W. Kamau Bell

speaker

1,269 appearances 5 recordings 5 series first heard Mar 2025 last heard 14 Oct

W. Kamau Bell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Oct 2025 with 1.

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Blocks: I Wish I Knew w/ Neal Brennan · W. Kamau Bell · 1 May 2025 podcast

So the decisions I made, if I had sort of denied my natural curiosity about this Cosby thing and just sort of, I don't know, took the gigs that I, took sort of more regular gigs, it would be better probably for my family's, I don't know, They wouldn't be taking on the slings and arrows that they take on because I'm like, I'm so curious. I got to figure this out.

Yeah, so none of it affects... The work of the documentary is the work of the documentary. And a lot of that, despite how the documentary is, is actually fun to do because you're trying to solve creative problems. And I'm really proud of things in there. It's a very well-made movie. I texted you or whatever. It's really good. Yeah, and there's a section where we talk about... We do an...

two and a half, like two episodes sort of giving you the history of Bill Cosby's current show business and talking about the crimes he committed, because a lot of people think it all happened later, but it was throughout his career. And then you get to episode three, where I've earned enough of your trust as a filmmaker who takes this seriously to do the lip sync scene from the Cosby show.

And go, this was awesome. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I'm really proud of the fact that I was able to take people back to that moment like, yeah, that was awesome.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And has to be reckoned with for the rest of American history. And has to be sort of like... And the whole doc is like, but we gotta reckon with all of it. I think if we don't reckon with all of it, we're... I think it's bullshit. I think it's bad for black people to not reckon with all of it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the way I said in the doc is that it's not about black wealth. It's about black money not being, money being not such a factor in every black household's decision.

Yeah. Like not like you're a doctor. They never there was never. No, no, no.

And the parents were able to make decisions based on what they wanted. Not can we afford it?

Which to me is like a different level of freedom that most black people don't have in this country.

Yeah, they were just like, should we do this? It's not good times.

Yeah, we might have to.

It's like the side effect from the medicine didn't kick in for a long time.

Yeah, I think that like, I'll just say this. I've talked to people just around the making of this, who feel like I owe my entire career, and these are black people, to the job I got on The Cosby Show and to his specific mentorship of me on that job. And I'm still doing, I'm in show business at this level because I started there.

Now, some people would say, well, you would have gotten another chance somewhere else. But that's not true. Maybe, maybe not. Yeah, yeah. Especially as a black, like these are black women who worked around him who were like, I wouldn't have done this.

And even one of my favorite parts of the doc is Lily Bernard, who's one of the survivors, talks about how great the set was because it was filled with black people. Yeah. And so that, and that's somebody who's like a survivor of having a horrible thing happen to her from him. And she's still able to go, the set was amazing. Yeah.

So I don't think, I don't think you can crush a legacy at the same time.

all of this tv stuff is temporary all this pop culture stuff is temporary so that you know as much as we go like the like it's like i i you don't i mean whenever people talk about like making their special and standing the test of time i'm like i love comedy i haven't watched prior or carlin exactly yeah in 30 years well to me it's like when i you may be a similar age i grew up i remember where i grew up and they were still i love lucy reruns on absolutely now you you have to go find them you have to go buy them you know what i mean so like

And that was as big in its way as the Cosby show. It sort of changed television. Yeah. And had a woman as the lead. And Desi Arnaz. And they're an interracial marriage. And so there's all this stuff. Yeah.

Somehow. Despite the best efforts of Desi's. Yeah.

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