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William Melvin Hicks ( December 16 , 1961 – February 26 , 1994 ), better known as '''Bill Hicks''', was an American Stand-up Comedian , Satirist , and social Critic . Hicks is often compared to Lenny Bruce and Sam Kinison (the former being a childhood hero and inspiration for Hicks, the latter a Contemporary and friend), and characterized his own performances as " Chomsky with Dick Joke s". BIOGRAPHY Early life Born in Valdosta , Georgia , Bill was the son of Jim and Mary (Reese) Hicks, and had two elder siblings, Steve and Lynn. The family lived in Florida , Alabama , and New Jersey before settling in Houston, Texas when Bill was seven. Hicks has two school-age stories on the ''Flying Saucer Tour Vol. 1'' album. He said he was raised in the Southern Baptist faith. He was drawn to comedy at an early age, emulating Woody Allen , and writing routines with his friend Dwight Slade . His parents took him to a Psychoanalyst at age 17, worried about his behavior, but the psychoanalyst could find little wrong with him. The therapist apparently joked that Bill's parents would probably benefit more from a few sessions than Bill himself. In 1978 , the Comedy Workshop opened in Houston, and friends Hicks, Slade, and Kevin Booth started performing there. At first, Hicks was unable to drive and so young he needed a special work permit. He worked his way up to once every Tuesday night in the autumn of 1978, while still in high school. He was well received and started developing his Improvisation al skills, although his act at the time was limited. Steve Hicks, Kevin Booth, and Jay Leno reminisce about the Comedy Workshop years in the ''It's Just A Ride'' documentary. 1980s In his senior year of High School , the Hicks family moved to Little Rock , Arkansas , but after his graduation, in the spring of 1980 , Bill moved to Los Angeles, California , and started performing at the Comedy Store in Hollywood , where Andrew Dice Clay , Jay Leno , Jerry Seinfeld , and Garry Shandling were also performing at the time. He briefly attended Los Angeles Community College , mentioning the unhappy experience on ''Flying Saucer Tour Vol. 1.'' He appeared in a pilot for the Sitcom , '' Bulba '', before moving back to Houston in 1982 . There, he formed the ACE Production Company (Absolute Creative Entertainment), which would later become Sacred Cow Productions , with Kevin Booth . At some point he attended the University Of Houston briefly. In 1983 , Hicks started drinking heavily and using drugs, which may have influenced his increasingly disjointed and angry, at times even Misanthropic , ranting style on stage. As had become his trademark, he continued attacking the American Dream , hypocritical beliefs, and traditional attitudes. At one show, two Vietnam veterans took exception to his statements and sought him out after the show, breaking his leg. Hicks' success steadily increased (along with his drug use), and in 1984 he got an appearance on the talkshow ''Late Night with David Letterman '', which was engineered by his friend Jay Leno. He made an impression on David Letterman, and ended up doing eleven more broadcast show appearances, all hugely popular, despite being Bowdlerize d versions of his stage shows. In 1986 , Hicks found himself broke after spending all his money on various drugs, but his career got another upturn as he appeared on Rodney Dangerfield 's Young Comedians Special in 1987 . The same year, he moved to New York City , and for the next five years he did about 300 performances a year. His reputation suffered from his drug use, however, and in 1988 , he quit drugs — including alcohol (Hicks recounts his quitting of alcohol in the ''One Night Stand'' special and on ''Flying Saucer Tour Vol. 1.'') He fell back to cigarette smoking as his only vice, a theme that would figure heavily in his performances from then on. (On the album ''Relentless,'' he jokes that he quit using Psychedelics because "once you've been taken aboard a UFO, it's kind of hard to top that.") An infamous gig in Chicago during 1989 , later released as the bootleg '' I'm Sorry, Folks '', resulted in Hicks screaming possibly his most infamous quote, " Hitler had the right idea, he was just an underachiever" to a heckler shouting " Free Bird " over and over. One should note that Hicks followed this remark by a misanthropic tirade calling for unbiased genocide against the whole of humanity, suggesting that it was not an Anti-Semitic comment but rather an expression of his disgust with people in general. Hicks often veered between hope and love for the human race and utter hopelessness. In 1989 he released his first video, ''Sane Man'', to critical acclaim. 