0:00:02 > 0:00:03Everyone comfy? Get comfy!
0:00:03 > 0:00:08Get comfy! Cos the show's about to start!
0:00:08 > 0:00:16This programme contains very strong language and adult humour.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25Who do you ever pay to talk?
0:00:25 > 0:00:29Maybe a preacher, maybe a lecturer, possibly a politician.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33Even those, rarely.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36Comedians are the only ones that you pay to hear them talk.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40Talk to me, make me listen.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47News is supposed to be objective. Isn't it supposed to be? THE news!
0:00:47 > 0:00:52But every drug story is negative.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54Well, hold it!
0:00:54 > 0:00:58I've had some killer fucking times on drugs.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01Let's hear the whole story.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05What Bill said will never change,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08because it is the basic truths, and they are never wrong.
0:01:08 > 0:01:14Plenty of people say he is the best American comedian the country has ever produced
0:01:14 > 0:01:18and he was only 32 when he died. His influence lives on.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20Bill Hicks!
0:01:20 > 0:01:26Get out. You're everything that America should be flushed down the toilet. You turd. Get out!
0:01:26 > 0:01:31"Hey, buddy, we're Christians. We don't like what you said."
0:01:31 > 0:01:38I said, "Then forgive me."
0:01:38 > 0:01:43# The sergeant sent me and my men on a search
0:01:47 > 0:01:51# He wanted us to go out and get the lay of the land
0:01:56 > 0:02:03# We were to find any people who might be
0:02:03 > 0:02:10# The enemies of man. #
0:02:13 > 0:02:18Free yourself, folks. YOU'RE right. YOU'RE right.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22Not those fuckers who want to tell you how to think. You're fucking right!
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Sorry, wrong meeting. Again.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32I keep getting my days mixed up.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40From the moment I met Bill, throughout our life,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43it was about laughs.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47I think our parents were just happy being comfortable.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51"Can we just be quiet? And can we just go to church
0:02:51 > 0:02:54"and be distracted by our religion? It's orderly here."
0:02:54 > 0:02:58Growing up in that environment, you start to get a little antsy,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01because clearly there has to be something more.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Lyndon Johnson talked about the 'Great Society' back in the '60s
0:03:05 > 0:03:09and I think he was keying into something and that was
0:03:09 > 0:03:14that America's so wealthy and powerful that we have to do something responsible with it.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17We're going to defeat poverty, we're going to do the Peace Corps,
0:03:17 > 0:03:22we're going to make the world a better place. And then I think that Vietnam stalled that.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25So the generation that Bill and I came out of was,
0:03:25 > 0:03:31we were looking around going, "Well, there's got to be something else we can do with all this.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35Bill was, uh... I don't know, I just...
0:03:35 > 0:03:36He was interesting.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41All of my children were special.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44I had a girl. I had only a girl.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47Then I had a boy. And then I had a baby.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53There was definitely something there
0:03:53 > 0:03:57that was different from Steve and Lynn growing up.
0:03:57 > 0:04:03But Bill... You should have known him, is all I can say.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06You know, they were so much older. Five and seven years' difference
0:04:06 > 0:04:08is a lot of difference.
0:04:08 > 0:04:14You couldn't do anything with him. He was too little at that point.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18Bill was seven when we got to Houston.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20Then we stayed there 12, 13 years.
0:04:20 > 0:04:21Yeah.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24He was just another kid playing sports, you know.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28It wasn't evident yet where his life was going to go.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31And, of course, by then he had met Dwight.
0:04:31 > 0:04:36What I noticed about him is he was fast.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38He had a real strong constitution.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41He could do things better and longer than everyone else.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43An unbelievable scrambler.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46I was fast, but I wasn't a very good scrambler
0:04:46 > 0:04:49but I watched him and just picked apart what he was doing,
0:04:49 > 0:04:53then I was scrambling. All the way to the end zone, no-one would touch me.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57After we'd played a few times, I just remember everyone leaving
0:04:57 > 0:05:01and us being alone and me thinking to myself,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04"I think this is going to be a friend of mine.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10The first time I ever met his parents, Bill did not want to introduce me.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14He just wanted me to go straight up the stairs.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17When you'd go over there, he would look at me and just go,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21"Look, don't talk to them. Just follow me upstairs." But of course,
0:05:21 > 0:05:23an adult says, "Hello there! Who are you?"
0:05:23 > 0:05:27You stop and you say, "I'm Dwight." Bill's like, "Come on!"
0:05:27 > 0:05:31You're stuck on the landing with Bill at the top of the stairs and you're at the bottom.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34And, "Well, just hold on. Where are you from?"
0:05:34 > 0:05:37I go, "I live in Nottingham Forest." "What does your father do?"
0:05:37 > 0:05:40"Works for Shell Oil." "Uh-huh." "Just leave him alone!"
0:05:40 > 0:05:44Bill's screaming at you to come upstairs. "Come on!"
0:05:44 > 0:05:47"Bill, would you just hold on? I like to know who your friends are.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50"Aaagh! What does it matter? What does it matter?"
0:05:50 > 0:05:53"Well, we're just curious. Is there a problem with being curious?"
0:05:56 > 0:06:01When you reached his room, the door would be closed and locked and you were...safe.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05I had told him that I wanted to be an actor and he goes,
0:06:05 > 0:06:07"I'll show you these jokes that I wrote."
0:06:07 > 0:06:10Because we were joking around so much,
0:06:10 > 0:06:12he started saying we should be a comedy team.
0:06:12 > 0:06:17It was completely alien to me. I had no idea what a comic really was.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21He told me that he'd seen Woody Allen on Casino Royale.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26This guy made his living being a comic, and it really fired him up,
0:06:26 > 0:06:31the importance of stand-up, that society cherished its funny people.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33And for Bill, he knew it.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38He knew that he was going to be the comic that shook people up.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40His mom figured out how to pick the lock.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44The door would open and she'd be standing there with a butter knife.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47"What are you doing?!" "I know you don't like me coming in,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50"but I am leaving and you have not responded to me."
0:06:50 > 0:06:54"Well, don't ever unlock my door again!"
0:06:54 > 0:06:56I never met anyone who talked to his parents like that.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59The Hicks family is a very smart, intellectual family
0:06:59 > 0:07:04yet there was this suspension of reason on certain issues.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08We were raised Southern Baptist and had to go to church
0:07:08 > 0:07:12every single Sunday. It was just a strict household.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14"You do this. You do that."
0:07:14 > 0:07:18The one thing I wanted to get straight, often, over the years,
0:07:18 > 0:07:22"Oh, the Hickses were raised fundamentalist Christian."
0:07:22 > 0:07:24No, we were raised Southern Baptist and that's worse.
0:07:27 > 0:07:32And he's right, really. That's just the way we lived then.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37But hopefully what you're taught there teaches you the spiritual,
0:07:37 > 0:07:44and I don't mean religion. I mean the basics of how to live a life.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47So when I was 17, he was ten.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49I was like, "Get me out of this house.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53I want out." And off I went to college. I rebelled.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57Steve, in his fashion, rebelled. And Bill rebelled too.
0:07:57 > 0:08:03stand-up comedy was not on the map in the '70s
0:08:03 > 0:08:06for kids to want to be.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10But we were determined and so we started to do this very much
0:08:10 > 0:08:14guerrilla theatre type of comedy amongst our friends.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17This group of people's just standing around, and you appear,
0:08:17 > 0:08:21and you do an outrageous sketch and then you disappear.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27"What the hell was that?"
0:08:27 > 0:08:31And, of course, once they got wind of it, they wouldn't let us alone.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33"Are you going to do your thing? Do it!"
0:08:33 > 0:08:35After school we would go over to his house
0:08:35 > 0:08:38and we would plan them and write them and they were like gigs to us.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42And it wasn't lost upon us, the fact that we already knew
0:08:42 > 0:08:47what we wanted in life. This was what we were going to do.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52You had to sacrifice your family, your relationship with girls, your popularity at school.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55We were sacrificing everything for this.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58And there was nowhere to do our craft. There was no open mics.
0:08:58 > 0:09:03There was nothing in 1970s Houston, Texas.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05As a backdrop to all this is how we met Kevin Booth.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10Bill and I just thought that Kevin was hilarious, cos he was this technical genius
0:09:10 > 0:09:14who could build things and blow things up.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16I was known as the instigator and a facilitator.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18You know, if you had an idea for something,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21I would go out and figure out how to build it.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23You know, the fact that he was able to get his parents' RV
0:09:23 > 0:09:26and hook up a generator and then set up speakers
0:09:26 > 0:09:30and play rock'n'roll to the Spartanaires
0:09:30 > 0:09:34as they were practising their routines. That was classic Kevin.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38Because of this ranch, I was able to get what's called a hardship driver's licence
0:09:38 > 0:09:42when I was 14, without even, like, taking any lessons.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45I just thought the two of them were hilarious.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48It was like a new breed of person. They did all this weird stuff,
0:09:48 > 0:09:52and I guess we just started talking about music all the time.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54We wanted to be rock stars,
0:09:54 > 0:09:58thinking like this was going to be our way to break out of suburbia.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05Bill was like, "Let's go look at these guitars downtown."
0:10:05 > 0:10:09I'd never driven downtown before. I was like, "I guess I'm game for this,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12"if you guys are going to navigate the way."
0:10:12 > 0:10:14He goes, "Did you see the paper today?
0:10:14 > 0:10:17"A comedy workshop has opened up and they have open mic."
0:10:17 > 0:10:22"Open mic stand-up?" "Yes." "Oh, my God. Finally."
0:10:22 > 0:10:27So we drove to downtown. On our way back, we passed this place
0:10:27 > 0:10:30called the Comedy Workshop in Montrose.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34Bill and Dwight said, "That's the place we've been reading about." We couldn't believe it,
0:10:34 > 0:10:38that something like this had happened in our own backyard.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41And we realised that now we had a real chance.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45We could actually be comics.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49Most entertainers have to deal with getting to LA or Hollywood,
0:10:49 > 0:10:51taking acting lessons, getting head shots.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54What's our problem? We can't go out on school nights.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57I remember my father sitting me down and going,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00"Look, you're not going down to a nightclub in Houston, Texas."
0:11:00 > 0:11:02Oh, man...
0:11:02 > 0:11:05We WERE strict. We wanted to know where they were.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07We wanted to know when they were going to get home.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10And if they didn't give us the answer we wanted,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12we told them what we wanted.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17Bill and I talked about it and he said, "We have to do it", and I was like, "Absolutely.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20The question was, how to get down there on a school night?
0:11:26 > 0:11:29When you're in Bill's bedroom looking out, if you hop that fence,
0:11:29 > 0:11:31you're in the Catholic church's parking lot.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35You could open the window, but there also was a storm window.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39He became very efficient at getting that open and getting out the window.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44You had to be quiet cos the roof was right above their kitchen.
0:11:44 > 0:11:49The evil Catholic boy with his 14-year-old driver's licence
0:11:49 > 0:11:53was sitting there in the Catholic getaway wagon
0:11:53 > 0:11:55ready to take the Baptist boy down to the Comedy Store.
