Saturday turned out to be a great day for The Performing Arts Center and for the Security folks. Starting with a call to the house from the Events office informing me Dr. Cosby would be coming in to the venue an hour EARLY. We scrambled, made some calls and had security in place before our performer’s arrival.

Dr. Cosby was in great form, and really seemed to have fun with all of the staff. A highlight was Dr. Cosby’s desire to go to the stage before going to the dressing room. He cut up with Tim Neece, Erin O’Neill, Joetta, Kimberly, Joli and I about the props, lighting, audio and very important, the exit strategy.

It seems that Dr. Cosby wanted VERY much to beat George Carlin’s exit time of 3.87 (or in his words, “beat a dead man’s time of 3.87”). He never said 3.87 what? Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks? No, huh uh. He instructed us about “The Dentist” bit. He always closes with…“When I start the Dentist, you will have 8 minutes, and when I look this way, (stage right) turn the lights on enough for a blind man to see, and walk me off the stage, out the door trying to beat the Dead Man’s record of 3.87. I will not stop to sign, talk or take pictures, I don’t want to see the driver with the door open going like this (nodding with a silly grin). I want the car backed up to the the door, with the motor running, pointing AT, the airplane, to beat George Carlin’s record of 3.87.”

He then ate a nutritious meal of fish and salad…right?

Two shows Cosby style. Guests, celebrities, dozens of meet and greeters, photo ops all running on Dr. Cosby’s schedule. God bless Tim Neece and the Events ladies, they kept it on course, well at least on the tracks.

Dr. Cosby is a rare gift that we’ve encountered. Besides having the patrons holding their sides, and wiping away tears from laughing so hard, he had the stage crew laughing, and the guards. It was a great night. Thanks go to Annette and the security staff who had dozens of autograph seekers just far enough out of the way on the loading dock as not to obstruct Dr. Cosby’s exit. Oh, and we got him to his car from the stage in 22 seconds. But not too sure how we did with the 3.87.

-Brent