BILL COSBY - COSBY URGES DEGENERES TO GET BACK ON THE ROAD

Veteran funnyman BILL COSBY has made it his personal mission to get ELLEN DeGENERES back on the road doing stand-up comedy - just days after she declared she was done with it.

Cosby appeared on DeGeneres' chat show yesterday morning (03APR04), where he praised her for her work and told her how highly the people she's worked with in the past speak of her.

He then turned to the audience and urged, "You guys gotta get her back out there 'cause that's a great bit of fun."

But DeGeneres said, "I just did a tour before I started this show, but I probably won't get a chance to do that anymore because I'm doing this now. I like it better with (the audience) coming to me."

DeGeneres, who last performed a stand-up show on the 2003 HEAR AND NOW tour, recently told reporters, "My last tour really was my last tour. I didn't make an announcement like CHER did. But it was my last tour. So I won't be doing stand-up anymore."