Bill Cosby's return to stage Thursday night turned into a bizarre evening with a heckler in the audience and some jokes on stage that had some wondering if they'd really heard what they thought they'd heard.
A heckler interrupts Bill Cosby's latest performance, screaming, "You are a rapist!"
As the man was forcibly removed, Cosby tried to calm everyone down, saying “Stop it. Stop it. That's right. Shh, shh. No clapping, nothing. That’s all right. Okay. We just have patience.”
During the concert in Ontario, Canada, the 77-year-old embattled comedian even cracked a joke about the slew of rape allegations that have been made about him.
A reporter sitting in the concert hall tweeted that as a woman left her seat to get a drink Cosby told her, "You have to be careful about drinking around me. Loud gasps from the audience."
It’s an obvious reference to claims by so many women that Cosby spiked their drinks before sexually assaulting them.
The performance took place as angry protestors picketed outside the theater hoping to persuade fans to stay away. They sang, “Ho ho! Hey hey! We say rape is not okay!”
At the end of the performance Cosby was given a thundering ovation.
He later said in a statement: "2,600 loyal, patient and courageous fans enjoyed the most wonderful medicine there exists for mankind. Laughter. I’m far from finished."
Meanwhile, Phylicia Rashad, Cosby's TV wife, is coming under attack after expressing support for Cosby.
She told Nightline, “It's difficult for me to watch this legacy be erased, as if it never happened. There is the Constitution of the United States, which ensures innocence until the proof of guilt, and that has not happened.”
Reaction on Twitter has been swift .
One tweet read, “Disappointed in Phylicia Rashad's choice of words in support of Cosby. Tasteless”
Another wrote, “Phylicia Rashad has disappointed me.”
Movie director Judd Apatow wrote, “Phylicia, how many women need to be raped before you realize he destroyed his own legacy? 40? 50? For me it's one.”
