Legendary comedian Bill Cosby will take to the Music Center at Strathmore tomorrow (Thursday, Oct. 2) for the first time in his career.
Those who have followed Cosby throughout his more than five decades of comedy know to expect stories about his wife, his childhood and his kids—all with the dead-pan humor and trademarked Cosby facial expressions.
The 77-year old has made millions of people laugh—be it from The Cosby Show, his records or live performances—and doesn’t appear to have slowed down one bit. He continues to tour and next year will be back at NBC for a new family sitcom.
What people may not know about Mr. Cosby is that he’s a huge collector of pens, and loves to talk about his hobby. I recently had the chance to talk with the comedian about his interesting collection.
“My collection sits in my house. We are in Massachusetts and have some of the finest carpenters and I went to a young fellow and told him, ‘these pens deserve a non-factory home’ and he made me three handmade cases from wood,” Mr. Cosby says. “It makes me smile to walk past these 100-and-some pens and I’m smiling at the design.”
His interest in pens came from an experience he had as a youngster, when he received a fountain pen from his grandfather and was curious about the subject. Truth be told, that pen was lost when it fell out of his pocket during some downtime with his friends. In college, a pen became even more important to him.
“I had a pen, I don’t know where I got it but I know I didn’t steal it, and I’m 23 years old and a freshman at Temple University and I’m in remedial English, with this pen with Schaeffer ink,” Mr. Cosby says. “I have great pride in what I’m doing. I have no set goals of being in show biz or the arts. I am going to be a phys-ed teacher. I must know everything. I take out my yellow legal pad, I do my outline of what I’m going to write and then I begin to form this thing of 750 words, counting each word, and now it’s finished in pencil. Then, I break out the ink and the pen and carefully copy what’s in pencil. My sixth grade teacher had a style of writing that I copied. It was the most beautiful thing I ever saw.”
Mr. Cosby isn’t into the fancy extraordinary pen; he likes color and beautiful pens and has been collecting mostly fountain pens for close to two decades.
For someone known for telling stories and using his voice, the written word is very important to him. In fact, Mr. Cosby fears that it’s something that is quickly vanishing in America—especially among the younger generation.
“I have this concern, of children not knowing how to form letters with a pencil or a pen. The only thing they will probably understand is signing a piece of paper with their name,” he says. “They don’t know the importance of a letter that a person has written by hand, they understand words formed by a machine. I’m not putting computers down, but for a letter to someone, to send condolences, saying happy birthday—something heartfelt, when you write on a level of a Browning, a Shaw, a Mark Twain, people who dipped their ink, it’s a value.”
Catch Bill Cosby at the Strathmore at 8 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 2. For ticket information, visit www.strathmore.org.