0:12:01 > 0:12:06We'd never been in a nightclub, but when we walked in it was like,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09"Whoa!" The whole thing is set up for comedy.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13And there was chairs and they were all pointed at the stage.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15This was what it was all about.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21We did the first few jokes and it started working.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24I think everybody was very receptive to them
0:12:24 > 0:12:28because they were like these little kids trying to be a part of this adult world.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32When Bill first started, you could see Woody Allen.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35He had the Woody Allen mannerisms a bit. But that's not a bad thing.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39If you keep doing it and you don't grow out of it, that's a bad thing.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42When a comic first starts, you can tell his influences.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46Bill and I got off stage and we were flying. We had done well.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52It was beyond, you know, the exhilaration was just...
0:12:52 > 0:12:56It was just, here we go, we're real comics.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00And then the shit hit the fan. Mrs Hicks calls Scott's mom,
0:13:00 > 0:13:04says, "Is Bill over there?" "No, they went down to the Comedy Workshop."
0:13:04 > 0:13:10"Oh." So when Bill gets home, he gets nailed. Mrs Hicks calls my parents, and I get nailed.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13It went from being thrilled with the fact that,
0:13:13 > 0:13:16"Hey, we're doing this" to, "Now what do we do?
0:13:16 > 0:13:20We're comics, we have to work on this career. We can do it."
0:13:20 > 0:13:24And just as I thought that, my father came home and said,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28"I've bought a business in Klamath Falls, Oregon. We're moving in July."
0:13:36 > 0:13:40I was devastated, and I go, "I've got to tell you something.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43"In July I'm going to be moving to Klamath Falls, Oregon."
0:13:43 > 0:13:48There was just silence. Bill didn't exhibit any emotion about it.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52It was just one more fucking thing we were going to have to deal with
0:13:52 > 0:13:55and in typical fashion, we just began joking about it.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59"When you get up to Calamity Falls..." "It's Klamath Falls."
0:13:59 > 0:14:03"Whatever. You're going to meet a girlfriend, you're going to be happy."
0:14:03 > 0:14:07"Yeah, but I'm missing my friend." "Oh, you'll make new friends."
0:14:07 > 0:14:10So we joked about it, but there was this idea that it was all over.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14What were we going to do? What could we possibly do?
0:14:14 > 0:14:18He'd never focused on doing solo stand-up.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Our stuff was about characters, about creating worlds.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24I think when I left, he just threw himself into music and the band.
0:14:24 > 0:14:29I couldn't imagine Bill performing without Dwight or Dwight performing without Bill.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32I thought the three of us would be doing music forever.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34Dwight took off. And poof, he was gone.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41And at the time, too, I had actually seen Dwight perform comedy
0:14:41 > 0:14:46without Bill but I hadn't seen Bill perform comedy without Dwight.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49And so I wasn't sure how it was going to go.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52A big hand for the very funny Mr Bill Hicks.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55APPLAUSE Yeah! Whoa!
0:15:04 > 0:15:09Thank you. This is weird, I've got to see if this is universal or not.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12- Remember this thing called flinching?- Yeah.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16You know what this is, you guys? Some guy would come up to you
0:15:16 > 0:15:19and they'd go, "Hey." You'd go, "God! Watch out, man!"
0:15:19 > 0:15:22And he'd go, "Ah, flinched! I owe you a poke."
0:15:22 > 0:15:26The guy would go, "Oh, shit, I flinched. Here, poke me."
0:15:26 > 0:15:28You remember that? First time it happened to me,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32this guy comes up, "Hey, Hicks!" I went, "God! Get away from me."
0:15:32 > 0:15:34And he goes, "Ah, flinched! I owe you a poke."
0:15:34 > 0:15:36I said, "Get away from me, you jerk."
0:15:36 > 0:15:40Principal's walking by. He goes, "What's going on here?"
0:15:40 > 0:15:43That guy goes, "He flinched and won't let me poke him!"
0:15:43 > 0:15:46I said, "He's trying to hit me." The principal went,
0:15:46 > 0:15:48"DID you flinch, Bill?"
0:15:48 > 0:15:50LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:15:55 > 0:15:59I remember Kevin telling me early on that he's going to be a comedian
0:15:59 > 0:16:03and he writes comedy, and I thought that was really strange,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06because we were only 16 years old or something
0:16:06 > 0:16:10and finally I just said, "Kevin, I want to go over and meet this guy."
0:16:10 > 0:16:13Bill and I had the same sense of humour from the very beginning
0:16:13 > 0:16:15and we just got each other instantly.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19It was, "Oh, really, you got a camera? Oh, these pictures are good."
0:16:19 > 0:16:24"Well, yeah, you're my photographer. Come on, take some pictures of me. I need pictures for a newspaper."
0:16:24 > 0:16:28Immediately, no question, I'm the photographer, he put complete faith in me.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32I just saw it as that I found a kindred spirit.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35He was the guy that was out in front, breaking barriers.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38Cos it was a very adult world and he was like the high schooler
0:16:38 > 0:16:42that was telling them what fools they were for drinking and smoking
0:16:42 > 0:16:44and giving them this clear mirror.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46You could tell they all really respected him.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49The good sign for a comic is not just when audiences come in
0:16:49 > 0:16:54and ask for you, it's when other comics stop what they're doing and come in the room and watch you.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58There has never been anybody funnier at his age as a stand-up.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01Maybe the only other guy that touched him was Buster Keaton.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05The stuff about his family and his parents and growing up
0:17:05 > 0:17:10was entertaining to anybody. Bill should have been famous right away.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14Open house night, your parents go up, talk to your teachers,
0:17:14 > 0:17:18find out you've been lying through your teeth. "His name is Bill?
0:17:18 > 0:17:23LAUGHTER
0:17:23 > 0:17:27"I thought it was Moltvic."
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Come home the next night, my father's sitting there and he goes,
0:17:31 > 0:17:33"Hold it, Moltvic."
0:17:33 > 0:17:35LAUGHTER
0:17:42 > 0:17:46"Went up to the school last night and I talked to your teachers.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51"I talked to Miss Jones and she said you called her a frothing slut.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55"What is that all about?"
0:17:55 > 0:17:58"Well, Dad, she's a loser."
0:17:58 > 0:18:00"Everyone's a loser, everyone's a jerk?
0:18:00 > 0:18:03"Tell me, Mr Blister, who's the real loser?"
0:18:07 > 0:18:09"Promise you won't get mad, Dad?"
0:18:14 > 0:18:17Where it really hit me was one weekend,
0:18:17 > 0:18:23I was home from college and he said, "Come down to this comedy club"
0:18:23 > 0:18:26and here was Bill performing and the place was sold out,
0:18:26 > 0:18:29and I remember going and telling all my friends, "Man, you got to come,
0:18:29 > 0:18:33"this is unreal." And it hit me pretty powerfully, it really did.
0:18:33 > 0:18:39What Bill's comedy was, was his view of our life.
0:18:39 > 0:18:45He had been able to turn that into this thing that could entertain strangers.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49"Oh, that's what you've been doing the last few years.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51Both of my parents are college graduates.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55My sister and I are graduates. Here came Bill and he said,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59"I'm going to LA to be a comedian." What does that mean? We had no idea.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04Bill basically said, "I'm moving to LA. I won't play music any more".
0:19:04 > 0:19:07I was really taken aback, it was definitely depressing.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11LA was something that had to be done. It was the next step. You had to go.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14I cried, of course, and I said, "Bill...
0:19:14 > 0:19:17"nobody will say a thing if you don't go.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21And he said, "Mom, this is hard for me so I'm going,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24"so please stop crying. If I don't make it, I'll come back.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26"But I've got to try."
0:19:28 > 0:19:31And that's how he lived the rest of his life.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34I mean, he had girlfriends and relationships.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36But certainly, life on the road as a comedian,
0:19:36 > 0:19:39there's a lot of time by yourself.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59I was working at the Comedy Store. Bill came up one afternoon.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02Pale, bad haircut, had a suitcase with him.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06He said, "I'm here to be a comic". I explained amateur night to him.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10I got lucky, and was passed on my first audition. Bill did too.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14The difficult part was stage time once you became a regular.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18Bill was in a hurry too. He had an impatience about him.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22But you went there to be on stage, to hone your performing abilities,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25and, you know, to showcase for producers.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31I remember we went out to visit him.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37Being on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles at the world famous
0:20:37 > 0:20:41Comedy Store where people like Robin Williams and Richard Pryor
0:20:41 > 0:20:44and Billy Crystal also performed and then Bill Hicks.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48That was the Mecca for comedy and Bill got his name up there.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51OK, there's one for the books right there, you know.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56He was where he wanted to be, and that was pretty clear.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03You know, he would call me up in these fits of inspiration
0:21:03 > 0:21:07and go, "You HAVE to get down here, we've GOT to do this script.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10"It's our key out of this." I'd already decided that's what I was going to do,
0:21:10 > 0:21:15so I left the University of Oregon and drove south to Los Angeles.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20I remember knocking at the door and it was an intense moment.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25I had the map out and I was going, "Donde esta Le Keystone?"
0:21:25 > 0:21:27And, "Sir, you can't come in here."
0:21:27 > 0:21:30"Where... donde esta Les Tropic de Olives?"
0:21:30 > 0:21:32"Sir, you can't. Please."
0:21:32 > 0:21:35And he goes, "Come on in", and of course it was just tiny,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38and we would wind up living there for two years.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42He goes "Do you want to go down to the Comedy Store?" I said, "Sure."
0:21:42 > 0:21:46We got in his car, and drove down to Hollywood and I walk into the Comedy Store.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50This is it, you know, the Ground Zero of stand up comedy.
0:21:51 > 0:21:56He always went up really early in the show, like second or third.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58He never swore. He was the clean-cut comic.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08It was a nice way to restart a new chapter of our friendship.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11I think we both knew we weren't going to be working together as stand-ups
0:22:11 > 0:22:13cos he'd already gone on to be successful.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16The whole focus of all this was leading to a script.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20If we could sell a script, THAT'S when you get can excited.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23We started to come up with an idea of,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26how do we evolve these characters?
0:22:26 > 0:22:28The father character and the mother character.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30It would make a good movie.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33We were writing constantly, pages and pages of scenes
0:22:33 > 0:22:37and we knew these characters, the voices were in our head.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45He flew back from LA to be the best man at my wedding.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48He was always going to be my best man and we were going to be there
0:22:48 > 0:22:52for each other whenever those times were.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54But he had to perform that night, and so after the wedding
0:22:54 > 0:22:58a bunch of people went down there "Yeah, let's go see him.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01"What the hell! Let's go down there, you know?"
0:23:01 > 0:23:03I didn't know I had a funny brother.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06That was the first I was aware that that was
0:23:06 > 0:23:09what he wanted to do as a serious profession.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11He was hilarious.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16The good news was the guy at William Morris said,
0:23:16 > 0:23:18"I want to meet with you."
0:23:18 > 0:23:21He was a big frickin' agent in Hollywood.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23He looked at us and he goes, "You guys are 19?"
0:23:23 > 0:23:26And we go, "Yeah." He goes, "How did you get in my office?"
0:23:26 > 0:23:29So we kind of told him the story of being stand-ups
0:23:29 > 0:23:32and that we're just out of high school and we're writing
0:23:32 > 0:23:36a script about being from high school and that really intrigued him.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38"I want you to rewrite it. It doesn't have much of an ending.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41"I really want to see another script from you guys.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44"After that, I want to talk about representing you.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46"You guys are going to be good screenwriters."
