Bill Cosby Plans Comedy Tour in 2023 Following Prison Release

Comedian Bill Cosby is looking to return to the entertainment industry in 2023, according to a Dec.28 radio interview he had on “WGH Talk” with host Scott Spears.

During the interview, Spears asked Cosby, 85, if 2023 was the year that he finally might be able to tour again.

“Yes. Yes because there’s so much fun to be had in this storytelling that I do,” Cosby told Spears.

“Years ago, maybe 10 years ago, I found it was better to say it after I write it,” he added, referencing the 2021 news that he was working on a television show and book.

Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction

Back in April 2018, Cosby was convicted of a criminal sexual assault charge, with 60 women coming forward and accusing him. In the trial, Cosby was found guilty of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in his Philadelphia home in 2004.

Later, his sexual assault conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court in June 2021. Following the decision, Cosby was released from prison after serving nearly three years.

The news of Cosby’s comeback tour arrives just as five women filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Bill Cosby and NBC. The accusers claimed in court documents that Cosby either raped them or forced them to perform sexual acts when they were younger. Four of the accusers alleged that their abuse at the hands of Cosby occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the fifth accuser alleged that she was raped by Cosby in 1969.

The lawsuit was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York state law that temporarily suspends the statutes of limitations for sexual assault claims. As a result, the law allowes decades-old crimes to hold up in court.

Cosby’s representative, Andrew Wyatt, described the suit to Variety as “frivolous,” and stated that the five women involved were part of the “parade of accusers” who originally came forward in 2014 and 2016 when the accusations against Cosby came to light.

In the same statement to Variety, Wyatt also confirmed that Cosby was “looking at spring/summer to start touring.”