Bill Cosby says he plans to do comedy tour in 2023

Comedy icon Bill Cosby, whose 2018 sex-assault conviction was overturned last year after he had served 3 years in prison, says he believes he can return to the stage in 2023.

"Yes," the 85-year-old actor-comedian replied when asked in an interview on the internet-only radio station WGH Wednesday. "Yes, because there's so much fun to be had in this storytelling that I do. And I, years ago, maybe 10 years ago, found out that it was better to say it after I write it. And," he added, referring to keeping spontaneity in his stand-up, "it is better to say it and not try to write it the same way to be read by others."

Cosby’s rep, Andrew Wyatt, confirmed to Variety that the comedian is “looking at spring/summer to start touring.”

Cosby — a four-time Emmy Award winner who broke a television color barrier in 1965 when he became the first African American star of a weekly drama series, "I Spy" — was convicted in April 2018 of three counts of aggravated indecent assault. He was sentenced that September. The state Supreme Court in Pennsylvania overturned the conviction in June 2021. It ruled that a nonprosecution agreement Cosby had agreed to with a district attorney's office, in exchange for incriminating statements in a sexual-assault civil case, meant he should not have been charged in a criminal case. The court also barred a retrial.

"The reality of my situation gets clearer and clearer," Cosby said earlier in the 15-minute interview with Scott Spears on the Ohio-based WGH — formerly the countywide, "low-power" radio station WWGH until the FCC revoked its license in August. "The reality that my wife and family and friends respect me and respect what I have tried to do and will continue to do when we quote-unquote get out of this mess. I know who my enemies happen to be and I know why they are my enemies, and … where we are, where we're going. … And when I come out of this, I feel like I will be able to perform and be the Bill Cosby that my audience in person knows me to be."

Earlier this month, five women filed a new sexual assault lawsuit against NBC and Cosby under a New York State law that temporarily suspends the statute of limitations for older sexual assault claims.