0:23:46 > 0:23:49And I was very excited too. This was my first break.
0:23:49 > 0:23:54Bill was just disappointed because we'd put so much into that script, obviously,
0:23:54 > 0:23:57and he would have liked to hear that it got bought.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10And in the months that followed that,
0:24:10 > 0:24:17he just lost interest in writing, and I could not fire him up about,
0:24:17 > 0:24:19"We have a ton of ideas about scripts.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23"Let's just write another one. Let's get him what he wants and see if we can do this."
0:24:23 > 0:24:25He just wasn't into it. He didn't want to.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30He was through being a screenwriter. He wanted to move on to being a comic.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32Hello, this is Bill.
0:24:33 > 0:24:39I just needed to talk with somebody and this tape recorder is all I've got right now.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41I haven't been funny in a long time.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44I haven't come up with new material in a long time,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47and, I tell you what, there's nothing scarier,
0:24:47 > 0:24:51especially for me out here, forsaking college and an easy life,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54coming out here. What happens if I'm just not funny?
0:24:54 > 0:24:57I have nothing. I am a bum.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01I could be five years in the Store, no-one gives a shit there.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04Fuck doing this stuff.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09LA wanted six minutes of clean to do on the Tonight Show,
0:25:09 > 0:25:13and that wasn't enough for Bill, Bill wasn't growing enough.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16The only way you could grow was to get more stage time.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Bill, you know, was a veteran.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24For Christ's sake, he was 21 years old in 1982.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28And he had been a comic for seven years.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33Coming to LA was such a romantic and meaningful and emotional experience
0:25:33 > 0:25:38and then leaving like a thief in the night with every possession he has
0:25:38 > 0:25:40streaming out of the back of his car,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43Bill and his leather jacket and his guitar
0:25:43 > 0:25:47and me going away with a knapsack to Oregon,
0:25:47 > 0:25:49just glad to be the hell out of there.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52And knowing that we both had all the tools
0:25:52 > 0:25:54we needed for the rest of our lives.
0:25:54 > 0:25:59For Bill, that period in Los Angeles was when he solidified
0:25:59 > 0:26:03his identity as a stand-up comic. It taught him how to be on his own,
0:26:03 > 0:26:06to take his comedy seriously, that this was what he was going to do
0:26:06 > 0:26:10for the rest of his life. It strengthened him and wised him up.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13But even when he went to LA the first time,
0:26:13 > 0:26:15I don't think Bill had really found his voice.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20You could be liked and doing well, but that day you find your voice,
0:26:20 > 0:26:23the difference is night and day.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27Bill called me and I thought he was still in LA.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30He's like, "Guess what." I said, "What?" He goes, "I'm here."
0:26:30 > 0:26:33I was like, "What?" and he goes, "I'm in Houston and guess what else?
0:26:33 > 0:26:36"We're going to take psychedelic mushrooms tonight."
0:26:36 > 0:26:40I was like, "Yeah, funny, Bill." He's like, "No, it's not what you think it is.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45If there was one person that could talk me into doing it, it was Bill.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49And we took some mushrooms in this vegetarian restaurant,
0:26:49 > 0:26:51and just laughed our asses off.
0:26:53 > 0:26:59Only Bill would try hallucinogenics before he tried alcohol.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02He just had a whole new appetite, you know.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04"I want to try everything."
0:27:04 > 0:27:09When he came back to Texas realising that the difference
0:27:09 > 0:27:12between where he was and, say, where Richard Pryor was,
0:27:12 > 0:27:15was a way big thing, way bigger than he'd thought,
0:27:15 > 0:27:17he knew that he was going to have to break moulds
0:27:17 > 0:27:21and that it wasn't just enough that he was the baby-faced kid.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25And I don't think he knew exactly where it was that he had to get to,
0:27:25 > 0:27:27but he just knew that he wasn't there yet.
0:27:29 > 0:27:34I think we left as kids and came back as real, seasoned comics.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38Some sort of forces were moving people from Houston together.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41There were so many kindred spirits and other comics
0:27:41 > 0:27:44that made Houston different from other parts of the country.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48- How many guys in here just broke up with my girlfriend? - LAUGHTER
0:27:48 > 0:27:52There were six of us at the time, and it was founded by Steve Epstein.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57I was more of the court jester, in a sense, in that I was kind of goofy.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01I-I say, Steve Epstein was driving a '78 Rabbit!
0:28:01 > 0:28:04Oohorr!
0:28:04 > 0:28:08He'd just flap around like an unattended fire hose, but he got everything going.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11Andy Huggins, we met in LA.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14I had a feeling Andy was more like a Houston comic than an LA comic.
0:28:14 > 0:28:19And after Armageddon, there'll be a small reception at the Ramada Inn.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21Jimmy talked me into coming back to Houston.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25He said, "You want to do stand-up? We've more stage time for you."
0:28:25 > 0:28:29That's all I needed to hear. John Farneti was a very successful lawyer,
0:28:29 > 0:28:33- but just a terrific performer. - I was born in Wyoming.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37I lived there until I learned how to read a road map.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39I'd wanted to do it since I was six years old
0:28:39 > 0:28:42but there was nowhere on earth to do it.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46And suddenly there's this place where you just walk in and people are lined up in the rain to get in.
0:28:46 > 0:28:51And I wanted, like everybody, to hang around with Bill Hicks.
0:28:51 > 0:28:53Everyone knew he was just head, shoulders,
0:28:53 > 0:28:56waist, kneecaps and ankles above everybody else.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59My problem with going to U of H, I went there in the summer session.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03All I had in all my classes were jocks trying to make up credit.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06You know that feeling? They weren't there to learn at all.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10I remember the first day of my Eastern philosophy course.
0:29:10 > 0:29:15The instructor walks out and goes, "God is consciousness.
0:29:15 > 0:29:21"And we are all God trying to realise our full potential."
0:29:21 > 0:29:24Wowwwwwwwww...
0:29:24 > 0:29:29- This guy in the back row, "Yeah, we going to need to know that? - LAUGHTER
0:29:29 > 0:29:32"Is that going to be on the quiz?"
0:29:32 > 0:29:38# Hey hey, hey hey, it's just a sunny day. #
0:29:38 > 0:29:41From starting taking mushrooms and smoking cigarettes
0:29:41 > 0:29:44to that night he first got drunk, it was a matter of months.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48When the Comedy Annex started hopping for the first time, it was an exciting place to be,
0:29:48 > 0:29:52and it was a place to go every night. There was drugs, alcohol and women.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54We were there every night.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58Pineapple and Huggins were hysterical drunks,
0:29:58 > 0:30:01so I think he was ready to learn from us in other ways, I guess.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04I remember he came up to David Johndrow and I, and he was like,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07"I want to try a drink. What's a drink people drink?"
0:30:07 > 0:30:11I said, "You want to try drinking for the first time, order a margarita."
0:30:11 > 0:30:15He went up to the bar and ordered seven margaritas. And he downed them
0:30:15 > 0:30:18and went up on stage.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21He never drunk before, and the bitterness came out
0:30:21 > 0:30:23for the first time, it just came pouring out.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26He was literally crawling around the stage
0:30:26 > 0:30:28with a full house of 200 people watching him.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32But he was still funny. People were still laughing, the whole time.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37The drinking was a way that he was able to have this breakthrough
0:30:37 > 0:30:39of really going out on the edge
0:30:39 > 0:30:42and not being concerned with people's reaction.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44Then all of a sudden he could really be bold
0:30:44 > 0:30:47and really say what he wanted and not be concerned.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50- HECKLER: How's your girlfriend? - Oh, my girlfriend! Thanks, pal(!)
0:30:50 > 0:30:54Throw salt on the fucking wound! Thanks a lot!
0:30:54 > 0:30:57Why don't you just come up here and throw salt on it, huh?
0:30:57 > 0:30:59Here, here's my heart. Throw salt.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03Come on. Dig it in. Yeah, my girlfriend left me.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06Five years. I loved her more than anything in the fucking world
0:31:06 > 0:31:10and she just split on me. Remember your first love? Didn't that hurt?
0:31:10 > 0:31:13Isn't it hard to get over? But I think it helped my career
0:31:13 > 0:31:18when she left me, cos I'm a driven man now.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20I'm driven by a fantasy that one day, this girl who I loved
0:31:20 > 0:31:27more than anyone in the world and I gave my heart to, and she spat upon it and spun out the door,
0:31:27 > 0:31:32one day this girl'll be living in a trailer park in Oklahoma,
0:31:32 > 0:31:37swampy trailer ground and clouds of Aids mosquitoes
0:31:37 > 0:31:41swarming around her, blocking out the light from the sun.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45She has like nine naked little kids with rickets.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48They got burrs in their hair and jam on their face
0:31:48 > 0:31:50and rats laying babies in their ears at night.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52LAUGHTER
0:31:52 > 0:31:56And they bring home dead animals from beside the road to eat.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59And she lives with this ex-welder who doesn't have a job.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03He's got fur all over his back. He's fat, like 600lbs,
0:32:03 > 0:32:06and he makes love to her with a broom handle at night.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09LAUGHTER
0:32:09 > 0:32:12And one night he's going to be romancing her with that stick
0:32:12 > 0:32:14and his heart is going to explode
0:32:14 > 0:32:17and she's trapped under 600lbs of flaccid, sweaty,
0:32:17 > 0:32:22fish belly cellulite that's moving like the tides of the ocean
0:32:22 > 0:32:27and blood and phlegm and bile pours out of his mouth and nose
0:32:27 > 0:32:33into her face, into her face, and just before she drowns in that vomit
0:32:33 > 0:32:37she turns to the TV and I'm going to be on it. Hahaha.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:32:43 > 0:32:47Once Bill decided that he would just be in his home base
0:32:47 > 0:32:50and he would just do his own comedy the way he wanted
0:32:50 > 0:32:54and that the world would come to him, well, it did.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57He was just too good not for fame to find him,
0:32:57 > 0:33:01no matter how many corners it had to go around.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05Jay Leno showed up at the Annex and they adored Jay Leno at the time,
0:33:05 > 0:33:08cos he was THE professional stand-up comic,
0:33:08 > 0:33:10You know, he was just the best.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13Jay did help. Jay liked Bill's act.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18He gave Bill advice. He made a few phone calls.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20When Leno said this guy is good,
0:33:20 > 0:33:25I would imagine Letterman knew totally he was.
0:33:27 > 0:33:29Hello. Good evening. Good evening.
0:33:29 > 0:33:34My name is Bill Hicks. Thank you.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38Full name is William Melvin Hicks. Thanks, Dad.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41It's a name with certain connotations, huh?
0:33:41 > 0:33:45"Hi, my name is Melvin Hicks. This is my wife and my sister."
0:33:45 > 0:33:46"OK, Melvin..."
0:33:50 > 0:33:52All right.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54He called us every time he was going to be on
0:33:54 > 0:33:58and I used to always tell him, "Billy, it's just not you,"
0:33:58 > 0:34:01but, you know, that first time, the impact and nirvana
0:34:01 > 0:34:05of being on national TV, I mean, we felt that too, watching him,
0:34:05 > 0:34:09- and I was like, "No, it was great." - Christmas rolled around, my friends got go-karts.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13I'm 12 years old, I got a college dictionary.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16Mom goes, "Bill, it's the thought that counts!"
