Yesterday I went to see Bill Cosby perform at the Apollo in NYC. I went with my father, and my cousin Matt Bellace who also does standup. Our comic friend Brad Trackman was unable to come because he was sick, so my father took his place. Lets just say Brad missed something that I will never forget. When I heard Cosby was performing at the Apollo for some reason I just new I had to be there. I've always regretted not getting to see some of the greats perform before they died. Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Pryor... This Cosby performance happened to be the day after Richard Pryor died. They had a sign on the chair on stage that said Richard Pryor and the day he was born and day he died. It was special that they cared. It always helps a comedian to feel like he’s making a difference in the world. Cosby hit the stage exactly at 3pm like it read on the ticket. Their were a bunch of seats still empty. I couldn't believe how many people came late to see this legend of comedy. Was this CPT? It was a mixed crowd, and mixed were late. Not us, we couldn’t wait. Cosby began his set by telling a short story about meeting Richard Pryor in Greenwich Village in the early sixties. The story basically was about how nice and honest Richard was. Cosby said "we got paid 60 dollars a week to perform... you know how old people say and that was a lot back then, well this wasn't". Big laughs. He took that energy and went into his act, and he had me and the crowd the whole set. His act had a theme throughout. If I had to sum it up it was about being married many years and becoming a grandfather. He really impressed me at dealing with some loud noise that happened back stage in the middle of his performance. I would have blew up out loud so the crowd could hear how I felt. He took off his wireless headset, said to the crowd hold on and walked back stage. Then returned about 20 seconds later and continued. A true gentleman and professional. When he said where was I? I laughed very loud and my father said be quiet. I wonder if Cosby new there was a comic in the house. Comics really laugh hard at mistakes, because they are very honest. His act was also very honest, and I truly saw why he was a star. By the way he performed for exactly 2 hours, and we were never bored. He does 20 minutes on each subject then moves on. OK here's the best part, because my cousin knew Cosby's old assistant we were on the list to meet him after the show. Someone on staff came up to us after the show and said only Matt my cousin could meet him, my heart dropped. It turned out Matt said we were his friends and forgot to mention we were also on list... Thank god it was cleared up. Now we’re all in line to meet him onstage. I was actually nervous, we were about to meet a legend. We walked up there and he shook our hands. Matt then mentioned that he was a motivational speaker who speaks to students. Cosby paused and said what do you want to know? It was awkward for a second and then Cosby said wait over here for a second. He went to say hi to a few other people, then returned to us. This part I'll never forget... He said get us some chairs to a stage hand... We sat down just like a few comics would in between shows, but we were on stage… and he started answering our questions. He told Matt that he has to know why he wants to speak to these kids about drug and alcohol prevention, and not to worry about being funny. Just make sure you achieve your intention. I asked him how he always remains so present? It seems comedy is easy when you're actually their and enjoying it. He told me to go to the book store and only read one quick story from his book Cosbitoligy. He said he’s wearing a bad red shirt… He then said you can read it for free in the book store. That's when I realized he was a real guy and comedian. He didn't say buy his book. He seemed to really care about us... He talked to us for about 30minutes about everything. He was exactly what he seems like on stage and on TV. What a great man. I didn’t get any pictures of us with him, I was too shy to ask. Go to my view all pictures, I have some ramdon other shots of the stage. I think it was better to talk to him like a fellow comic, instead of a fan of comedy. Even though I didn't take any pictures of Cosby it's all in my head. I’ll never forget Dec.11,2005