1990s In 1990 , he released his first album, ''Dangerous'', did an HBO special, ''One Night Stand'', and performed at Montreal's '' Just For Laughs '' festival. He was also part of a group of American stand-up comedians performing in London's West End in November. He was a huge hit in the UK and Ireland and continued touring there in 1991 . That year, he also returned to the ''Just for laughs'' festival and recorded his second album, ''Relentless''. Hicks made a brief detour into musical recording with the ''Marblehead Johnson'' album in 1992 , the same year he met Colleen McGarr, who was to become his girlfriend and fiancee. In November of that year, he toured the UK. On that tour, he recorded the '' Revelations '' video for Channel 4 in England and the standup performance that would become ''Live at Oxford Playhouse'' and ''Salvation''. He was voted "Hot Standup Comic" by '' Rolling Stone Magazine '', and moved to Los Angeles again in early 1993 . The progressive metal band Tool invited Hicks to open a number of concerts for them on their 1992 Lollapalooza appearances, where Hicks once famously asked the audience to look for a Contact Lens he'd lost. Thousands of people complied1. Tool singer Maynard James Keenan so enjoyed this joke that he repeated it on a number of occasions. In April of 1993 , while touring in Australia, he started complaining of pains in his side, and in the middle of June of that year, he learned he had Pancreatic Cancer . He started receiving weekly Chemotherapy , while still touring and also recording his album, '' Arizona Bay '', with Kevin Booth. He was also working with comedian Fallon Woodland on a Pilot episode of a new Sitcom , titled ''Counts of the Netherworld'' for Channel 4 at the time of his death. The budget and Storyboard had been approved, and a pilot was filmed. The ''Counts of the Netherworld'' pilot was shown at the various Tenth Anniversary Tribute Night events around the world on February 26 , 2004 . On October 1 , he was to appear on the ''David Letterman'' show for the twelfth time, but his appearance was cancelled somewhat controversially. At the time, Hicks was doing a routine about Pro-life organizations, where he encouraged them to "lock arms and block cemeteries" instead of medical clinics, but his routine was cut from the show. Both the show's producers and CBS denied responsibility for the cut, but the reason appeared obvious to many during the following week's Letterman show when a commercial for a pro-life organization was aired. For many fans, this reinforced one of Bill's recurring themes, that America was being sanitized and manipulated in the name of corporate sponsorship. One political event that became an object of interest and fodder for comedy was the storming of the Waco compound of the Branch Davidians under David Koresh . Hicks became convinced that the government initiated the destruction of the compound by setting it on fire (he pointed to footage of a tank allegedly shooting fire into the compound as evidence) and then covered-up its actions. He also expressed disappointment with the various overseas bombing campaigns ordered by President Clinton and the Warren Commission explanation of the Kennedy assassination. He played the final show of his career at of pancreatic cancer. 2 Bill was buried on the family plot in Leakesville, Mississippi . The '' Arizona Bay '' album, as well as the album considered his best, '' Rant In E-Minor '', were released posthumously in 1997 by his friend Kevin Booth. QUOTATIONS
LEGACY
That this House notes with sadness the 10th anniversary of the death of Bill Hicks, on 26th February 1994, at the age of 33; recalls his assertion that his words would be a bullet in the heart of Consumerism , Capitalism and the American Dream ; and mourns the passing of one of the few people who may be mentioned as being worth of inclusion with Lenny Bruce in any list of unflinching and painfully honest political philosophers. Music Film and television Comic book DISCOGRAPHY Audio Video :Comprises the documentary ''It's Just A Ride'' and a live performance, ''Revelations'' :Comprises ''One Night Stand'', ''Relentless'', ''It's Just A Ride'' and ''Revelations'' NOTES FURTHER READING EXTERNAL LINKS |
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