recent phone interview, Cosby thought a while before answering whether he has changed the way he writes material for his generations of fans.

Don't rush an answer from this entertainment icon, or it could ruin a good story. When the pause seems too long and rephrasing of the question begins, he mock-snaps, "Give me a minute!"

Silence finally is broken with a breath and then two words from Cosby: "I'm 23." But then it's quiet for a while longer.

"I'm 23 and in remedial English," he continues, then stops again, perhaps building a mental image for himself and the listener.

"I'm a freshman at Temple University after putting in four years in the Navy starting at age 19, and I am the most excited freshman ever," he says.

Cosby's answer picks up steam as he tells how the professor instructed the class to write about the first time they did something, how he pored over the writing assignment (pulling his first tooth as a youngster) and how a week later, the professor scolded everyone in class for doing a lousy job.

Then to Cosby's shock, the teacher said one student did well, then read Cosby's composition outloud.

"I'm happily stunned and almost confused because I had never done this," he recalls. "And here this professor is reading my paper to the class as an example of how to think, how to do, and of course that opened a door for me."

Through that class, Cosby says he discovered that he could entertain people with his style.

During college when he was working as a bartender at the Cellar Bar in Philadelphia, an English couple got to know him, thought he told funny stories and got him a stand-up job at a club in Greenwich Village. His career expanded, and soon he was playing bigger venues and landed a spot on TV's famous variety program "The Ed Sullivan Show."