5 things you don’t know about Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby, iconic comedian, author, actor and social commentator, winner of eight gold records, five platinum records and five Grammy Awards.

A few weeks ago, as Bill Cosby emceed the opening of the San Francisco Jazz Center decked out in a sweatshirt and headset, he joked around with violinist Regina Carter and played cowbell with drummer Pete Escovedo.

At one point, he even yelled out, “You forgot the tune!”

By now it was a familiar routine — the rambling insights and dramatic pauses with puckered lips and wide eyes.

But, only a couple miles away, nearly 50 years ago, long before the motley “Cosby Show” sweaters and Jell-O brand pudding pop ads, Cosby was just another 20-something kid working out a comedy routine at the hungry i nightclub in North Beach.

It was the early 1960s. He was making $750 a week. One night, producer/director Carl Reiner convinced “I Spy” producer Sheldon Leonard to drop by the hungry i and check out the young new comic. The rest is history. Cosby would be the first black actor cast in the lead role of a television drama.

Over the years, his easy-going patter, observational humor and vocal sound effects led him from “The Electric Company” and “Fat Albert” to the groundbreaking “The Cosby Show.”

This year, Cosby celebrates 50 years in the business. Before the 75-year-old comedian returns to the Wells Fargo Center Friday (Feb. 8) night, here are the Top 5 things you should know about Bill Cosby:

1. First, let’s get the sweaters out of the way: Those brightly woven relics of the 1980s were on parade in nearly every episode of “The Cosby Show.” And even though the Smithsonian has Archie Bunker’s chair and Jerry Seinfeld’s Puffy Shirt — relics of classic TV episodes — there’s no Cosby sweater on display, at least not yet.

“I don’t know where those sweaters are, but Mrs. Cosby does,” Cosby has said. “And I would assume that they will remain ‘where they belong’ until my death, when my wife and children will take great pride in auctioning them off.”

2. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Cosby and his wife Camille live in a 19th-century farmhouse outside Amherst, Mass., not far from where he earned a master’s degree at the University of Massachusetts. They met on a blind date when Camille was a psychology major at the University of Maryland and Cosby was working the comedy circuit.

The letter “E” has always held a special place in their hearts. Their four daughters are named Erika, Erinn, Ensa and Evin, and his late son, Ennis. Crosby created a scholarship in honor of his son at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania, several years after Ennis was killed in an armed robbery while fixing a flat tire on the side of a Los Angeles freeway in 1997.

Ennis’ favorite greeting, “Hello, friend!” is often used by Cosby and later became a catchphrase for his “Little Bill” character on the Nickelodeon series of the same name.

3. Reviews of Cosby’s recent comedy shows are mostly raves. Just a few weeks ago in Michigan, it went like this: “The audience, having had a chance to see an hour and 45 minutes of a classic comic who’s still a master at work, gave Cosby a standing ovation.”

Before that, in Austin, he “had the audience in a constant state of laughter.”

But unlike live comedy routines and TV shows, where he’s racked up nine Grammys and three Emmys, there’s something about his humor that has never fully translated to the big screen. Films like “Mother, Jugs and Speed” (co-starring Raquel Welch), “A Piece of the Action” and “Leonard Part 6” are not likely to land in many Netflix queues these days.