Bill Hicks - Love All The People

Bill Hicks was arguably the most influential stand-up comedian of the last 30 years. He was funny, out of hand, impossible to ignore and genuinely disturbing. His work has inspired Michael Moore, Mark Thomas and Robert Newman among others. The trade paperback published in February 2003 was the first collected work and included major stand-up routines, diary, notebook and letters extracts, plus his final writings, most previously unpublished. This smaller format paperback has extra material discovered subsequently.

Bill Hicks

Letters, Lyrics, Routines

ePub r1.0

Titivillus 08.08.17

Ttulo original: Love All The People. Letters, Lyrics, Routines

Bill Hicks, 2004

Editor digital: Titivillus

ePub base r1.2

WILLIAM MELVIN HICKS (Valdosta, Georgia, December 16, 1961ittle Rock, Arkansas, February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material, encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy, was controversial, and often steeped in dark comedy; he characterized his own performances as Chomsky with dick jokes.

At the age of 16, while still in high school, he began performing at the Comedy Workshop in Houston, Texas. During the 1980s, he toured the United States extensively and made a number of high-profile television appearances; but it was in the UK that he amassed a significant fan base, filling large venues during his 1991 tour. He also achieved a modicum of recognition as a guitarist and songwriter.

Hicks died of pancreatic cancer on February 26, 1994, in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the age of 32. In subsequent years his work gained a significant measure of acclaim in creative circlesparticularly after a series of posthumous album releasesand he developed a substantial cult following.

[1] Dick Clark (b. 1929) presented American Bandstand on the ABC network between 1957 and 1987. He was long known as Americas Oldest Teenager. To this day he retains his boyish good looks.

[2] A former Pentecostal Preacher, Sam Kinison (1953-92) featured on numerous cable comedy specials and guested regularly on Saturday Night Live. In the late eighties he performed with Mtley Cre and Ozzy Osbourne. His comedy was marked by a relentless and sometimes disturbing honesty about sex, politics and religion. He died in a car accident in 1992.

Hicks was 17 years old when he started to work with Kinison and the other Texas Outlaws, Riley Barber and Carl LaBove.

Some people may think Sam Kinisons in one place, but I know where he is: Hes upstairs; hes next to God. Ozzy Osbourne.

[3] Andrew Dice Clay (b. 1958) started his career as an actor and became a highly successful and controversial stand-up comedian in the late 80s. He starred in the family sitcom Bless This House in 1995.

[4] Released in 1990 as Dangerous; re-released in 1997 by Rykodisc.

[5] Homelessness rose sharply throughout the 1980s in New York City. In 1979 shelters housed just under 2,000 homeless single adults each night. By 1990 they were registering around 9,600. In the winter the figure sometimes exceeded 11,000 (Source: Coalition for the Homeless).

[6] Ronald Reagan won the 1980 Presidential election in a campaign that drew on the thoughtless verities of Hollywood patriotism. In his two terms he worked hard to support corporate interests while attacking a supposedly elitist and out of touch liberal intelligentsia.

[7] Debbie Gibsons (b. 1970) career highlights include Only In My Dreams, Shake Your Love and Lost in Your Eyes.

[8] Tiffany (b. 1971) had number 1 hits in the US with I Think Were Alone Now and Couldve Been. Her career was launched by a series of promotional appearances at shopping malls. Discussing the mall appearances, her producer Brad Schmidt commented It started out as a marketing tool and as a way to get her in front of people and it turned into a phenomenon.

[9] Rick Astley was one of producer Pete Watermans most successful pop acts, enjoying success on both sides of the Atlantic with Never Gonna Give You Up, Together Forever and some other songs.

[10] Founded in 1978 by Bob Guccione of Penthouse fame, Omni published both science fiction and non-fiction about controversial, cutting edge, scientific topics, including psychedelia and UFOs. The magazine finally folded in 1996 after a brief incarnation as an online-only publication.

[11] After war service in the navy and a stint working in the oil business, George H. W. Bush (b. 1924) served in the US Congress from 1966. He was US Ambassador to the United Nations between 1971-73 and Head of the CIA between 1974-75. He served two terms as Vice President under Ronald Reagan where he took a particular interest in deregulation and anti-drug programs. In 1988 he was elected the 41st President of the United States. During his time as President, Bush successfully invaded Panama and removed Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. He was unsuccessful in his attempts to defeat drugs. His son has now declared a War on Terror as well.

George Seniors own stand on terrorism was unambiguous; On the surface, selling arms to a country that sponsors terrorism, of course, clearly, youd have to argue its wrong, but its the exception sometimes that proves the rule.

[12] The Partnership for a Drug-Free America first aired the This is your brain on drugs commercial in 1987. The Partnership describes itself as having deep roots in the advertising industry and was founded in 1986 with funds from the American Association of Advertising Agencies. It has tended to focus on illegal and untaxed drugs (whose producers and distributors are not heavy spenders on advertising) in its campaigns. It stopped accepting money from tobacco and alcohol companies in 1997 but continues to receive support from the pharmaceutical industry (source Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting Website: www.fair.org).

[13] Jim Fixx (1932-1984) wrote The Complete Book of Running (1977) and Jim Fixxs Second Book of Running (1980).

[14] At a demonstration in Dallas in 1984 Gregory Johnson doused a US flag in kerosene and set it on fire outside the City Hall. John was found guilty of desecrating a sacred object under the Texas Penal Code and sentenced to one year in prison. His case went to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled in June 1989 that Johnsons actions were a form of symbolic speech and protected under the terms of the First Amendment to the Constitution. In the course of delivering the courts verdict, Justice Brennan remarked; If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

[15] Released as One Night Stand in 1991, Laughing Stock Productions Ltd.

[16] A certain amount of repetition is inevitable in a collection of stand-up routines. The editors have decided to include all the main routines, so that the reader can see how the treatment of the same themes changes between 1990 and 1993.