Readorama: Comedian Bill Cosby chose to tell stories, not jokes

Much of the discussion prompted by Mark Whitaker’s biography of comedian Bill Cosby has been about what the book doesn’t contain.

That includes detail regarding allegations of sexual abuse made by several women in recent years. Since Whitaker gained access to the entertainer while writing “Cosby: His Life and Times,” some have wondered whether Whitaker is serving as mere gatekeeper to the entertainer’s legacy.

“When I was able to confirm details and do some original reporting, I did that,” said Whitaker recently, adding, “It was never my intention that this be a tell-all about Bill Cosby’s private life.”

More interesting, Whitaker said, has been Cosby’s career and the impact it has had on entertainment history and American race relations.

Cosby’s 1960s television drama, “I Spy,” in which he appeared as equal partner to white co-star Robert Culp, Whitaker said, helped make feasible decades later the “Lethal Weapon” films of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. More significantly, he added, Cosby’s Huxtable family as portrayed in “The Cosby Show” of the 1980s rearranged the racial assumptions of Americans in a way few activists could have done.

That’s all the more interesting, Whitaker said, given Cosby’s decision early in his stand-up career to not mimic the topical and political humor of contemporaries such as Dick Gregory.

An epiphany occurred when Cosby was distracted in a restaurant by laughter at a nearby table.

“He sees all these folks laughing their heads off at one person, a man who is not telling jokes but telling stories,” Whitaker said. “But the stories are so funny that everybody is in stitches.

“For weeks after that, Cosby is thinking, ‘That is the kind of humorist I want to be. Not a joke-teller, but a story-teller.’”

Whitaker speaks at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St. For more info, go to KCLibrary.org.

Thorpe Menn winners

A Lee’s Summit author who described the male-dominant tradition observed by many in post-World War II South Korea has received the annual Thorpe Menn Award.

Maija Rhee Devine’s novel, “The Voices of Heaven,” had been inspired by her own childhood, when her father took a mistress after her adoptive mother failed to bear children.

The ceremony, held Oct. 4 at the Central Library, honored area authors for their work. Deborah Shouse, author of “Love in the Land of Dementia: Finding Hope in the Caregiver’s Journey,” and Suzanne Kelly, author of the novel “Stolen Child,” were finalists.

This story was originally published October 10, 2014 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Readorama: Comedian Bill Cosby chose to tell stories, not jokes."