In Bill Cosby‘s book Cosbyology he talks about the power of being yourself
In this chapter, he tells a story about getting a gig in Chicago that he thought that he wasn’t good enough to be at. He took that onstage and ended up bombing. When they introduced him, they said, “Here’s a really funny up and comer from New York City, Bill Cosby.” Half the room applauded, he came up, bombed, came off stage, and the owner of the club came into the green room and said, “What the hell was that?” Cosby said, “I’m sorry. I’m not good enough to be here.” The owner stopped him and said, “Yeah, you’re right. You’re fired, but can you do me a favor? When you go back to the hotel, can you get Bill Cosby and get him to perform at the eleven O’clock show? I don’t know who you are, but I want Bill Cosby.” The late show comes up, he comes walking in, and this time they introduce him as, “Here’s Bill Cosby.” From the back of the room, Bill Cosby yelled at the guy, “What about up and comer? Last show you said up and comer.” Everyone started laughing. Cosby had a dialog with the guy who introduced him and the crowd started going crazy. He said that he did a quarter of his jokes and that the rest was improvised, but he killed. He came off and the owner came into the green room and said, “That was great. From now on you should perform as Bill Cosby. I don’t know who that was, but I don’t want to see him again.”
What Cosby is trying to say to future comedians and I think to all of us. Stop trying to appeal to an audience and do what you do and you will not only be successful but you will have fun doing it. The reason so many of us are frustrated is because we aren’t doing what God has created us to do. We spend most of our day appealing to so many different audiences. We try so hard to make everyone happy and it only produces frustration.
This happens all the time in church we try to appeal to everyone but the person who matters most. There is something to creating safe, friendly environments but the reality is when we focus on entertaining God’s presence most of that other stuff takes care of it’s self. For the church to be the church it needs to be attractive to Christ. So go back on that stage next Sunday and make your church appealing to Jesus.
