Bill Cosby says he wants to return to touring in 2023 amid new sexual assault lawsuit

American stand-up comedian and actor, Bill Cosby wants to begin touring again in 2023, more than a year after he left prison following the overturning of his sexual assault conviction.  

Cosby, 85, expressed his desire to go on tour next year during a surprise appearance on WGH Talk.

‘Yes. Yes, because there’s so much fun to be had in this storytelling that I do. Years ago, maybe 10 years ago, I found it was better to say it after I write it,’ he said when asked if he might begin touring again next year. 

‘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,’ he said.

A representative for Cosby told Variety that the actor is ‘looking at spring/summer to start touring.’

The latest news comes more than a year after Cosby left prison after his 2018 sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania was overturned.

Back in 2014, more than 50 women came forward with sexual assault allegations against Cosby, and the following year, he was charged with the assault of Andrea Constand, a former director of operations for Temple University’s women’s basketball team. He was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to up to 10 years in prison but was released last year after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction, ruling that the prosecution against him was an unfair violation of due process.

But earlier this month, five women; actresses Lili Bernard and Eden Tirl who were on The Cosby Show, as well as Jewel Gittens, Jennifer Thompson, and Cindra Ladd,  accused Cosby again of assault, battery, and infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment in encounters spanning the past few decades.

All five women had previously come forward with allegations against Cosby, but the new civil suit was filed under New York’s newly passed Adult Survivors Act, which gives survivors of sexual abuse a one-year window to sue even if the statute of limitations on their allegations has expired. Cosby has since denied the new allegations.