I Started Out as a Child | 
 enlarge | Artist: Bill Cosby
Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $6.08
You Save: $3.90 (39%)
New (32) Used (13) from $5.54
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 1479
Format: Live
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 1567
UPC: 075992716321
EAN: 0075992716321
ASIN: B0000062TH
Release Date: April 28, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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| Tracks:
| • | Sneakers | | • | Street Football | | • | The Water Bottle | | • | Christmas Time | | • | The Giant | | • | Oops! | | • | The Lone Ranger | | • | Ralph Jameson | | • | Medic | | • | My Pet Rhinoceros | | • | Half Man | | • | Rigor Mortis | | • | The Neanderthal Man | | • | T.V. Football | | • | Seattle |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Here's a slice of Cosby before he became a major television star. At this point in time, the main appeal of I Started Out as a Child is its innocence. Recorded live at a Chicago club in 1964, the disc is a product of a now-quaint American scene, as yet untouched by the radical social changes that were just around the corner. Cosby pulls in the listener by introducing his only mildly humorous stories in a warm, intimate tone. Then he switches to using a variety of animated voices and vocal sound effects to get laughs from a responsive audience. If you want to enjoy the gentle ambiance and warmth of another time, this CD is for you. However, Cosby's at-times charming, skilled performance isn't enough to make this dated material funny. --Fred Cisterna
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| Customer Reviews:
 Wonderful! July 7, 2008
Mary McMillan (States)
I own several of Bill Cosby's cd's and this one is also a gem! It brings you right back to childhood. If you want to laugh; buy I Started Out as a Child! It is perfect for adults and children of all ages. Both my fiance and I grew up on Cosby's records and can recite his stories. We are now sharing them with our girls :)
Long-lasting, good-hearted, world-uniting humor June 13, 2008
Jean E. Pouliot (Newburyport, MA United States)
A long, long time ago, when I was a wee lad, I was a Cos fan. Listening to this wonderful 1964 collection of his sweet, everyman recollections from his own life, I find that I still am a Cos fan. This is the Cos that existed before Dr. Huxtable and before the big long stories -- Chicken Heart, Tonsils. Cos gives us a collection of short riffs on his life experiences. He jokes about the one kid in his group who owned with sneakers, and the humiliation of walking around with broken shoes. He tells of his days as a medic during WWII. He ruminates on the Lone Ranger from the subversive standpoint of Tonto and Silver, subtly moving our focus from the powerful white hero to the people and animals stuck doing his scut work. His story about waiting anxiously with his brother for Santa to come is funny and accessible to everyone.
In 1964, "nice" people did not talk about race. The closest a mainstream audience could get was to listen to a man of color talk about his childhood experiences. But just imaging an ordinary street populated by people with differently-colored skin was liberating and paradigm-destroying. His was a street on which black kids played the same football game as whites; his was a home in which a black father snores too loud; his was outrage and worry of a man being operated on by a doctor who makes a mistake. These are not experiences own by blacks or by whites, but by everyone. The laughter of the audience confirms the commonality of human experience shared by this black comedian and his (presumably) white or mixed audience. Hear the walls of racism begin to come down on this still-funny album -- and all without a single utterance about skin color. Amazing and still funny nearly a half-century after it was recorded!!
My 2nd-Favorite Cobsy Album! March 20, 2008
N. Flowers (Dover, DE)
When I was a kid (I'm only 25), I played by Mom's copy of this on LP over and over and over to the point that I knew every single word of every bit, and my mom had to take the LP away from me and hide it. I'm oh so glad to have this again, on CD. Now I can play it over and over again until my fiancee takes it away from me...
P.S. I put "2nd-Favorite" because, to me, Bill's greatest stand-up moment is the hilarious "Bill Cosby: Himself".
Bill Cosby - I Started Out as a Child March 19, 2007
Dan J. (Ohio)
One of the all-time classics. Masterful.
 The Essential Bill Cosby: The Sequel in Which Cosby Hits His Stride February 26, 2007
Daniel R. Sanderman (Portland, OR United States)
In my opinion, Bill Cosby hits his full stride in "I STARTED OUT AS A CHILD," the album named for the hilarious opening line of the first track. While one could see his potential in his first album, BILL COSBY IS A VERY FUNNY FELLOW RIGHT?, it is in this album that Bill first begins to explore topics concerning his childhood. In fact, the first half of the album is dedicated to such exploration; the second half is largely observational humor in the same style as his first album. The album would eventually go on to win the Grammy award for Best Comedy Album in 1964. It was well deserved.
The opening two tracks are my favorite tracks on the entire album: "Sneakers," in which Bill recalls the wonderful excitement of getting a pair of sneakers, and "Street Football," in which Bill describes a hilarious street football game and recalls the ridiculous plays a quarterback would call in the city. It still makes me laugh whenever I hear the line: "Cosby...you go down to third street...catch the "J" bus. Have them open the doors at thirteenth street...I'll fake it to you." Now, I can write out the line, but in order to do it justice, you just have to hear the absolutely perfect delivery that Cosby has. It is wonderful to listen to Bill develop his conversational style further, often leading into his bits with nothing more than "I remember when...". Bill Cosby is, perhaps, the best comedic storyteller of his generation.
But beyond his storytelling, Bill's observational humor is particularly sharp and, as always, timeless. "Oops" is a hilarious sketch that tries to imagine what a doctor says when he makes a mistake like the rest of us. "The Lone Ranger," a hilarious montage about the old radio drama, makes me laugh even though I've never heard the original program! Bill manages to setup all of his jokes without my knowing anything about the show he is referring to! Another interesting thing to mention about this sketch is that it is his complete bit about the Lone Ranger. I had originally heard this sketch on a different collection, but this particular track contains two extra minutes of material. The rest of the bit is hilarious.
"Medic" is one of the few bits inspired by his time in the Navy and explores the precarious life of a wartime medic. "T.V. Football" is an early rendition of a piece that would later appear on several live albums and collections. The piece is about when he was on the football team and was instructed not to touch "certain areas of your body" because the game was televised. Hilarity ensues after Bill takes a hard shot to a particularly sensitive area of the body. While the piece is undeveloped here, it is interesting to listen to how Bill massages the bit over time, eventually arriving at a hilarious routine.
All in all, Bill's second attempt in "I STARTED OUT AS A CHILD" is much stronger than his first. The audience appeal is much wider, ensuring that there is something for everyone. One only wishes that the album were longer so that Bill could develop his work even further. His next two albums would increase in length, from the thirty short minutes of this album, to forty minutes on his next attempt, all the way up to forty seven minutes by his fourth album. As the album length grew, Bill's style really began to shine. No longer did a bit have to be squeezed into a one to two minute window. Still, it is interesting to see the doctor of comedy at work in this shortened format. I highly recommend "I STARTED OUT AS A CHILD" to any fan of Bill's work or to anyone that enjoys stand-up albums. If you like good storytelling, you can't get better than this.
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