Bill Cosby Still Planning Return To Comedy Touring

Controversial comedian Bill Cosby apparently aims to return to comedy touring later next year. Deadline reports that Cosby shared the news while speaking to host Scott Spears on "WGH Talk" during a radio interview this week.

Cosby, now 85 years old, told spears on the subject when asked if he'll return to comedy in 2023, "Yes," adding, "When I come out of this, I feel that I will be able to perform and be the Bill Cosby that my audience knows me to be." Cosby continued that there is "so much fun to be had in this storytelling that I do."

Cosby has not performed on stage since May 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia as part of his "Far From Finished" tour. In 2014, there were plans to release a new Netflix standup comedy special for Cosby, "Bill Cosby 77," but the standup film was canceled due to multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and assault that were against him.

In April 2018, Cosby was convinced of criminal sexual assault charges. He was later found guilty of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in his Philadelphia home in 2004.

After Cosby served three years in prison at Pennsylvania’s State Correctional Institution at Phoenix, his conviction was overturned in June 2021, after it was determined by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania determined that his conviction was a violation of his constitutional rights.

As reported by The Blast, Cosby was already planning to go back on tour as early as last year. However, those plans were later put on hold after Judy Huth filed a civil lawsuit against the comedian. Huth previously sued Cosby in 2014, alleging that he sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Manion in the 1970s when she was 15 at the time.

That lawsuit later went to trial in the Spring of 2022. The jury ruled in Huth's favor and awarded her $500,000, as reported by The Wrap. Cosby did not attend or testify in the trial. During the trial, Huth revised the timeline of the alleged assault taking place from 1974 to 1975, meaning she would have been 16 at the time it took place.

Cosby's team unsuccessfully tried to have the case thrown out as a result of the legal change. His previous deposition for the case took place in October 2014. Huth's case was a leftover legal claim after Cosby was released from prison in 2018. He did not have to face any jail time as a result of the jury's ruling.

Additionally, Cosby also faces a lawsuit from five women that was filed in New York state court earlier this month, per Deadline. The lawsuit includes two former actresses from "The Cosby Show" and three other women, alleging sexual assault and battery. Cosby and NBCUniversal were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs are alleging that they were raped or forced into sexual acts by Cosby in the late 1980s or early 90s when Cosby was still at the height of his fame as the star of "The Cosby Show," which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1992.

More than 60 women have come forward with allegations of Cosby drugging and assaulting them over multiple decades, using a combination of pills and alcohol.

Speaking to Variety, a Cosby representative, Andrew Wyatt, says the comedian is planning on touring again in the spring/summer of 2023.