0:34:16 > 0:34:19Oh, Mom, but what were you thinking? Seriously.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24Laughter is big business in Houston.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28Now you've been on television, it's like a stamp of approval.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31So if you were on the David Letterman Show, it was like, yeah.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48He did not want Jim and me to see him.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51I guess he thought we wouldn't understand.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54But we did sneak into that one in Austin.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57Steve thought we were in shock when we saw Bill perform.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00- I know you were in shock when you saw Bill.- Uh-uh.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03Cos he did not know they were in the audience so it was the entire show.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07I was not shocked. I was in awe, to tell you the truth.
0:35:07 > 0:35:12- I could not believe...- Oh, how the years have changed your memory!
0:35:12 > 0:35:16I couldn't believe that he was up there and he had such poise.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20I think Bill was the one in shock. But all he said was,
0:35:20 > 0:35:24"Well, that's what I do." And I said, "Well, that was very good."
0:35:24 > 0:35:27And then the odd thing about it is he didn't really temper
0:35:27 > 0:35:31his material for them. Not like I would have.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34And I think they kind of treated it like, "Well, that's his world.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38"We don't understand it, but that's what he does."
0:35:40 > 0:35:43He was open for anything, really.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45Yeah, I have had a good job. I've had a good job.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49I'm not complaining about every fucking job I've had.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53I used to work at a lady's shoe store. I liked that. I got to see this all day long.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56It was great. Women came in, they'd wear dresses to try on the shoes.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59I'm the guy that helped them on with the shoes.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02I don't know if you ladies do that on purpose, but keep it up.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05They're sitting there, going, "Ahh...
0:36:09 > 0:36:13"How does it look?" Oh, gwaaaaa...
0:36:18 > 0:36:23"It looks great. Yeah, it's you. It's definitely you."
0:36:23 > 0:36:28"Mmmm...it's kind of tight."
0:36:28 > 0:36:31Oh, man...
0:36:35 > 0:36:37"I can stretch it out for you."
0:36:37 > 0:36:42LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:36:42 > 0:36:45So after I got fired from that job...
0:36:45 > 0:36:48No-one said it'd be pretty!
0:36:48 > 0:36:50Bill was always an all-or-nothing guy.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53There was no halfway for Bill.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56And wanting to experiment with mushrooms was to him
0:36:56 > 0:37:00a way of trying to, like, further his evolution as a person.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03Just hearing about something was not good enough.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07Bill always wanted revelation to be first-hand.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13Our family got this ranch, and it ended up being a place
0:37:13 > 0:37:17where we could come and get away from everybody.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20Our friends said, "You're just trying to get fucked up."
0:37:20 > 0:37:25Bill would just say, "No, we really are trying to get somewhere else with this."
0:37:25 > 0:37:29So we would go out and fast a little bit and prepare
0:37:29 > 0:37:33and then have this experience and see what happened.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37Well, some really amazing things happened.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40The world is one magical motherfucker.
0:37:40 > 0:37:45If you take a certain amount of mushrooms, you're in a magical world.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10A lot of people have this thought when they take these,
0:38:10 > 0:38:15"Does anybody know about this?" Because it's like a secret.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19It's like this fundamental thing about the human brain,
0:38:19 > 0:38:22but no-one knows about it and no-one talks about it.
0:38:30 > 0:38:35There was one time in particular, the harmonic convergence.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39It was basically this time when all the planets were to align
0:38:39 > 0:38:43in some alignment that only happens once every 10,000 years.
0:38:47 > 0:38:52I remember walking down this tunnel of light and feeling like we were walking into a spaceship.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55Bill was just asking, "Who are you and why are you here?"
0:38:55 > 0:38:59and basically being told that the boundaries of space and time
0:38:59 > 0:39:02are all in our minds and that we all are one, and everything is one.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05We all are one, everything is one.
0:39:05 > 0:39:07ECHOING: We all are one, everything is one.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11I remember Bill just looking at me, like, "Oh, my God.
0:39:11 > 0:39:13"Can you believe that just happened?"
0:39:13 > 0:39:16At first I was like, "That was just something I thought of",
0:39:16 > 0:39:18and then Bill explained everything that I had just seen
0:39:18 > 0:39:21and then the day went even further than that,
0:39:21 > 0:39:24where it was like tapping into all these other minds,
0:39:24 > 0:39:28like thousands of them all at once. And I'm really sceptical.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31I was ready to say, "OK, we're on drugs.
0:39:31 > 0:39:36But something about what happened on this day was different. It was significant and very tangible.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38ECHOING: We all are one, everything is one.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42You know, this was accepted by human beings that you take substances
0:39:42 > 0:39:46to change your consciousness, from the beginning of human history.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50After that day, I think he really was like 100% sure
0:39:50 > 0:39:53that something did exist on the other side
0:39:53 > 0:39:56and it helped him go out there and become a lot more fearless,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59and part of his art was being able to broadcast
0:39:59 > 0:40:02cutting edge ideas to the public.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05We came here for the truth, right?
0:40:05 > 0:40:10That's all I want out of life, is the truth. Is that too much to ask for?
0:40:10 > 0:40:12You ever see a positive story about drugs on the news?
0:40:12 > 0:40:14Ever? Me either.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18Isn't that weird? The news is supposed to be objective.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22Same LSD story every time. We've all heard it.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25Young man takes acid, thinks he can fly, jumps out of a building.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27What a tragedy.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30What a dick, really, when you think about it.
0:40:30 > 0:40:31If he thought he could fly,
0:40:31 > 0:40:35why didn't he take off from the ground and check it out, first?
0:40:37 > 0:40:41Why give acid a bad name cos you're a moron, you know?
0:40:41 > 0:40:43LAUGHTER
0:40:46 > 0:40:50I'd like to see a positive LSD story. Would that be newsworthy, just once?
0:40:50 > 0:40:53"Today a young man on acid realised that all matter is merely energy
0:40:53 > 0:40:57"condensed to a slower vibration, that we are all one consciousness
0:40:57 > 0:41:01"going through itself, subjectively, there's no such thing as death,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04"life is only a dream, and you're the imagination of yourselves.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06"Here's Tom with the weather!"
0:41:06 > 0:41:09LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:41:10 > 0:41:12Wow.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16During this time, all the drinking and drugging too, some of the club owners
0:41:16 > 0:41:19were concerned about how erratic the shows would be.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23Alcohol with Bill was definitely like throwing gasoline onto a fire.
0:41:23 > 0:41:24You know, it was kind of a tightrope,
0:41:24 > 0:41:27cos you never knew what was going to happen, and usually,
0:41:27 > 0:41:31if there was a lot of drinks being pounded down, it was going to go bad.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35I mean he was always like an angry kid, but when he drank the alcohol,
0:41:35 > 0:41:37he was letting everybody have it.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41And so we were like, "Ooh, this is a new kind of comedy".
0:41:41 > 0:41:42# Shout! #
0:41:46 > 0:41:49Bill was what we used to call a shortball. He got drunk real quick.
0:41:49 > 0:41:51What happened?
0:41:51 > 0:41:55The main thing that I remember was him getting on stage
0:41:55 > 0:41:57and people in the audience sending him up drinks.
0:41:57 > 0:42:02Fuck it, I'll drink red wine if no-one's going to offer me anything real. Fuck you!
0:42:02 > 0:42:05And people said I couldn't improvise!
0:42:05 > 0:42:09He could drink a lot because he had all the adrenaline of the show
0:42:09 > 0:42:12and he said, "I'm a bull, I can't be brought down.
0:42:12 > 0:42:13Conflict..
0:42:15 > 0:42:16Sorry - y'all lost.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19Coke dealers would be giving Bill free coke.
0:42:19 > 0:42:20Can I get a shot of Jack up here?
0:42:20 > 0:42:23"How much can we get Bill to take on stage?
0:42:23 > 0:42:24"Let's all watch."
0:42:24 > 0:42:27It was just like a red flag for club owners.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29He was like suddenly not on Letterman any more.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31He started losing bookings.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35Be careful going home tonight, cos I'm driving right along with you, fuckers.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39I got there in the middle of the set and nobody was laughing, really.
0:42:39 > 0:42:44He was laying down on his back screaming into the microphone.
0:42:44 > 0:42:46- It was awful.- It was terrible. It wasn't a show any more.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49It was a drunk on stage, is what it was.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53I'd taken a friend from work. "You're going to love him. He's my brother! He's hilarious!"
0:42:53 > 0:42:58To have a room clear, I felt bad for him.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00He called me the next day and said, "Well, they fired me too.
0:43:00 > 0:43:06"Seems to be the thing. Everybody fires me." Like, yeah, it wasn't funny!
0:43:08 > 0:43:11Bill didn't bring these problems into the family.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15Just the fact that now he drank and now he smoked, well,
0:43:15 > 0:43:18so did I, so how big of a deal was that?
0:43:18 > 0:43:22I don't know what I would have said, had I said anything.
0:43:22 > 0:43:23Maybe I should have, but I didn't.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27But I knew there was something in there during that time.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30You can see it in his eyes.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33That was after he got in that fight and he broke his leg
0:43:33 > 0:43:37and he was performing and leaning on crutches.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39I'd like this man to leave the room,
0:43:39 > 0:43:42if I could have that, please. Thank you very much, sir.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46Why don't you applaud the fact that you're a mobile biped right in front of me?
0:43:46 > 0:43:49Why don't you do a fucking cartwheel into your stall, sir?
0:43:49 > 0:43:52Thank you, I'd like to do my impression of Ironside now.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55Next week we have Helen Keller...
0:43:55 > 0:43:57No. I'm delirious. I'm delirious.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59It's the heroin.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04Seriously.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06Aaah!
0:44:09 > 0:44:12Good evening. Don't worry, there is no pain.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14I just didn't want to spill my beer.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18There are priorities, even in the world of pain.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21I wish that we had been more worried about him, maybe.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25But there was kind of a code that we had, Kevin and Bill and I,
0:44:25 > 0:44:27which was, "You're going to do what you're going to do
0:44:27 > 0:44:30"and I'm there for ya, but I'm not going to stop ya".
0:44:30 > 0:44:33But it was kind of cool, because it was like we had faith in each other.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36We tended to trust that he knew what he was doing.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40I got beat up by a guy in a kilt. Are you happy? You wanna see blood?
0:44:40 > 0:44:42It suffered, yeah.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45There were club owners that were willing to forgive and forget,
0:44:45 > 0:44:48cos he was that good, and there were other club owners that...
0:44:48 > 0:44:51you know, it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth it.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57When I saw him at my wedding, he was clearly enmeshed in substance abuse.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00You know, and he'd obviously been up all night and he looked beaten.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02My wife-to-be, and she'd never met Bill,
0:45:02 > 0:45:07she didn't know anything about him, thought he was wild - funny -
0:45:07 > 0:45:08but wild, could not be contained.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12There were half a dozen of us that were in bad shape that way,
0:45:12 > 0:45:16and we were drinking suicidally basically, that's where it was headed.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20We were sitting up, me and Bill, and he just started crying,
0:45:20 > 0:45:23and he broke down and he said, "Man, I've got a problem.
0:45:23 > 0:45:25"My life is out of control".
0:45:25 > 0:45:29My big answer was, "Well, just stop, then, Bill. Stop doing that.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32And he straightened back up real quick
0:45:32 > 0:45:34but it was the one thing I always felt I let Bill down about.
