I am performing in the Broadmoor Christmas Show this season. I love the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. The history and the old style elegance are tangible and pervasive. I guess my show biz pedigree stimulates a love for really great hotels. This one makes me feel like a Vanderbilt. There are plenty of places where I can sit and write while looking at the Rockies framing the lake. Or if I find that sort of view too distracting to concentrate I can find hundreds of other writing carrels from a dark wood Pub bar to a mahogany library. Currently I am in a large lobby like room with only a few desks. If there were fewer people it would be too much like the "Shining" but for me it is the perfect place to write.
The altitude takes some getting used to. I was late for a cue on rehearsal night and ran to get on stage. Bob and I made it but our breath did not reach us for several minutes. Funny the things we take for granted like breathing during the act.
The Broadmoor is all about history and they have old pictures and artifacts decorating the walls. I find that particularly fascinating and humbling. There is a hallway where pictures hang of all the celebrities and performers who have been here over the years. I get a warmth inside realizing one of my hero performers walked these halls before me.
One of the pictures on this "wall of fame" is Bill Cosby. Several weeks ago that picture might not have caught my attention among the rest. I liked Bill Cosby but he was never a hero of mine. I stood there for a moment wondering. If the walls of the Broadmoor could talk would they say more than has already been revealed about Cosby? It is easy to imagine that one of the beautiful bars at the hotel might have been the back drop for something other than Fat Albert jokes. There is even a rumor that Bill Cosby is soon to return to the Broadmoor for a few performances. There is no promotion of that event on site and scuttle butt has it that the performance will be cancelled. As much as I don't want to engage in the discussion of Cosby, it seems impossible to avoid. Like the Boradmoor wall of fame, there are so many places where his image has been given a special place that now flashes like a warning beacon.
The idea that a performer, especially a comic on the road, would have an eye for the women who would want to be "with" an icon like a Bill Cosby is not that unusual. And I have always heard that Cosby was a horn-dog with women. But what doesn't make sense is the drugging aspect of the stories. Why would he have to do that unless it is some weird sort of fettish ritual?
I have no skin in this game. I don't care what happens to Bill Cosby. I have no illusion he is any more than a successful television performer. He is not a role model nor a father figure, to me he is a massively wealthy comic who made it big with an act. I have known a lot of comics that were not the cute fun loving person they play on stage. If people feel betrayed because they held Cosby to a higher moral standard, the pedestal placers are to blame. If the allegations are true he should be punished like any other serial rapist. Unfortunately there will never be a judicial remedy, only gossip in the public forum. He is a rich man and the justice system operates differently for the rich. But Karma is a great equalizer. He has already been convicted and punishment given. No matter what, he will never be allowed to be Bill Cosby ever again. There will always be an asterisk, next to his name that will recount the revelations of the last couple of months. I doubt this will be of any comfort to the women who now feel violated and betrayed. But, perhaps for a narcissistic comic who wanted the world his way, it is cosmic justice.
As for me I am pissed that I allowed the contemplation of Bill Cosby invade this lovely day at the Broadmoor.
As you were,
Jay
The altitude takes some getting used to. I was late for a cue on rehearsal night and ran to get on stage. Bob and I made it but our breath did not reach us for several minutes. Funny the things we take for granted like breathing during the act.
The Broadmoor is all about history and they have old pictures and artifacts decorating the walls. I find that particularly fascinating and humbling. There is a hallway where pictures hang of all the celebrities and performers who have been here over the years. I get a warmth inside realizing one of my hero performers walked these halls before me.
One of the pictures on this "wall of fame" is Bill Cosby. Several weeks ago that picture might not have caught my attention among the rest. I liked Bill Cosby but he was never a hero of mine. I stood there for a moment wondering. If the walls of the Broadmoor could talk would they say more than has already been revealed about Cosby? It is easy to imagine that one of the beautiful bars at the hotel might have been the back drop for something other than Fat Albert jokes. There is even a rumor that Bill Cosby is soon to return to the Broadmoor for a few performances. There is no promotion of that event on site and scuttle butt has it that the performance will be cancelled. As much as I don't want to engage in the discussion of Cosby, it seems impossible to avoid. Like the Boradmoor wall of fame, there are so many places where his image has been given a special place that now flashes like a warning beacon.
The idea that a performer, especially a comic on the road, would have an eye for the women who would want to be "with" an icon like a Bill Cosby is not that unusual. And I have always heard that Cosby was a horn-dog with women. But what doesn't make sense is the drugging aspect of the stories. Why would he have to do that unless it is some weird sort of fettish ritual?
I have no skin in this game. I don't care what happens to Bill Cosby. I have no illusion he is any more than a successful television performer. He is not a role model nor a father figure, to me he is a massively wealthy comic who made it big with an act. I have known a lot of comics that were not the cute fun loving person they play on stage. If people feel betrayed because they held Cosby to a higher moral standard, the pedestal placers are to blame. If the allegations are true he should be punished like any other serial rapist. Unfortunately there will never be a judicial remedy, only gossip in the public forum. He is a rich man and the justice system operates differently for the rich. But Karma is a great equalizer. He has already been convicted and punishment given. No matter what, he will never be allowed to be Bill Cosby ever again. There will always be an asterisk, next to his name that will recount the revelations of the last couple of months. I doubt this will be of any comfort to the women who now feel violated and betrayed. But, perhaps for a narcissistic comic who wanted the world his way, it is cosmic justice.
As for me I am pissed that I allowed the contemplation of Bill Cosby invade this lovely day at the Broadmoor.
As you were,
Jay
1 comment:
2450As usual, wise words from a "wise man" also know as a very intelligent man ( Jay Johnson). thanks Jay.
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