Wright State senior Adrian Cosby said that he always loved to make people laugh. Now he is trying to take it to the next level.
For the past two years Cosby has been active in stand up comedy, performing at venues such as Wiley’s and The Funnybone. He said that his experience at Wright State was highly influential to his decision to try stand-up.
“I think the biggest thing that got me into stand up was my communications classes at Wright State,” Cosby said. “I’d like to be a communications professor if comedy doesn’t work out. I’d have a captive audience.”
Cosby is 37 years old and resides in Yellow Springs. He said that his last name and hometown made him hesitant to try stand up, since he shares the last name of Bill Cosby and lives in the same town as Dave Chappelle. He said he is still not sure whether or not he will get a “real job” or take his comedy on the road.
“Ever since I was seven I’ve known that [comedy] would be my dream job,” Cosby said. “But I never felt I would have access to it.”
Cosby had dyslexia as a child and said that he used to think of himself as unintelligent because of it. When he was 28, he said he finally let go of those doubts spawned in his childhood.
“I had a huge paradigm shift,” Cosby said. “I thought, ‘I’m going to go back to school, I’m going to start doing comedy and I’m going to conquer all those fears I had from my dyslexia.’”
Cosby said that whenever he was looking for work, he would always favor jobs that were “kind of like comedy,” but nothing came close to being as enjoyable as stand up. He said he plans on taking it as far as possible.
“I’d like to go as far as I can with it,” Cosby said. “It doesn’t pay, but whatever has me feeling the most self fulfilled, that’s what I’m up for.”