0:45:34 > 0:45:36And it was just from ignorance.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39I didn't know how to handle it, didn't know what to do.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42And when a Bill Hicks show became more about,
0:45:42 > 0:45:44"How drunk can we get Bill?" instead of, "Let's see how far
0:45:44 > 0:45:48"Bill can take us with his ideas", that's when the party was over.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52You know, realising, "What the fuck am I doing?
0:45:52 > 0:45:54"These people are not my friends, you know?
0:45:54 > 0:45:57These people are trying to kill me. Led him down the path of knowing,
0:45:57 > 0:46:00"If I don't make a drastic change, I'm going to die."
0:46:05 > 0:46:07That was a moment of clarity for Bill.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11That could've been the wake-up call. I guess he just woke up.
0:46:11 > 0:46:17He realised what he was working for and this was in the way of it.
0:46:19 > 0:46:24Bill quit drinking in February of '88, I quit in April,
0:46:24 > 0:46:27and we started going to meetings together in downtown Houston.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31Being the stupid alcoholic I am, I'm going "Good, good for him,
0:46:31 > 0:46:34"he should go in there", not thinking about what a fuckup I was.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37"You need to get sober and get clean. Good job."
0:46:37 > 0:46:41Bill knew there was no way he was going to be able to sustain
0:46:41 > 0:46:46any kind of sobriety surrounded by all these Houston comics.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49He told me, as a matter of fact, you have to get rid of the people,
0:46:49 > 0:46:54that you can't be around the same environment and expect to survive.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58Bill realised that he had to jump ship and as crazy as it sounds,
0:46:58 > 0:47:03moving to a big city, by yourself, is the way to get sober, and, um...
0:47:03 > 0:47:06Bill just disappeared to New York.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17When you're dealing with drugs and alcohol, willpower,
0:47:17 > 0:47:22it's the opposite, it's when you admit that you don't have, you're powerless.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27I don't think there was ever a question
0:47:27 > 0:47:31that he was not going to continue even though the struggles must have been mighty.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35He was tapped on the shoulder and this was what he was going to do
0:47:35 > 0:47:38and it doesn't mean it's going to be handed to you
0:47:38 > 0:47:43and I'm sure that it had to have been unbelievably challenging.
0:47:43 > 0:47:48He told me that it was six months before he could start being funny again.
0:47:48 > 0:47:53That's when he went from being just an above-average comedian
0:47:53 > 0:47:57to being something spectacular.
0:48:06 > 0:48:08Let me hear you say, "yeah!"
0:48:08 > 0:48:10ALL: Yeah!
0:48:10 > 0:48:13- Sing it! Yeah! - ALL: Yeah!
0:48:13 > 0:48:15- Well, all right. - ALL: All right.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18That's it, end of your part. Thank you.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22Hope you don't mind if I smoke. I know it's getting harder and harder to find a place to smoke these days.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26I feel like I'm in high school with the bathroom window cracked again.
0:48:26 > 0:48:27I don't do drugs.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30I don't think they tell us the truth about drugs, though.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33They tell you marijuana smoking makes you unmotivated.
0:48:33 > 0:48:34That's bullshit.
0:48:34 > 0:48:35When I was high,
0:48:35 > 0:48:38I could do everything I normally could do just as well.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42I just realised it wasn't worth the fucking effort, man, that was it.
0:48:42 > 0:48:43Why get out of bed? Shit,
0:48:43 > 0:48:45I'm just going to get stuck in traffic and go to a job I hate.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49Fuck it. Stay in bed and watch cartoons.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53By the time he came back in late '88 for a show,
0:48:53 > 0:48:57he almost didn't talk to me or Jimmy, who was with him on the bill that night.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00He was staying away from, "You guys drink, you get loaded. I can't be near that",
0:49:00 > 0:49:02which we didn't understand or appreciate.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05Here he is, Bill Hicks!
0:49:12 > 0:49:14Cut!
0:49:14 > 0:49:18How about a hand for Jimmy "The Odious" Pineapple, and John...
0:49:18 > 0:49:21..John "His Whimsical Shadow" Farneti.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23APPLAUSE
0:49:24 > 0:49:28Give them some love, God DING it, give them some love.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31Can I get a coke, por favor? Is that part of my star treatment?
0:49:31 > 0:49:35I started out in this club ten years ago.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37Pretty bold of me to admit that!
0:49:37 > 0:49:40I want you to know I started out when I was 15 years old.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43It's weird doing comedy when you're 15 and going up in front of strangers.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45I don't know these people. It's scary, you know?
0:49:45 > 0:49:49You don't know if you're funny. You don't know, you know, what you're doing.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53All the other comics were helpful. If I had a bad show, they'd buy me a drink or something.
0:49:53 > 0:49:58"If I had a good show, we'd celebrate and get a drink. Pretty soon, I was getting better.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01People I didn't even know would buy me a drink after the show.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04Women would come up to me, you know, buy me drinks...
0:50:04 > 0:50:08offer me coke and I started doing coke and drinking every night
0:50:08 > 0:50:13and women I don't even know getting me coke and booze and...
0:50:13 > 0:50:14Phew.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17I just want to tell you what my life's been like for ten years.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21How's y'alls jobs?
0:50:21 > 0:50:24I said, "Bill, gosh, you're not doing your mom any more.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26"That's so funny.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29He goes, "Yes, but I've done that. "Yeah, but it's funny.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33I was still in the thing where, "This is what it's all about".
0:50:33 > 0:50:35But he was in this thing, "I have other things I want to say.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39John Kennedy is murdered. Martin Luther King is murdered. Jesus Christ is murdered.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41Reagan - shot, wounded, cancer eight times.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43That fucker still walks, doesn't he?
0:50:43 > 0:50:46Rrrrrr!
0:50:46 > 0:50:48When Bill first came back and announced to me that
0:50:48 > 0:50:51he really was sober several months later,
0:50:51 > 0:50:55I didn't really believe him at first, and I watched him do a set at the Laff Stop
0:50:55 > 0:50:59and all of a sudden it was like, oh, my God. Bill was back.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02The Fundamentalists, they try to get creationism taught in schools as a science.
0:51:02 > 0:51:03What exactly would that be?
0:51:03 > 0:51:08"Welcome to Creationist Science, on the sixth day, God created the world.
0:51:08 > 0:51:10"On the seventh day he rested, and...
0:51:10 > 0:51:13"Well, shit, class dismissed, you got it!"
0:51:13 > 0:51:16It was like he had re-hatched out of a cocoon or something.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19He had the same stamina that he had as the young boy
0:51:19 > 0:51:23that could run the 2.20s on the track team, and smoke everybody.
0:51:23 > 0:51:28You know, and I said, "Now is the time we have to make a video recording of a feature-length set",
0:51:28 > 0:51:32and that's when we did Sane Man.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36I remember coming in to do the show that day and I was just
0:51:36 > 0:51:39so scared that he was going to break his sobriety before he went on stage.
0:51:39 > 0:51:45And Jimmy Pineapple, who opened the show, had also gone sober.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49Backstage, Jimmy said, "Screw it, I'm going to down some whiskeys before I go on stage.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53I hadn't been sober that long. I go, I could try it again later.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56But for this show, these audiences,
0:51:56 > 0:51:58working with Bill, I wanted to knock it out of the ball park
0:51:58 > 0:52:02and I wasn't going to fuck around with the jitters about being sober.
0:52:03 > 0:52:09I know some of you people are looking up here and saying, "Hey, man, this guy is IT.
0:52:09 > 0:52:12LAUGHTER
0:52:14 > 0:52:16Well, you're right.
0:52:18 > 0:52:19I am it. I've always been it.
0:52:19 > 0:52:21Even when I was a kid, I was it.
0:52:23 > 0:52:24When we played tag...
0:52:24 > 0:52:26LAUGHTER
0:52:28 > 0:52:30..some kid would hit me and say, "Hey, you're it!",
0:52:30 > 0:52:33and I'd say, "You're goddamn right, buddy".
0:52:35 > 0:52:39Here I am really praying that Bill's not going to do the same thing
0:52:39 > 0:52:41and I went back into Bill's green room
0:52:41 > 0:52:44and Bill was still just drinking water and pacing around and smoking.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48We were already making films for Access Television
0:52:48 > 0:52:50and I was backstage and Kevin had said,
0:52:50 > 0:52:53"Wait till you see his new stuff".
0:52:53 > 0:52:55This was like the sober Bill,
0:52:55 > 0:52:59and I guess he'd been on the road working new material.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02How about a nice round of applause for Mr Bill Hicks?
0:53:02 > 0:53:04APPLAUSE
0:53:04 > 0:53:06Yeah, it's good to be here.
0:53:06 > 0:53:08I haven't been here in two years.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11Thanks.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14That warmth I've missed in Austin.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16"So? We been here.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20"Not our fault you got to travel around, shit.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23"We supposed to follow you around? You supposed to be back here.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25"What are you doing? Where are you?"
0:53:25 > 0:53:29Where have I been? I've been on my flying saucer tour.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31Which means like flying saucers, I too have been appearing
0:53:31 > 0:53:34in small southern towns in front of a handful of hillbillies lately.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38No-one doubts MY existence.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44I've noticed a certain anti-intellectualism going around this country, man.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46I was in Nashville, Tennessee, last week,
0:53:46 > 0:53:48and after the show I went to a Waffle House.
0:53:48 > 0:53:50I'm sitting there and I'm eating and I'm reading a book.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53I don't know anybody. I'm alone. I'm eating and I'm reading a book.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56And this waitress comes over to me - "Chkchkchk!
0:53:56 > 0:53:58"What you reading for?"
0:54:00 > 0:54:03Wow, I've never been asked that.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07Not what am I READING, but what am I reading FOR?
0:54:07 > 0:54:09Well, God damn it, you stumped me.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17I guess I read for a lot of reasons but the main one is
0:54:17 > 0:54:20so I don't end up being a fucking waffle waitress.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23Am I stepping out of some intellectual closet here?
0:54:23 > 0:54:26I read. There, I said it.
0:54:26 > 0:54:27I feel better.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30Suddenly he's just commanding the audience.
0:54:30 > 0:54:31There's no breaks.
0:54:31 > 0:54:33It's just perfectly choreographed.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35I don't do drugs.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39I want to thank management for offering. But I said no.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41When I say no, it means...
0:54:41 > 0:54:43how much and can I get some more?
0:54:43 > 0:54:45No. It means... seriously, it means no...
0:54:45 > 0:54:47is the bar open?
0:54:47 > 0:54:48OK, no, it means...
0:54:48 > 0:54:50Let's see how I...
0:54:50 > 0:54:53No, I used to do drugs. I had no luck with drugs, man.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55Got pulled over tripping once.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58Whoo! There's a dream come true.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02I'll match that to any drunk story you got.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04Pulled over tripping. Jesus!
0:55:04 > 0:55:08The cop was tapping on THIS window. We're staring at him in this mirror over here.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11LAUGHTER
0:55:14 > 0:55:16How tall are you?
0:55:24 > 0:55:26Whoohooh!
0:55:28 > 0:55:29Shit.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32Ambush.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34Big one and a little one.
0:55:35 > 0:55:37Twins.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41Oh, shit.
