Nearly half a century in the business has taught Bill Cosby when to sit one out.

At 74, he still gladly works weekends, and on Saturday night will bring his comic storytelling to Sacramento's Community Center Theater.

But no more New Year's Eves.

"I don't think it is a good night for a person who is a storyteller," said Cosby, speaking by phone from his home in Massachusetts. "It is like being a schoolteacher that night. You go out and ... 'Somebody's been feeding my students liquor.' "

Cosby uses his deep, resonant voice for comic emphasis via phone the way he does his highly expressive face on stage and on television.

"No" becomes "Nooooo," and "yes" becomes "yee-aa-sss." Pauses are 10 months pregnant.

That voice evokes so much, and instantly, for '70s and '80s kids who grew up with Cosby. It signals the genial, paternal Cosby from "The Cosby Show" and the guy behind the cartoon kids from "Fat Albert."

For baby boomers, it summons a hipper Cosby, from "I Spy" and his 1960s comedy records.

Cosby came up in stand-up comedy's raunchiest, most volatile decade. But he didn't go dirty or cause controversy. When he finally sparked debate, it was on behalf of education, a subject in which he holds a doctorate.

At a 2004 Howard University and NAACP event in Washington, D.C., Cosby criticized some African American parents for valuing material items over education. A few months later, he criticized the casual use of racial slurs in entertainment – and children's exposure to that entertainment.

"Aside from the negativity of the controversy, there are some very, very intelligent people who have taken what I said and said, 'This is just not a black thing,' " Cosby said. "Some very intelligent people who said, 'You know, he was talking at an NAACP meeting which was sponsored by a black college. So he was talking to his people, and warning them about what was happening in education.' "

Cosby remains a passionate advocate for education as an empowerment tool for economically challenged people. This week, before his Sacramento appearance, Cosby planned to travel to Wilmington, Del., to speak to 150 children individually in an event organized by a local pastor.

"They bus in these teenage boys and girls," Cosby said. "And I will speak to the girls about education, and motherhood, and to the boys about fatherhood, or history. I will try to make them connect with the foremothers and forefathers, and be proud."

Cosby stumps for education, walks four miles a day for exercise and jots down comic observations in between. His 2011 essay collection "I Didn't Ask To Be Born (But I'm Glad I Was)" includes tales of his kids, grandson and of Cosby as a young teenager flubbing his shot with the prettiest girl in school.

He continues to relive and embellish tales from his youth, and today, because storytelling has been the thrust of his career.

"I came into this business with one goal in mind," Cosby said. "It was in 1962. To take thoughts that are funny to me, put them on paper, flush them out and then share them as a friend with other people, causing laughter, a smile or just a flat-out good feeling."

Even his frustrating final New Year's Eve gig, before a soused crowd in Reno, provided fodder.

There was a guy there who had one of those noisemakers with an unfurling string. The string kept hitting Cosby in the foot. Also, the guy's female companion was far too beautiful for him …

"The story was the best part," Cosby said.

Other Cosby observations from his interview with The Bee:

• On comedians' use of profanity: "When you think about profanity, or spice, so to speak … there are levels of intelligence. You have seen where comedians use profanity, but it is intelligent. And there are others who come out and it's just, 'And now I will stand here and curse.' So I don't try to stop someone from swearing. I want to stop them from standing there and just cursing."

• On why he doesn't watch TV, especially reality TV: "Things are manipulated to (increase) the suspense, to raise your dopamine levels, and it is almost like clockwork.

"Right now, she is going to slap this woman, and call her a name, and all these women are going around acting like they never once in their lives wanted to be known as someone who is intelligent, or who you would like to have for a friend. … And then you have 'Dancing With the Stars.' The dancing is an excuse for people to rub genitalia together. It is about s-e-x."

• On sitcoms: "I entered TV, and sitcoms, to get the house back. In the '80s, they had these sitcoms where the children were getting smarter lines than the parents. It wasn't funny. It really was not funny.

"The parents were set up to be the buffoons, when that is not what it should be in the home. I wanted to take the house back … and ('The Cosby Show') took the house back. We got to the point where the parenting was the most important thing in guiding the children. And the children can still be funny. And parents can make mistakes – just let us be intelligent. …

"Now, (sitcoms) are all the same. They are levels and levels of the same thing. I just find that I don't want to be that manipulated."

BILL COSBY

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Community Center Theater, 1301 L St., Sacramento

Cost: $45.50 and $58.50

Information: (916) 808-5181, (800) 225-2277, www.tickets.com

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Call The Bee's Carla Meyer, (916) 321-1118.

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