Before the sitcom king, there was the great stand-up comic. Recorded in Toronto in 1981, Cosby stays seated while offering up hilarious commentary on everything from drugs to child-birth.

Bill Cosby: Himself is a 1983 stand-up comedy film featuring Bill Cosby. Filmed before a live audience at the Hamilton Place Theatre, in Hamilton, Ontario, Cosby gives the audience his views ranging from marriage to parenthood. The film also showcases Cosby's trademark conversational style of stand-up comedy. For most of the performance, Cosby is seated at the center of the stage, only getting up to emphasize a joke.
Many of the comedic routines presented in the film were precursors to Cosby's successful sitcom The Cosby Show. An album of the same name was also released on Motown Records.
Samples of his routine were used by musical techno group Lords of Acid, for their debut album Lust on the track "Let's Get High", which including the lines "Let's get high, and have fun!", and "Turn on the sweat machine!".


Release Date: May 20, 1983

Distrib: 20th Century Fox Int'l Classics