For folks who don’t know, I’m talking about this guy.
A looooong time ago, som Dutch comedians released a song “Ik ben een eikel” about a pittable jerkwad who does anything he can to aggravate other folks. By coincidence I heard the original somewhere else; “I’m an asshole” by Denis Leary. Since I was intrigued, I listened to about all his stuff. For some reason I really like the style, he’s ranting and raving on and actually he’s wrong about everything, but nobody seems to care.
Looking for more of his stuff, I came across an argument about how Denis Leary stole all the good stuff from Bill Hicks. (When asked about this, Hicks said: “I have a scoop for you. I stole his act. I camouflaged it with punchlines, and to really throw people off, I did it before he did.”)
So, long story short, I’ve now listened to anything I could get my hands on from Bill Hicks, and I need more.
As he’s dead, that’ll be a bit of a problem.
Does anyone else have any listening fodder that is comparable?
No, but I feel your distress. I also discovered Bill Hicks relatively recently. I would have loved to see what he would have done with today’s political situation.
Heh, a lot of his material is word for word relevant today eg “Pick up the gun…”.
A (female) friend was curious about Hicks a couple of years ago, so I lent her my “Revelations” tape. She gave it back with the comment “Some of that was really funny, but I had to turn it off during that Goat-boy stuff”. I guess towards the end of his life Bill went to some really dark places. He’s missed.
I think Sam Kinison had some of the same qualities (especially with the irreverance towards religion). The only current comic who comes to mind who I think is comparable might be Lewis Black.
I had the good fortune to see Bill Hicks live in Huntsville, AL in late '86/early '87. I believe it was some sort of “young comedians tour” or something. I had never heard of him. Blew me away, and this was after seeing a couple of really good comedians right before him. I didn’t realize till I saw him on Letterman that he was (rightfully) a big deal.
I was gonna say the same thing, except Lewis doesn’t do the anti-materialism rants that Bill was a genius at.
Mmm, “orange drink.”
I saw Hicks in Dublin and he was fantastic. Some of his stuff is hit and miss and he didn’t vary it as much as I would have liked (I’m sure he would of had he lived) but he was great. There is a book covering most of his skits called “Love all the People” that I picked up and enjoyed.