It was back in 82. He was 20 or 21 years old. It was at the late Comedy Workshop. Actually the Comic Annex. Both housed in a tiny house in Houston. One side was improv, the other was stand-up. His schtick was primarily about smoking, and his high school experience. I remember him joking about him being a “punk” Beaver Cleaver getting in trouble with Eddie Haskell. He wasn’t even the main act. About 7 months later, I saw him again at the same place. This time he was the headliner. 5 years later, I hear he became big time. With his monologue being much more political, and still talking about smoking. I did not have cable, so I never saw him after he became famous. Then he died way too young.
Even here, I read plenty about him. But alas, I only saw him as a punk Beaver Cleaver.
Heh. It’s kind of funny to me that this thread popped up right now. I posted a Bill Hicks quote in the Pit just two hours ago and had been listening to one of his performances tonight.
Bill is my favorite stand-up comedian of all time. I’ve never been a big fan of dick jokes (although I still can’t hear the phrase “Dick Joke Island” without giggling), but everything else he talked about was pure gold.
Bill Hicks never made to the big time, and to be quite honest, his comedy was neither original, nor that funny. Like James Dean, he’s been lionized simply because he died at a very early age. I’d hardly call him a cutting edge comedian when many of his main targets were American Gladiators and New Kids On The Block.
Bill Hicks was popular in Europe, but he never achieved real fame in the U.S., perhaps due to the fact that he refused to tame his material to get spots on broadcast TV shows. He did do two HBO specials, though. Is that not “making the big time” for a comedian?
If you think the targets of ire in his comedy were all fluff, then obviously you’ve never even listened to the man. He did great routines on the Gulf War, ultra-right-wingers, fundies, the death penalty, JFK, the War on Drugs, the Rodney King verdict riots, gays in the military, Creationism being taught in schools, etc, etc, etc.
So he basically did the same material that an angry fourteen year old would do because he just read a copy of Newsweek and man this is going to tick off Dad!!!
Brilliant, just brilliant. I am thankful his career was short.
Dude, you don’t like his comedy, fine. That’s your business. But being glad he died of cancer at a young age because you didn’t think he was funny is just fucked up.
raisinbread-- I only wish Bill was here, right now, to make you eat your words, digest then, shit them out, and eat that shit again and again.
Hicks, a genius at dealing with heckling morons such as yourself, would probably make you laugh your ass off (in spite of your uninformed, cretinous opinions of him) and then procede to wipe that smile off your face, then make you cry, then make you run away in embarrassment and rage.
Feel that rage, dude. And maybe you begin to understand some of Hicks. Oh… but you’d need to be ultra-sharp and perceptive too… and I think you’ve already shown that you are lacking in those areas.
I’ve got some more news for you… Bill Hicks was lionized BEFORE he died young. A least he was lionized by those of us who appreciate something beyond the typical comedy-club yuk-yuk shit (and I’d guess you’re NOT one of us).
Don’t worry though, punk. Bill wasn’t actually the anti-Christ…
that’s two sixes and a nine… he was just bluffing.
Hmm. It appears I was mistaken about some of the stuff I posted earlier. Hicks actually did three HBO specials. Also, he did water down his stuff occasionally and appeared on Letterman 12 times. Dave and the audience apparently loved his stuff, even diluted.
The Times article says that Hicks was the first comedy act to be cut from the Letterman show. It doesn’t mention that the cause of this was sponsor pressure due to Hicks’s edgy material. The article makes him sound like a loser. Its only redeeming quality is that it provided me with the information that Trio will be airing a documentary called “Outlaw Comic: The Censoring of Bill Hicks” next Sunday at 9PM. Now, if only my digital cable carried Trio.
Oh, and raisinbread? There’s now a Pit thread with your name on it.
1 - I never lionized Bill Hicks because he died young. In fact I only learned he died a few months after it actually happened and I was shocked as I was a huge fan. I did my best to never miss an appearance of his … especially his last HBO special … genius.
It’s not just his material that was great … it was his delivery.
2 - I’m a big Denis Leary fan too, and to say Leary ripped off Hicks is retarded. Their views aren’t even that similar. Other than a healthy disrespect for authority, Leary is waaaay more conservative than Hicks ever was.
And as far as delivery … day and night. Hicks was the thinking man’s contrarian and Leary was all about the Southie White Boy Don’t Get In My Face Anger.
