Please indulge me for a moment as I go off topic, beery news will follow. Regular Bulletin readers will know I’m a huge fan of the late stand-up comedian Bill Hicks, who died in 1994. Even though he’s been gone 16 years, his comedy is as fresh and relevant as it was then, a testament to how far ahead of his time he was and how universal his message was. I saw his act live at least a dozen times, probably more, and even had the pleasure of meeting him after a show once and chatting briefly. At every one of those shows, at least one person, and sometimes more, would get offended and leave. That was because Hicks challenged his audiences to not just laugh at his jokes, but to think about ideas and consider inequities in the world. In short, he made some people feel uncomfortable who weren’t ready to confront the world’s hypocrisies and their role in them. He was nothing short of a genius in that regard. Since his death, his popularity has continued to grow in the UK, where people “got” Bill. Over here, sadly, he’s been largely forgotten.
But there’s a new documentary film coming out, American: The Bill Hicks Story, and it’s premiering tonight in the U.S. at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas. There’s also a Facebook page for the film. No word yet on when or if it will get a wide theater release, but fingers crossed, you’ll be able to see it soon at a theater near you. As the filmmakers have asked people to help them spread the word about the film, below is the trailer for it. If it comes to your town, go see it. I can’t, of course, vouch for the film-making (though the trailer looks good), I can vouch for the subject matter. Bill Hicks deserves to be more widely known, and especially the ideas he espoused during his lifetime.
Mr Hicks is on rotation here at the Revolution on our “sound system”. We’ve gotten some pretty strange looks when his bit rotates up and he gets going…
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Thanks for alerting me to this. Bill was brilliant; it was a tragic loss that he was taken away so prematurely. Being in marketing, when I first saw his bit on that profession I was squirming. But he was as usual he was pretty much on the mark. I did not take his advice and kill myself however……
Bill lives on in many hearts and minds.
Had the pleasure of seeing Bill Hicks live a couple of years before he passed in Walnut Creek, CA.
Most comics would come out and do a 30-45 minute set. Bill did something like 2 hours — and was very, very funny the entire time.
What was interesting is there was a local radio show that tracked the local comedy scene — as stand up was huge at the time. The next night Bill did his usual bits — but somehow managed to offend the audience — most of which got up and left.
For whatever reason — that stuck in my mind — although I wrote it off more to the audience being stuck up than anything Bill did.
Great to hear about the film. Really enjoyed his work — and since HBO repeats a live stint he did at Dangerfield’s in New York from time to time — it’s great to still be able to see his work.
That is so funny! I’m a relatively new Bill Hicks fan and I’ve been watching every possible thing I can of his. I came across this interview where Bill talks about that night in Walnut Creek where people got up and left. Here’s what happened, in his own words http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUUA9iC1XKs&feature=relmfu
By the way, coming from a 20 something yr old who was basically a kid when Bill died in ’94, I got to say you are so freak’n lucky to have seen a Bill Hicks show live, to have seen the man himself! Just getting into his stand up and getting to “know” him by watching all these youtube videos, it bums me out big time that he died so young and that these videos and comedy albums are all I have. Frick’n tragedy he died at such a young age.