0:55:41 > 0:55:42Be cool.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47But I think he'd had to work to get to that point.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50He had to go through some dark shows and break some furniture,
0:55:50 > 0:55:55but after going through that I think he knew where his limits were and...
0:55:55 > 0:55:58how much the audience could take and how far he could push 'em.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01Our emotions are running wild and our mind has stopped, man.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03The flag-burning thing.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06Oh, God, did that bring up some fucking retarded emotions!
0:56:06 > 0:56:10The flag! The flag! They said we could burn the flag!
0:56:12 > 0:56:15They didn't say that, they said, "If a guy burns a flag,
0:56:15 > 0:56:18"he perhaps doesn't need to go to jail for a fuckin' year."
0:56:18 > 0:56:20Pretty harsh on their part, isn't it?
0:56:20 > 0:56:24People are going, "Hey, buddy, let me tell you something.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32"My daddy died for that flag.
0:56:33 > 0:56:35"Really?
0:56:35 > 0:56:37"I bought mine.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41"You know they sell them at Kmart and shit? Three bucks.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44"He died in the Korean War for that flag.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47"What a coincidence! Mine was made in Korea.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51He didn't die for a fucking flag.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54It's a piece of cloth. He died for what the flag represents, which is...
0:56:54 > 0:56:57the freedom... to burn the fucking flag!
0:56:57 > 0:57:04And as my friend Jimmy Pineapple would say, "Case. Fucking. Closed."
0:57:04 > 0:57:06We filmed two sets that night.
0:57:06 > 0:57:09His parents were there for the first set.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12And now that he'd gone sober, I think they were just more proud
0:57:12 > 0:57:17of him and I don't think Bill was really censoring himself that much. It'd kind of gone beyond that.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19Bill's demeanour was different.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21His eyes were brighter.
0:57:21 > 0:57:25My thought was, "Thank goodness that that's behind us.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28I never said anything like that to Bill.
0:57:28 > 0:57:30I just accepted him like he was.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38- Watch this, Uncle Bill!- Wow.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42We did have this place south of Austin called Wimberley,
0:57:42 > 0:57:47and when he'd come to Austin, Bill went down there with us.
0:57:47 > 0:57:52You know, I think that he just really got into the rhythm of this place,
0:57:52 > 0:57:56which was a total getaway.
0:57:56 > 0:57:57The cracker man.
0:57:57 > 0:57:58All right!
0:57:58 > 0:58:01It's a duck frenzy.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03BOY SQUEALS
0:58:03 > 0:58:07Coming from the hecticness of what he did, what all of us did,
0:58:07 > 0:58:09that was a great little place to spend a week,
0:58:09 > 0:58:13before he went back out and hit it again.
0:58:13 > 0:58:18I really don't think the full Bill kicked in until he went sober.
0:58:18 > 0:58:19I really don't.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23I think a lot of people were still coming to see the shock jock comedian,
0:58:23 > 0:58:28and now Bill was slipping in some loftier ideas to leave people with.
0:58:28 > 0:58:31You know, just because this is a comedy club,
0:58:31 > 0:58:34doesn't mean that we can't do something more with this.
0:58:34 > 0:58:36My clothes have got to be clean on time.
0:58:36 > 0:58:40- We're going to have to get on the beer...- Well, that's right!
0:58:40 > 0:58:43When I saw him in Chicago in 1989,
0:58:43 > 0:58:46we hadn't seen each other for three years.
0:58:46 > 0:58:50His life was completely on track and he was beaming about it.
0:58:50 > 0:58:53It's been a very exciting week for me because I'm working with Dwight, who...
0:58:53 > 0:58:56He and I started off doing comedy together,
0:58:56 > 0:58:58we were 13 years old in Houston, Texas.
0:58:58 > 0:59:01It's good to be in Chicago. What a great town, man!
0:59:01 > 0:59:04Went to Lincoln Park Zoo. How many people have been there?
0:59:04 > 0:59:06APPLAUSE A couple? Yeah?
0:59:06 > 0:59:09Well, if you haven't been there, I'll save you a little time.
0:59:09 > 0:59:10I'll do a quick visual impression for you guys.
0:59:10 > 0:59:14First time ever seen. This is every animal in Lincoln Park zoo.
0:59:14 > 0:59:18Here we go. Save you some time. Ladies and gentlemen, every animal in the Lincoln Park Zoo.
0:59:20 > 0:59:21HE SNORES
0:59:21 > 0:59:23LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:59:34 > 0:59:36What a fucking rip-off.
0:59:36 > 0:59:39We had this unique relationship that...
0:59:39 > 0:59:44I brought out things in him that normally would not be brought out, and he did the same thing.
0:59:44 > 0:59:46What do you feel? What's inside you?
0:59:46 > 0:59:49What makes you tick? What fires you up?
0:59:49 > 0:59:51What pisses you off?
0:59:51 > 0:59:54It's nice to have someone in your life that's like that. He brought that out of you.
0:59:54 > 0:59:56He expected it out of you.
0:59:56 > 1:00:01This is called logic. It won't hurt you, it'll set you free. But we'll get to that later.
1:00:01 > 1:00:05I think a lot of comics have confused being a great comic
1:00:05 > 1:00:07with being like Bill Hicks.
1:00:07 > 1:00:12Well, no. Being a great comic has to do with your inner voice matching your outer voice.
1:00:12 > 1:00:13That's what Bill did.
1:00:13 > 1:00:18His personality on stage was just an animated extension of who he was.
1:00:18 > 1:00:19Hey, get this, man.
1:00:19 > 1:00:21I was in Las Vegas, right?
1:00:21 > 1:00:23I'm going to get an elevator at the hotel and I'm smoking.
1:00:23 > 1:00:25There's a lady next to me, coughing.
1:00:25 > 1:00:28"Hehhem! Hehhehhehhem!" (Shut up...)
1:00:28 > 1:00:31I look out the window of the hotel and I see the sunset,
1:00:31 > 1:00:33and it's green and purple,
1:00:33 > 1:00:35and it's 3pm,
1:00:35 > 1:00:38and then a mushroom cloud forms in the desert,
1:00:38 > 1:00:42and the hotel starts shaking and every elevator stops working.
1:00:42 > 1:00:44I was a little bit curious.
1:00:44 > 1:00:47So I turn to this lady who lived in Las Vegas and I say, "What was that?"
1:00:47 > 1:00:49And she goes, "Oh! That's the army.
1:00:49 > 1:00:55"We don't know what they're doing out there. Hahaha!"
1:00:55 > 1:00:58And you're worried about my cigarette smoke?
1:00:58 > 1:01:00I would get a fucking priority list happening.
1:01:00 > 1:01:03And then I talked to people who lived in Vegas and they go,
1:01:03 > 1:01:06"Well, they're 100 miles away."
1:01:06 > 1:01:08Yeah, well, my little deodorant aerosol can
1:01:08 > 1:01:11is 50 miles from the ozone, so shut the fuck up.
1:01:11 > 1:01:14I'll use Cheez Whiz, aerosol, anything I want.
1:01:14 > 1:01:16Shut up.
1:01:16 > 1:01:19Quit setting off nuclear bombs, OK, it being our planet and all,
1:01:19 > 1:01:20don't you think?
1:01:20 > 1:01:22What gives them the right to set off bombs?
1:01:22 > 1:01:26Haha! I love y'all.
1:01:26 > 1:01:30He knew that he was just formulated to be a comic who was supposed to shake things up.
1:01:30 > 1:01:33It's all about money, not freedom, y'all, OK?
1:01:33 > 1:01:34Haha.
1:01:34 > 1:01:36Nothing to do with fucking freedom.
1:01:36 > 1:01:37You think you're free?
1:01:37 > 1:01:39Try going somewhere without any fucking money, OK?
1:01:39 > 1:01:41When you laugh at him,
1:01:41 > 1:01:44it makes you think about things you hadn't thought about before.
1:01:44 > 1:01:46It's about fucking money, not about freedom.
1:01:46 > 1:01:48Don't ever think that it is. Thank you. Sorry.
1:01:48 > 1:01:51I am a child of God sent here to bring salvation to the earth,
1:01:51 > 1:01:53and you're welcome.
1:01:54 > 1:01:58When people walked out of his shows, they may not have admitted it,
1:01:58 > 1:02:01but they just were changed a little bit.
1:02:01 > 1:02:03He knew that he'd have problems
1:02:03 > 1:02:06because he would be going to places that his fan base,
1:02:06 > 1:02:08his audience, may not follow him.
1:02:08 > 1:02:10As Bill evolved as a comedian,
1:02:10 > 1:02:13the comedy clubs were probably de-evolving.
1:02:13 > 1:02:15Please quit yelling, man.
1:02:15 > 1:02:18It's not funny, it's stupid, it's repetitive -
1:02:18 > 1:02:20why the fuck would you continue to yell that?
1:02:20 > 1:02:22I'm serious.
1:02:22 > 1:02:24Kevin Matthews - OK, what does that mean now?
1:02:24 > 1:02:26Now what does it mean? I understand where it comes from.
1:02:26 > 1:02:28So do you. Now what does it all mean?
1:02:28 > 1:02:30What is the culmination of yelling that?
1:02:30 > 1:02:33Jimmy Shorts. He's not here. He's not going to be here.
1:02:33 > 1:02:36Now what? Now where are we?
1:02:36 > 1:02:39We're here at you interrupting me again, you fucking idiot.
1:02:39 > 1:02:42Yes, we're here at the same point again where you,
1:02:42 > 1:02:48the fucking peon masses, can once again ruin anyone
1:02:48 > 1:02:52who tries to do anything because you don't know how to do it on your own!
1:02:52 > 1:02:56That's where we're fucking at once again, the useless waste
1:02:56 > 1:02:59of fucking flesh that has ruined everything good
1:02:59 > 1:03:01in this goddamn world!
1:03:01 > 1:03:06People started to notice Bill at this point.
1:03:06 > 1:03:08You know, a lot of the places I travelled to
1:03:08 > 1:03:11to be able to experience that with him.
1:03:11 > 1:03:13We were brothers, we were pretty close,
1:03:13 > 1:03:16and that's what we did, going to Las Vegas for the first time
1:03:16 > 1:03:20and being there on opening night by request by Rodney Dangerfield.
1:03:20 > 1:03:27It was cool being backstage at the filming of an HBO One Night Stand special.
1:03:27 > 1:03:30From the Vic Theatre in Chicago...
1:03:30 > 1:03:32please welcome Bill Hicks!
1:03:32 > 1:03:35WILD APPLAUSE
1:03:39 > 1:03:42Good evening, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbours,
1:03:42 > 1:03:46vibrations in the mind of the one true God whose name is love.
1:03:49 > 1:03:51How many smokers do we have here tonight? Smokers?
1:03:51 > 1:03:54CHEERING
1:03:54 > 1:03:57That's a lot of energy for you fuckers. That's good.
1:03:57 > 1:03:58Usually you get...
1:03:58 > 1:04:01HE COUGHS
1:04:04 > 1:04:06Thank you, guys, thank you.
1:04:06 > 1:04:10Next time I need you, just hawk up a chunk of lung for me, all right?
1:04:10 > 1:04:13Rear back, launch a phlegm gem towards the stage.
1:04:14 > 1:04:16Cuh!
1:04:16 > 1:04:17BUT listen to this.
