Lost and Found-- Mr. Hicks

One of the greatest little stocking stuffers a person could get: Bill Hicks Live (DVD). I think most people are familiar with his work, though he still remains widely unnoticed as one of the greatest comedians that ever lived. Doing stand-up comedy since the age of 13, Mr. Hicks died in 1995 at the age of 33 (much too young) from pancreatic cancer. Maybe I've been kept out of the loop until now, but this man was wonderful-- self-described as "Chomsky with dick jokes", and described by others as a social critic and political philosohpher, not to mention an outstanding comedian. I was digging through some old articles and happened upon this transcript of a letter Hicks wrote to John Lahr at CBS, after being censored from the Letterman show for talking about 'hot-button' issues like abortion, and Jesus of Nazareth (Hicks had made numerous appearances on Letterman prior to being cut from the show months before his death). Here's a few quips from that letter-- a dissapointed and disenfranchised Hicks:

I did what I've always done - performed material in a comedic way, which I thought was funny. The artist always plays to himself, and I believe the audience, seeing that one person can be free to express his thoughts, however strange they may seem, inspires the audience to feel that perhaps they too can freely express their innermost thoughts with impunity, joy and release, and perhaps discover our common bond - unique, yet so similar - with each other.

This philosophy may appear at first to some as selfish - "I play to me and do material that interests and cracks me up." But, you see, I don't feel I'm different from anyone else. The audience is me. I believe we all have the same voice of reason inside us, and that voice is the same in everyone.

This is what I think CBS, the producers of the Letterman show, the networks and governments fear the most - that one man free, expressing his own thoughts and point of view, might somehow inspire others to think for themselves and listen to that voice of reason inside them, and then perhaps, one by one we will awaken from this dream of lies and illusions that the world, the governments and their propaganda arm, the mainstream media, feeds us continuously over fifty-two channels, twenty-four hours a day.

What I realised was that they don't want the people to be awake. The elite ruling class wants us asleep so we'll remain a docile, apathetic herd of passive consumers and non-participants in the true agendas of our governments, which is to keep us separate and present an image of a world filled with unresolvable problems, that they, and only they, might somewhere, in the never-arriving future, may be able to solve. Just stay asleep, America. Keep watching television. Keep paying attention to the infinite witnesses of illusion we provide you over "Luciferís Dream Box".

The herd has been pacified by our charade of concern as we pose the two most idiotic questions imaginable - "Is television becoming too violent?" and "Is television becoming too promiscuous?" The answer, my friends, is this: television is too stupid. It treats us like morons. Case closed.

And now, the final irony. One of the "hot points" that was brought up as being "unsuitable for our audience" was my joke about pro-lifers. My brilliant friend Andy posited the theory that this was really what bothered and scared the network the most, seeing as how the "pro-life" movement has essentially become a terrorist group acting with impunity and God on their side, in a country where the reasonable majority overwhelmingly supports freedom of choice regarding abortion.

I felt there was something to this theory, but I was still surprised to be watching the Letterman Show (Iím still a fan) the Monday night following my censored Friday night performance and, lo and behold, they cut to a - are you ready for this? - pro-life commercial. This farce is now complete. "Follow the money!"

... I'd be interested in seeing his act ten years later.

Wikipedia has a nice summary of his life and works.

And the official Bill Hicks site has some video (real player required) and various other things to peruse and amuse.

"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves."-- relatively famous Hicks quote, also sampled at the outset of Tool's Third Eye.