One day after making jokes about drugging drinks from his seat onstage, Bill Cosby faced a massive in-house protest at his third and final Canadian performance this week. His drugged drink riff drew only one loud protester on Thursday night, but Friday’s show, in Hamilton ON, faced a far larger disruption: a group of approximately thirty women, or one for each woman who has so far accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, stood up and chanted “We believe the women” in the middle of the show. Here’s the video of the exchange:
At the beginning of Friday night’s show, Cosby addressed the possibility of a protest or interruption without mentioning specifically any of the allegations that led to such an attempt. “Whatever happens here tonight,” Cosby said, “if there’s some sort of outburst, we just have to remain calm and things will be taken care of. It oughtn’t last that long. I want to thank all of you here tonight because you stayed with what you believed in.”
In addition, venue staff said that in the event of a disruption, all ticket holders should remain calm and in their seats until any such situation could be resolved. This happened before Cosby even took the stage.
It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks even by Cosby’s recent standards. Three more women came forward to accuse him of misconduct and outright rape, while former TV wife Phylicia Rashad doubled down on her belief that some sort of conspiracy is at work against the besieged entertainer. And Cosby himself remained committed to the Canadian shows despite enormous controversy and pressure on the venues to cancel them–which controversy began when Judd Apatow went on his now-infamous anti-Cosby Twitter screed, and called the venues out for keeping the shows on their books.
Canadian venues, it turned out, cannot cancel performance contracts without risking huge lawsuits. It remains to be seen how many more of Cosby’s American concerts will be canceled. The 77-year-old’s tour still consists of approximately two dozen dates, beginning next weekend in Pueblo CO.
(Photo credits: WENN)