1:04:17 > 1:04:19How many...
1:04:19 > 1:04:22NON-smokers do we have here tonight?
1:04:22 > 1:04:26WILD CHEERING AND WHOOPS
1:04:29 > 1:04:32Bunch of whining little maggots.
1:04:32 > 1:04:34LAUGHTER
1:04:41 > 1:04:43You obnoxious,
1:04:43 > 1:04:46self-righteous...
1:04:46 > 1:04:48slugs.
1:04:51 > 1:04:53Don't take that wrong.
1:04:54 > 1:04:58I'd quit smoking if I didn't think I'd become one of you.
1:04:58 > 1:04:59LAUGHTER
1:05:01 > 1:05:04But you got to understand something. I don't do anything else.
1:05:04 > 1:05:05I don't drink.
1:05:05 > 1:05:07Now, a lot of you non-smokers are drinking, OK?
1:05:07 > 1:05:11I'm a non-drinker and I smoke. Now, to me, we're trading off vices.
1:05:11 > 1:05:13That seems fair to me.
1:05:13 > 1:05:17Yeah. Like fuck. "No, it's not. No, it's not.
1:05:17 > 1:05:20"Why should our lives be threatened by your nasty habit?
1:05:20 > 1:05:22"Nyehnyehnyehnyehnyeh!"
1:05:22 > 1:05:23Yeah, but you know what?
1:05:23 > 1:05:26I can't kill anyone in a car cos I'm smoking a fucking cigarette,
1:05:26 > 1:05:27all right?
1:05:27 > 1:05:29RALLYING CRIES
1:05:29 > 1:05:31And I've tried.
1:05:31 > 1:05:33LAUGHTER
1:05:33 > 1:05:36Turn off all the lights and rush 'em, they always see the glow.
1:05:36 > 1:05:39HOWLS OF LAUGHTER
1:05:41 > 1:05:45"Man, there's a big firefly heading this way.
1:05:45 > 1:05:48"Shit! It's knocking over shrubs!"
1:05:50 > 1:05:53It's really weird, he could do an HBO special one night at a big arena,
1:05:53 > 1:05:58and then to go back on the road and do crappy clubs.
1:05:58 > 1:06:01'American Airlines flight 577.'
1:06:01 > 1:06:03I think to him that was part of the journey,
1:06:03 > 1:06:06getting his vision out to more people,
1:06:06 > 1:06:08that was what he needed to do.
1:06:08 > 1:06:11I'm really tired. I apologise upfront. I'm really tired of...
1:06:11 > 1:06:14uh, travelling, and tired of doing comedy,
1:06:14 > 1:06:18and tired of staring out at your blank faces looking back at me,
1:06:18 > 1:06:22wanting me to fill your empty lives with humour
1:06:22 > 1:06:25you couldn't possibly think of yourselves.
1:06:26 > 1:06:29Good evening.
1:06:29 > 1:06:32American audiences, people are too quick to take offence over here.
1:06:32 > 1:06:35He just couldn't get any momentum going.
1:06:35 > 1:06:37So I guess there was a frustration level of...
1:06:37 > 1:06:40you grow past where you're working
1:06:40 > 1:06:44and Bill was moving faster than the audiences at times.
1:06:46 > 1:06:48What is pornography, man? No-one knows.
1:06:48 > 1:06:54The Supreme Court says pornography is any act that has no artistic merit and causes sexual thoughts.
1:06:54 > 1:06:55That's their definition, essentially.
1:06:55 > 1:06:59No artistic merit. Causes sexual thoughts.
1:06:59 > 1:07:00Hm.
1:07:00 > 1:07:06That sounds like every commercial on television, doesn't it?
1:07:06 > 1:07:10You know, when I see those two twins on that Double Mint commercial,
1:07:10 > 1:07:12I'm not thinking of gum.
1:07:16 > 1:07:17I am thinking of chewing.
1:07:17 > 1:07:22Maybe that's the connection they're trying to make there in a roundabout way.
1:07:25 > 1:07:27You've all seen that Busch Beer commercial.
1:07:27 > 1:07:32The girl in the short hot pants opens the beer bottle on her belt buckle, leaves it between her legs,
1:07:32 > 1:07:38it foams over the bottle and over her hand, and the voiceover goes, "Get yourself a Busch".
1:07:39 > 1:07:41Hmmmmm.
1:07:43 > 1:07:48You know, correct me if I'm wrong, that looks just... No. No.
1:07:48 > 1:07:53The fine liquor company wouldn't try and plant that idea in my head, would they?
1:07:53 > 1:07:57Not the fine upstanding liquor company!
1:07:57 > 1:08:00Let me tell you what commercial they'd like to do if they could,
1:08:00 > 1:08:02and I guaran-fucking-tee if they could, they'd do this.
1:08:02 > 1:08:05Here's the woman's face. Beautiful. Camera pulls back.
1:08:05 > 1:08:07Naked breasts.
1:08:07 > 1:08:08Camera pulls back.
1:08:08 > 1:08:10She's totally naked.
1:08:10 > 1:08:12Legs apart.
1:08:12 > 1:08:13Two fingers right here.
1:08:13 > 1:08:16And it just says, "Drink Coke".
1:08:16 > 1:08:18LAUGHTER
1:08:23 > 1:08:25Now, I don't know the connection here...
1:08:27 > 1:08:31..but God damn if Coke isn't on my shopping list this week!
1:08:32 > 1:08:35After doing these big, long shows, which always wore him out,
1:08:35 > 1:08:38being on the road, it was good to be back in Austin
1:08:38 > 1:08:40and to be playing music with his friends.
1:08:40 > 1:08:45The start of the Marblehead Johnson thing was the three of us playing
1:08:45 > 1:08:47the night of the first Gulf War breaking out,
1:08:47 > 1:08:51and Bill had these new songs that he had written.
1:08:51 > 1:08:54My band Year Zero broke up and we were looking for something to do
1:08:54 > 1:09:00and Bill came to town one day and sat in with us, and it totally gelled.
1:09:00 > 1:09:06We were watching the live feed of the war and the classic... shells going over downtown Baghdad.
1:09:06 > 1:09:11It was weird watching that kick off live, and that's the surreal thing about American wars now,
1:09:11 > 1:09:16is that they're televised with some sort of ratings blood lust.
1:09:16 > 1:09:22# Just one thing I know for sure Chicks dig jerks, yeah... #
1:09:22 > 1:09:28Bill then got the HBO special and gained greater and wider notoriety.
1:09:28 > 1:09:32Still there wasn't that explosion.
1:09:32 > 1:09:34Why didn't the country like Bill as much as we do?
1:09:34 > 1:09:38He went to the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal.
1:09:38 > 1:09:41Just For Laughs is like the Cannes Film Festival for comedy.
1:09:41 > 1:09:44They come from all over the world and it's a big deal.
1:09:44 > 1:09:46He realised for the first time in Canada
1:09:46 > 1:09:50that there was a new boundary and far more thirst for his perspective
1:09:50 > 1:09:53about what was going on with the American dream.
1:09:53 > 1:09:56First of all, this needs to be said.
1:09:56 > 1:09:59There never was a war.
1:09:59 > 1:10:01How can you say that, Bill?
1:10:01 > 1:10:05Well, a war is when two armies are fighting.
1:10:09 > 1:10:11So you see right there, I think.
1:10:11 > 1:10:14We can all agree. Yeah.
1:10:14 > 1:10:17Those guys were in hog heaven out there. You understand, man?
1:10:17 > 1:10:20They had a big weapons catalogue opened up.
1:10:20 > 1:10:21"What's G12 do, Tommy?"
1:10:22 > 1:10:25"Well, it says here it destroys everything
1:10:25 > 1:10:27"but the fillings in their teeth.
1:10:27 > 1:10:29"Helps us pay for the war effort.
1:10:29 > 1:10:32"Well, shit, pull that one up.
1:10:32 > 1:10:34"Pull up G12, please."
1:10:34 > 1:10:36Shhwwshh!
1:10:43 > 1:10:44Kkkcckkk!
1:10:46 > 1:10:48"Cool. What's G13 do?"
1:10:48 > 1:10:49LAUGHTER
1:10:49 > 1:10:52Everyone got excited about the technology, and I guess it was
1:10:52 > 1:10:56pretty incredible watching a missile fly down an air vent.
1:10:56 > 1:10:58Pretty unbelievable.
1:10:58 > 1:11:01But couldn't we feasibly use that same technology to shoot
1:11:01 > 1:11:04food at hungry people? You know what I mean?
1:11:04 > 1:11:07Flying over Ethiopia. There's a guy that needs a banana!
1:11:07 > 1:11:09Shhkkkrrrkkk!
1:11:11 > 1:11:12Shhwwshh!
1:11:12 > 1:11:16APPLAUSE
1:11:19 > 1:11:24Here he was not only just playing in the arena of international comedy,
1:11:24 > 1:11:27he was excelling in that arena.
1:11:27 > 1:11:30Cos I live in the States, a very puritanical place,
1:11:30 > 1:11:32full of superstition,
1:11:32 > 1:11:37and ancient, ancient religions that no longer serve their function on this planet,
1:11:37 > 1:11:39because they're based on fear instead of love.
1:11:39 > 1:11:41But, uh...
1:11:41 > 1:11:44they say rock'n'roll is the devil's music.
1:11:44 > 1:11:46Well, let's say that it is. I got news for you.
1:11:46 > 1:11:48Let's say that rock'n'roll IS the devil's music
1:11:48 > 1:11:52and we know it for a fact to be absolutely, unequivocally true.
1:11:55 > 1:11:57Boy, at least he fucking jams.
1:12:00 > 1:12:03OK, did you hear that correctly?
1:12:03 > 1:12:04If it's a choice between eternal hell
1:12:04 > 1:12:09and good tunes or eternal heaven and New Kids On The fucking Block...
1:12:11 > 1:12:15I'm going to be surfing on the lake of fire, rockin' out.
1:12:15 > 1:12:17"Oh, come on, Bill, they're the New Kids.
1:12:17 > 1:12:20"Don't pick on them. They're so good, they're so clean-cut
1:12:20 > 1:12:22"and they're such a good image for the children."
1:12:22 > 1:12:28Fuck that. When did mediocrity and banality become a good image for your children?
1:12:28 > 1:12:32I want my children to listen to people who fucking rocked!
1:12:32 > 1:12:36I don't care if they died in puddles of their own vomit!
1:12:36 > 1:12:40I want someone who plays from his fucking heart!
1:12:40 > 1:12:42I want 'em to fucking play with one hand
1:12:42 > 1:12:48and put a gun in their other fucking hand! "I hope you enjoy the show!" Bkkk!
1:12:48 > 1:12:50YES! YES!
1:12:52 > 1:12:56Play from your fucking heart!
1:12:56 > 1:12:57LAUGHTER
1:13:02 > 1:13:06I am available for children's parties, by the way.
1:13:07 > 1:13:09I don't think Bill knew that this video
1:13:09 > 1:13:12they made there was going to suddenly be broadcast on British TV,
1:13:12 > 1:13:17and then that would be the beginning of the next step.
1:13:24 > 1:13:29From the United States, please raise the roof for Bill Hicks. Yeah!
1:13:29 > 1:13:31I love being a comedian.
1:13:31 > 1:13:33It's the greatest job in the world for one simple reason - I don't have a boss.
