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Bill Cosby Says He Yearns to Get Back on Stage, After Trial

The comedian's sexual-assault trial starts in early June.
Image: Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby arrives for a pretrial hearing in his sexual assault case at the Montgomery County Courthouse.Matt Slocum / AP

Bill Cosby is prepping for trial — and a comedy comeback.

Weeks before a jury will be picked in his sexual-assault case, the TV star gave an interview to a consortium of black-owned newspapers and said he's anxious to start performing again.

"I miss it all and I hope that day will come. I have some routines and storytelling that I am working on," Cosby told the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

"I think about walking out on stage somewhere in the United States of America and sitting down in a chair and giving the performance that will be the beginning of the next chapter of my career."

Cosby also said that he is blind — which his defense lawyers had previously disclosed in court papers.

The 79-year-old actor has been charged with drugging and molesting a woman, Andrea Constand, at his Pennsylvania home in 2004. It's the only criminal case stemming from dozens of accusations of sexual misconduct, many of which are past the statute of limitations.

Cosby has denied wrongdoing and sued some of his accusers for defamation.

His attorneys have complained that that negative publicity about him could taint his trial, which is set to begin in early June.

Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents some of Cosby's accusers, said she thinks the interview was an attempt by the defense to influence the jury pool.

"I expect Mr. Cosby and members of his family to continue to speak out in an attempt to portray him as a victim rather than as an alleged sexual predator," Allred said.

"However, the jury must decide this case based on the evidence admitted in the court room instead of what they see or hear as part of a slick Hollywood public relations campaign."

Cosby did not discuss specifics of the case in the interview. In court filings, his lawyers have argued he is being persecuted because of his race and fame.

"The history about African-Americans is a history of the United States; but the true histories, not the propaganda that is standard in our nation’s history books," Cosby told the newspaper group.

"The great writer, James Baldwin, said, ‘If you lie about me, then you lie about yourself.’ The revolution is in the home. There is something about someone saying, ‘I didn’t know that,’ that could cause a change in that person’s thinking."

One of Cosby's daughters, Evin, also released a statement about the allegations, saying they have wounded the entire family.

"The harsh and hurtful accusations…that supposedly happened 40 or 50 years ago, before I was born, in another lifetime, and that have been carelessly repeated as truth without allowing my dad to defend himself and without requiring proof, has punished not just my dad but every one of us," she wrote.

"The public persecution of my dad, my kids’ grandfather, and the cruelty of the media and those who speak out branding my father a 'rapist' without ever knowing the truth and who shame our family and our friends for defending my dad, makes all of this so much worse for my family and my children."