Cosby

It was comedy, not controversy for comedian Bill Cosby as he performed before a packed house this week at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. His appearance Tuesday night was part of the Distinguished Speaker Series of Southern California.

"I'm in trouble if I speak, but if I perform, I will not be in trouble," he joked as he sat at a small, round table in the middle of the stage with a bottle of water, a glass and a small box of tissues. He was relaxed in trousers, slip-on shoes and a gray sweat shirt with rainbow letters that read, "Hello Friend."

Cosby, who has a doctorate in education, does tend to draw criticism when he makes bold political statements or speaks out against other African-Americans, suggesting many hurt their own causes by behaving like stereotypes.

On this night, though, he mostly stuck to the material familiar to his fans: family, friends and the things that eventually ail us all — like age.

One part of his monologue centered on a table of old men at his grandson's birthday party. One guy had a hearing aid; another sitting next to him had stainless steel-rimmed glasses. Every time the guy with glasses would lean over, "this guy's hearing aid would —" Cosby gave a long whistle as he continued, pausing after each phrase for bursts of laughter from the crowd. "He'd say, Hey! In the kitchen! You got a teapot in there?' No, we don't have a teapot.' Well, somebody at this table is flatlining!'"

"It was observational humor," said audience member Joan Kolkey of Moorpark. "He has impeccable timing. That's what separates him from other comedians."

It's the comic currency that made his 1984-92 sitcom "The Cosby Show" a world-class hit and sold millions of copies of his books, "Fatherhood" and "Time Flies."

His grown children still tend to perplex him: "Our daughter bought a dog," he said. "The dog is the size of —" He picked up a Yorkshire terrier-sized tissue box, stared at it and screwed his rubbery face into an expression of utter confusion as he shared the remark he made to his daughter: "I do not understand why you have a handbag and put something in it that poops."

Before the laughter subsided, he said he asked his daughter: "You reach in to get your keys and doesn't that frighten you?"

After avoiding politics for almost all of his two-hour show, Cosby finally indulged himself with a comic swipe at President George W. Bush.

"It's never been done," he said, using his signature pause, "but I have a thought." Pause. Ripples of laughter from the audience. "I don't think it's too late." More laughter. "We could offer him a buyout."