Bill Hicks

William Melvin Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian, satirist, and social critic. Hicks is often compared to Lenny Bruce and Sam Kinison, and characterized his own performances as "Chomsky with dick jokes." http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/coveringideas/jokes.asp

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, and as 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.

Related Topics:
1990 - Montreal's - Just for laughs - London's - West End - 1991

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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 recorded the Revelations video for Channel 4 in England. He was voted "Hot Standup Comic" by Rolling Stone Magazine, and moved to Los Angeles again in early 1993.

Related Topics:
1992 - Revelations - Channel 4 - Rolling Stone Magazine - 1993

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The progressive metal band Tool invited Hicks to open a number of concerts for them on their 1992 Lollapalooza appearances, and Hicks once famously asked the audience to look for a contact lens he'd lost. Thousands of people complied. http://www.fadetoblack.com/interviews/billhicks/13.html Tool singer Maynard James Keenan so enjoyed this joke he repeated it on a number of occasions.

Related Topics:
Tool - 1992 - Lollapalooza - Contact lens - Maynard James Keenan

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Later that year, while touring in Australia, he started complaining of pains in his side, and in the middle of June, he learned he had pancreatic cancer. 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. He started receiving weekly chemotherapy, while still touring, and also recording his album, Arizona Bay, with Kevin Booth.

Related Topics:
Pancreatic cancer - Fallon Woodland - Pilot - Sitcom - Storyboard - February 26 - 2004 - Chemotherapy - Arizona Bay

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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.

Related Topics:
October 1 - Pro-life

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He played his final show in New York on January 6, 1994, and moved back to his parents' house in Little Rock shortly thereafter. He called his friends to say goodbye before he stopped speaking on February 14, and at 11:20 PM, on February 26, he died. He was buried on the family plot in Leakesville, Mississippi.

Related Topics:
January 6 - 1994 - February 14 - February 26 - Leakesville, Mississippi

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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.

Related Topics:
Arizona Bay - Rant in E-Minor - 1997

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