Bill Cosby: Far From Finished

It's homage of the highest form, but comedy of the highest form, too. Cos quite obviously is far from finished.

Just when the crowd thinks it knows where he’s going, he jerks the string and sends things in a different direction, to great effect. It’s a gimmick that takes a refined sense of timing and a mastery of misdirection, and Mr. Cosby, who is 76, shows that he still has both.

Cosby is in fine form as he mugs with that expressive face and riffs in his distinctive voice on his favorite topics of love, marriage and family. His timing is masterful.

Far From Finished isn’t an instant classic on the order of Bill Cosby: Himself or his stand-up albums Revenge, Why Is There Air?, and Wonderfulness. It’s more like a pencil sketch by a master painter or a late film by Woody Allen or Clint Eastwood.

Without the benefit of Bill Cosby's timing and avuncularity, the spouseribbing gags featured in the comedy legend's first televised concert in 30 years would come across as simply mean-spirited.

What we get for most of the show’s 90 minutes, is a mostly funny, often charming and occasionally unsettling account of a man whose diet and whereabouts are under his wife Camille’s constant surveillance.

Cosby’s gentle humor is a bit long-in-the-tooth.