Bill Cosby – When I Was A Kid

When I Was A Kid
Bill Cosby
1971 30 minutes

When I Was A Kid, originally released on the Uni label in 1971 and now available on Geffen, is a collection of childhood stories from Bill Cosby’ s stand-up days after he left the Warner Brothers label. Recorded at the Westbury Music Fair, this Bill Cosby comedy CD will please comedy fans who enjoy his stories about his brother Russell and the kids he grew up with.

This is a good family comedy CD you can safely play to your kids on a long drive. There is something nice, cuddly, and safe about the funny stories in When I Was A Kid that makes for some very pleasant listening. This is clean comedy (unless you object to “What the hell?”) almost at its best.

The two strong tracks on Bill Cosby’s When I Was A Kid are My Hernia, a funny story about Cos getting a hernia and using is as a personal magic trick, and My Brother Russell, a slightly surreal funny story about Russell getting his face knocked off by his dad.

Stand-up comedy aficionados will find a few weak moments in When I Was A Kid. Buck Jones, a series of jokes about going to see a cowboy movie star doesn’t quite go anywhere.

Snakes And Alligators, My Boy Scout Troop, Dogs, and Frogs all start our strongly but quickly pewter out. It is as if Cosby had the beginning and middle of this autobiographical comedy skit but never found the right ending and basically gave up on it.

The sound quality on When I Was A Kid, and, unfortunately, on quite a few Cosby-Geffen releases, is uneven. It is not as bad as on It’s True! It’s True! but it is definitely uneven, especially from track to track.

When I Was A Kid is a good family CD.

Track list:

My Hernia
Buck Jones
Snakes And Alligators
My Boy Scout Troop
My Brother, Russell
My Father
Dogs
Frogs

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