Bill Hicks
http://www.billhicks.com/
".... I had a vision of a way we could have no enemies ever again, if
you're interestthis. Anybody interested in hearing this? It's kind of
an interesting theory, and all we have to do is make one decisive act
and we can rid the world of all our enemies at once. Here's what we
do. Tou know all thaty money we spend on nuclear weapons and defense
every year? Trillions of dollars.
Instead, if we spent that money feeding and clothing the poor of the
world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being
excluded... not one ... we could as one race explore outer space
together in peace, for ever.
- Bill Hicks
http://www.billhicks.com/
http://www.konformist.com/2001/hicks.htm
Bill Hicks' Legendary One Night Stand, 1990
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1366476727111157120&hl=en
Bill Hicks - Revelations (1993)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1604695578417499645&hl=en
bill hicks
by Wes Moore (alephegeis@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
) - February 20, 2002
"Thank you. How you doing folks? Me too. You gotta bear with me, I'm
very tired, very tired of traveling, and very tired of doing comedy,
and very tired of staring out at your vacant faces looking back at
me, wanting me to fill your empty lives with humor you couldn't
possibly think of yourselves. Good evening."
Bill Hicks: the Nietzsche of comedy, the most legitimate social
critic of the 1990s: a renegade messiah who tried to make people
laugh, but usually ended up pissing them off, or drawing blank stares.
Born in 1961, Hicks died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 32, just
as his career was peaking. He left in his wake a legacy of biting
criticisms against American society: no inadequacy or hypocrisy ed in
was immune to his scathing satires, but don't take my word for it.
For Christ sakes, if anyone demands our undivided attention, it's
Bill Hicks . . .
The War on Drugs:
"George Bush says 'we are losing the war on drugs'. Well you know
what that implies? There's a war going on, and people on drugs are
winning it! Well what does that tell you about drugs? Some smart,
creative mother****ers on that side."
Television Commercials:
"Supreme Court says ****ography is anything without artistic merit
that causes ***ual thoughts. No artistic merit, causes ***ual
thoughts. Hmmm . . . sounds like every commercial on TV doesn't it?"
The Kennedy Assassination:
"People come up to me: 'Bill, quit talking about Kennedy man . . . It
was a long time ago . . .' And I'm like alright, then don't bring up
Jesus to me. As long as we're talking about shelf life here."
Annoying Non-Smokers:
"The worst kind of non-smokers are the ones that come up to you and
cough. That's pretty ****ing cruel isn't it? Do you go up to cripples
and dance too?"
****ography:
"One of my big fears in life is that I'm going to die and my parents
are going to have to clear out my apartment and find the ****o wing
I've been adding to for years. There'll be two funerals that day."
Christianity:
"A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. Do you think
when Jesus comes back he ever wants to look at a ****ing cross? It's
kinda like going up to Jackie Onassis with a rifle pendant on."
The Gulf War:
"They said the Iraqis had the fourth largest army in the world. Well,
the Hare Krishnas are the fifth largest and they've already got our
air****ts."
Advertisers:
"By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill
yourself. No, this is not a joke: kill yourself . . . I know what the
marketing people are thinking now too: 'Oh. He's going for that anti-
marketing dollar. That's a good market.' Oh man, I am not doing that,
you ****ing evil s***bags."
Waco:
"If the FBI's motivating factor for busting down the Koresh compound
was child abuse, how come we never see Bradley tanks sma****ng into
Catholic churches?"
The Pope:
"I love the Pope, I love seeing him in his Pope-Mobile, his three
feet of bullet proof plexi-glass. That's faith in action folks! You
know he's got God on his side."
The Military:
"Gays in the military . . . here's how I feel about it, alright?
Anyone . . . DUMB enough . . . to want to be in the military, should
be allowed in. End of ****ing story. That should be the only
requirement."
In addition to his libertarian political philosophy, Bill was a
deeply spiritual man. He advocated meditation, floatation tanks, and
Terence McKenna's "heroic dose" of psilocybic mushrooms to "squeegee
the third eye". He stressed that we are all one consciousness, so it
doesn't make sense to hurt or lie to one another.
Bill never became popular, mainly because he didn't exactly endear
himself to cor****ate sponsors ("advertisers: kill yourselves"). He
did appear on the Late Show with David Letterman a dozen times, but
his final performance (just months before his death) was cut because
of "inappropriate material." The tiff was over one of Bill's jokes
about pro-lifers:
"If you're so pro-life, do me a favor: don't block arms and block
medical clinics. If you're so pro-life, lock arms and block
cemeteries."
It was later revealed that one of the Late Show's most generous
sponsors was a pro-life group whose commercial aired during the
program Hicks was supposed to appear in. Hicks explains:
"See we just had a misunderstanding. I thought we lived in the U.S.
of A., the United States of America. But actually we live in the U.S.
of A., the United States of Advertising. Freedom of expression is
guaranteed... if you've got the money!"
Hicks released two albums (1990's Dangerous and 1992's Relentless)
and two videos (Sane Man and Revelations) in his lifetime. After his
death, two more albums were released, both in 1997. One of these,
Rant in E-Minor, is widely considered to be his defining work, by
critics and fans alike. The other, Arizona Bay, was his most
conceptual offering. Arizona Bay was described by Hicks as "'The Dark
Side of the Moon' of comedy albums," and features musical interludes
with Hicks on guitar. It was Bill's metaphor for American society,
using Los Angeles (Hell-A) as a microcosm of mainstream culture.
Arizona Bay was the inspiration for Tool's album AEnima, and if you
listen to the song "Third Eye" you will hear a clip of Bill
(think: "rrrrrreal ****in' high on drugs"). Radiohead's album The
Bends was also dedicated to Hicks.
A fifth album, with material recorded around the same time as Rant In
E-Minor, is in the works and should be released soon. Cynthia True
and Janeane Garofalo's biography American Scream: The Bill Hicks
Story (New York: Harper Entertainment, 2002) is definately worth
checking out. Let's hope Bill Hicks continues to inspire and
enlighten us all.
The views expressed above represent the writer and not necessarily
those of The Disinformation Company Ltd.
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