Bill Cosby wants to return to touring in 2023

With his sexual assault conviction overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Bill Cosby may return to live touring sometime in the new year.

Cosby, 85, appeared on the Ohio-based WGH Talk radio station on Wednesday, where he discussed his possible return to standup comedy with host Scott Spears. Asked if 2023 could mark his return to touring, Cosby answered yes.

“Yes. Yes, because there’s so much fun to be had in this storytelling that I do,” Cosby said during the appearance. “Years ago, maybe 10 years ago, I found it was better to say it after I write it.”

Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s publicist, confirmed a return to the stage could come in 2023 in a message to the Hollywood Reporter, telling the publication that “we’re looking at getting back out here around Spring/Summer of 2023.

“When I come out of this, I feel that I will be able to perform and be the Bill Cosby that my audience knows me to be,” Cosby said on WGH Talk.

Cosby was convicted on a criminal sexual assault charge in 2018, and served about two years of a three-to 10-year sentence. He was released in 2021, when the state Supreme Court overturned his conviction. In overturning the conviction, the court ruled that a “non-prosecution agreement” that Cosby had with former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. prevented him from being charged in accuser Andrea Constand’s case.

As part of that agreement, Castor agreed that Cosby would never face charges in connection with Constand’s alleged 2004 assault if he testified in a civil case she filed against him. Castor’s description of the agreement changed a number of times over the years, though he has maintained his analysis of it has been consistent, The Inquirer reported in 2021. That year, six of the state Supreme Court’s seven justices agreed that it barred prosecutors from using Cosby’s deposition testimony against him at trial.

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider reinstating Cosby’s sexual assault conviction, ending a nearly two-decade legal saga. Following that ruling, Cosby issued a statement through his spokesperson expressing his “sincere gratitude to the justices,” and criticizing Kevin R. Steele, the Montgomery County DA who prosecuted him.

“This is truly a victory for Mr. Cosby,” Wyatt said at the time. “But it shows that cheating will never get you far in life.”

This month, five women filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Cosby and NBC, alleging they were assaulted or abused by the comic from the 1960s to the 1990s. In response to that suit, Wyatt asserted “this isn’t about justice for victims of alleged sexual assault, it’s all about money.”

Cosby hasn’t toured a standup act since 2015, when his tour of North America garnered protests amid mounting allegations of sexual assault. Cosby had not been charged at the time, and was arrested as part of Constand’s case in December that year.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Cosby said in a statement at the time. “I’m Far From Finished.”