Bill Cosby got a standing ovation at a Wednesday night stand-up comedy show in Canada after protesters milling outside carried anti-rape signs and tried to shame ticket holders from entering the theater.
According to the BBC, Cosby hasn't performed since November, shortly after several women came forward saying the comedian drugged and raped them in the 70s and 80s.
Over a dozen protesters ventured into below-freezing temperatures to protest the performance in Kitchener, Ontario, holding signs that said "rape is no joke" and shouting "you support rape" and "shame on you" to ticket holders entering the venue. For a short time, some of the protesters blocked the entrances to the theater, however they moved at the urging of security guards,
The Associated Press reported.
After the performance, at least one audience member said there were no hecklers in the audience. Some defended Cosby.
"Innocent until proven guilty. I'm hope it's not true and until I know otherwise I love him to death," said one man, Dan Emerson.
"I'm skeptical of all the accusations," said another, Gerald Reinink. "I always loved Cosby, good family humor. Why are 20 women coming out now when it's 20, 30 years ago?"
Back in Los Angeles, just hours before Cosby's performance, famed attorney Gloria Allred held a news conference, saying three new women have come forward, accusing Cosby of sexually assaulting them between 1981 and 1996. Because of legal statutes of limitation, Allred said all of the alleged offenses were too old to bring lawsuits.
One of Cosby's accusers, Linda Joy Traitz, however, said earlier this week that she and Therese Serignese are joining a defamation lawsuit against the comedian filed by Tamara Green in early December. Green alleges that Cosby's representatives' public denial of her claims has branded her a liar in the public eye.
Also on Wednesday night, Phylicia Rashad, who played Cliff Huxtable's wife Claire on "The Cosby Show," spoke with ABC World News Tonight about her former co-star.
"We are really missing what is wrong here, which is, this is the United States of America," she said during the interview.
"I know it's changing, but it's still the United States of America and there are tenets that we live by. There is the Constitution of the United States, which ensures innocence until proof of guilt and that has not happened. But what has happened is declaration in the media of guilt, without proof. And a legacy is being destroyed because of it. It's being obliterated."