Posted Tuesday, January 23, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Bill Cosby, in relative seclusion since an avalanche of women accused him of sexual assault, performed last night in Philadelphia before a live audience for the first time since his 2015 Cobb Energy Performing Arts show.
According to NPR, he showed up at the LaRose Jazz Club in Philadelphia and told stories before a heavily African-American crowd of about 50 people. Some media was invited as well.
He played drums, did some scat singing and told stories about his family, aging and blindness.
"You laugh when blind people walk into things," he said. "And guess what? Blind people laugh when sighted people fall down. Ha ha ha ha."
Cosby is facing a second trial in April regarding three counts of aggravated indecent assault from 2004 for allegedly drugging and molesting a woman. A previous trial last year ended in a hung jury.
The former "Cosby Show" star chose not to address any of his legal issues before the crowd. Read more here.
Gloria Allred, the attorney who represented several of Cosby's accusers and was prevented from attending Cosby's Atlanta concert in 2015, said his various public appearances in Philadelphia is a blatant effort to influence the jury pool for his next trial and try to remind them of "his old television image of the friendly and easy-going Bill Cosby," that "the joking Bill Cosby of last night's show could not be guilty of the serious allegations of drugging and raping with which he is charged."
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