1:13:33 > 1:13:37Definite plus in a lifestyle, man. Every job I've had with a boss, always harassed.
1:13:37 > 1:13:38"Hicks, how come you're not working?"
1:13:38 > 1:13:40"There's nothing to do.
1:13:40 > 1:13:42"Well, you pretend like you're working.
1:13:42 > 1:13:47"Well, why don't YOU pretend I'm working?
1:13:47 > 1:13:50"You get paid more than me. You fantasise".
1:13:50 > 1:13:52In Edinburgh, he won the Judges' Award.
1:13:52 > 1:13:56He realised, "Man, OK, there is an audience for what I do.
1:13:56 > 1:13:58Here's an American ridiculing America.
1:13:58 > 1:14:02He had been so good at making fun of his parents, especially his father.
1:14:02 > 1:14:06Now he was terrific at making fun of his fatherland.
1:14:06 > 1:14:10The American dream was supposed to be us running from the Brits,
1:14:10 > 1:14:13and now Americans are having to tell the Brits
1:14:13 > 1:14:15what's become of the American dream.
1:14:15 > 1:14:19They did get it. They got it. They could handle it.
1:14:19 > 1:14:24How that manifested itself was his confidence went through the roof,
1:14:24 > 1:14:28and he definitely attributed that to being in the UK.
1:14:29 > 1:14:33This is amazing. Last show I did... You're not going to believe this, but its true.
1:14:33 > 1:14:35Belfast, Ireland, last week.
1:14:35 > 1:14:37Never been to Belfast, Ireland.
1:14:37 > 1:14:40Played to 900 screaming and adoring fans
1:14:40 > 1:14:43in a turn-of-the-century theatre
1:14:43 > 1:14:47that Oscar Wilde performed on...
1:14:47 > 1:14:53only to come back to America, the country I have toured ceaselessly for 15 years
1:14:53 > 1:14:58to play Adolf's Comedy Bunker in Idaho,
1:14:58 > 1:15:01in front of 25 apathetic people,
1:15:01 > 1:15:04strangers one and all,
1:15:04 > 1:15:08who stared at me like a dog that had just been shown a card trick.
1:15:08 > 1:15:11LAUGHTER
1:15:15 > 1:15:18One of life's little ironies.
1:15:18 > 1:15:21When Bill talked to me about breaking out in England
1:15:21 > 1:15:25and making it there, I thought, "Oh, shit, you know?
1:15:25 > 1:15:29You're going to be over in England? But it was pretty much for him a fait accompli.
1:15:29 > 1:15:36"This is the place that gets me, I'm filling theatres, not comedy clubs, and partial comedy clubs.
1:15:36 > 1:15:38It wasn't really until I saw the Revelations special
1:15:38 > 1:15:41that we were all like, "Oh, my God, you know.
1:15:41 > 1:15:44"Bill's like a rock star over there, that's amazing. You know, finally."
1:15:44 > 1:15:51FANS SCREAM, ROCK MUSIC PLAYS
1:16:00 > 1:16:02You're in the right place.
1:16:02 > 1:16:05It's Bill!
1:16:05 > 1:16:08I'm so sick of arming the world and then sending troops over
1:16:08 > 1:16:10to destroy the fucking arms, you know what I mean?
1:16:10 > 1:16:13We keep arming these little countries
1:16:13 > 1:16:15then we go and blow the shit out of them.
1:16:15 > 1:16:17We're like the bullies of the world.
1:16:17 > 1:16:21We're like Jack Palance in the movie Shane,
1:16:21 > 1:16:24throwing the pistol at the sheep herder's feet.
1:16:24 > 1:16:26"Pick it up."
1:16:26 > 1:16:28LAUGHTER
1:16:30 > 1:16:33"I don't want to pick it up, mister. You'll shoot me."
1:16:37 > 1:16:40"Pick up the gun."
1:16:44 > 1:16:46"Mister, I don't want no trouble, huh?
1:16:46 > 1:16:50"I just came downtown here to get some hardrock candy for my kids,
1:16:50 > 1:16:53"some gingham for my wife.
1:16:53 > 1:16:57"I don't even know what gingham is, but she goes...
1:16:57 > 1:17:00"she goes through about ten rolls a week of that stuff.
1:17:00 > 1:17:02"I ain't looking for no trouble, mister."
1:17:05 > 1:17:07"Pick up the gun."
1:17:17 > 1:17:19LAUGHTER
1:17:22 > 1:17:24Pkk! Pkk! Pkk!
1:17:26 > 1:17:28"You all saw him.
1:17:28 > 1:17:30"He had a gun."
1:17:30 > 1:17:31LAUGHTER
1:17:31 > 1:17:34Bill was a true patriot, and that is like a true American
1:17:34 > 1:17:37and a true patriot does question the Government and that's what
1:17:37 > 1:17:39being a patriot means, is that you question the powers.
1:17:39 > 1:17:42I mean, I think he was still always proud to be an American,
1:17:42 > 1:17:46but he was embarrassed about the things that his government was becoming.
1:17:46 > 1:17:50By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing,
1:17:50 > 1:17:51kill yourself.
1:17:51 > 1:17:53- LAUGHTER - Thank you, thank you.
1:17:53 > 1:17:54Thanks.
1:17:54 > 1:17:59Just a little thought. I'm just trying to plant seeds.
1:17:59 > 1:18:01Maybe...maybe one day they'll take root, I don't know.
1:18:01 > 1:18:04You try. You do what you can.
1:18:04 > 1:18:08(Kill yourselves.)
1:18:08 > 1:18:09Seriously, though, if you are, do.
1:18:09 > 1:18:11Uh...
1:18:11 > 1:18:15no, really. There's no rationalisation for what you do
1:18:15 > 1:18:19and you are Satan's little helpers. OK? Kill yourself, seriously.
1:18:19 > 1:18:23You're the ruiner of all things good. Seriously. This is not a joke.
1:18:23 > 1:18:26"There's going to be a joke coming." There's no fucking joke coming.
1:18:26 > 1:18:30You are Satan's spawn, filling the world with bile and garbage.
1:18:30 > 1:18:32You are fucked and you are fucking us.
1:18:32 > 1:18:35Kill yourself. It's the only way to save your fucking soul.
1:18:35 > 1:18:36Kill yourself.
1:18:36 > 1:18:38CHEERING AND WHISTLING
1:18:38 > 1:18:40(Thanks, thanks.)
1:18:40 > 1:18:43Planting seeds..
1:18:43 > 1:18:45I know all the marketing people are going, "He's doing a joke.
1:18:45 > 1:18:48There is no joke here. Suck a tailpipe,
1:18:48 > 1:18:49fucking hang yourself.
1:18:49 > 1:18:53Borrow a gun from a Yank friend. I don't care how you do it.
1:18:53 > 1:18:57Rid the world of your evil fucking machinations.
1:18:57 > 1:19:00Machi... Whatever. You know what I mean.
1:19:01 > 1:19:04I know what all the marketing people are thinking now, too.
1:19:04 > 1:19:08"Oh, you know what Bill's doing? He's going for that anti-marketing dollar.
1:19:08 > 1:19:11"That's a good market. He's very smart."
1:19:11 > 1:19:13LAUGHTER
1:19:13 > 1:19:18Oh, man, I am not doing that, you fucking evil scumbags.
1:19:18 > 1:19:20"Oh, you know what Bill's doing now?
1:19:20 > 1:19:22"He's going for the righteous indignation dollar.
1:19:22 > 1:19:26"That's a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation.
1:19:26 > 1:19:29"We've done research. Huge market. He's doing a good thing."
1:19:29 > 1:19:32God damn it, I'm not doing that, you scumbags.
1:19:32 > 1:19:36Quit putting a goddamn dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet!
1:19:36 > 1:19:40It's a universal idea, but supposedly it's the American creed,
1:19:40 > 1:19:43which is free men, that can say what they want
1:19:43 > 1:19:46and believe what they want, and that's a powerful idea
1:19:46 > 1:19:49when you see somebody that believes so much in that kind of freedom.
1:19:49 > 1:19:52That's exactly what you work for. That's what it's all about.
1:19:52 > 1:19:55Audiences that get what you're saying.
1:19:58 > 1:20:04I got called by NBC, so I flew down and spent the whole week with him.
1:20:06 > 1:20:09He was really relaxed and he had some time off
1:20:09 > 1:20:12and when we were driving around Los Angeles we started developing new characters.
1:20:12 > 1:20:16"Los Angeles, California! Stars in the making.
1:20:16 > 1:20:20"Everyone's got a resume in their hands and dreams in their eyes..."
1:20:20 > 1:20:24and he'd given up smoking and he goes, "I just feel great."
1:20:24 > 1:20:27Bill never stopped wanting to make it in America.
1:20:27 > 1:20:31He was now kind of wondering, "What does the future hold for me?"
1:20:31 > 1:20:34You know, when I would go watch him in Austin four nights in a row,
1:20:34 > 1:20:40I would be amazed that maybe something that was just a throwaway line the first night
1:20:40 > 1:20:43became a five-minute bit by the fourth night.
1:20:43 > 1:20:45Put on a helmet, go wait in that foxhole.
1:20:45 > 1:20:48We'll tell you when we need you to kill somebody.
1:20:48 > 1:20:51You know, I'm so sick... I've watched these fucking congressional hearings
1:20:51 > 1:20:55and all these military guys and all the pundits seriously...
1:20:55 > 1:20:58"Oh, the esprit de corps will be affected" and "we are such a moral..."
1:20:58 > 1:21:02Excuse me, aren't y'all fucking hired killers? Shut up!
1:21:02 > 1:21:05You are thugs and when we need you to go blow the fuck
1:21:05 > 1:21:08out of a nation of little brown people, we'll let you know.
1:21:08 > 1:21:12Until then, what do the fucking military...
1:21:12 > 1:21:16"We are the military!
1:21:16 > 1:21:18"Is that a village of children and kids? Where's the napalm?"
1:21:18 > 1:21:20Shhkkk!
1:21:20 > 1:21:25"I don't want any gay people hanging around me while I'm killing kids.
1:21:25 > 1:21:27"I just don't want to see it."
1:21:27 > 1:21:29APPLAUSE
1:21:29 > 1:21:32That was, uh...June of '93, and I have those shows on video,
1:21:32 > 1:21:37and I was at work one day and he called my wife and he said,
1:21:37 > 1:21:41"Do you have a doctor, a family doctor, here in Austin?"
1:21:41 > 1:21:43and she said, "Yeah, we do, and he goes,
1:21:43 > 1:21:45"Could you call and make me an appointment?
1:21:45 > 1:21:47I'm having stomach problems.
1:21:47 > 1:21:49Bill called a lot of times
1:21:49 > 1:21:53while he was waiting to go on or whatever at a show
1:21:53 > 1:21:57and I heard Jim say, "Are you getting ready to go on?"
1:21:57 > 1:22:01And Bill said, "No, I'm in the hospital.
1:22:01 > 1:22:03And I remember my wife answered the phone,
1:22:03 > 1:22:05and then she said something like, "Oh, it's your brother.
1:22:05 > 1:22:08"He's got cancer or something", like he was making a joke
1:22:08 > 1:22:13or something, and I got on the phone and, "What's up?"
1:22:13 > 1:22:16and he said, "Well, I got bad news, you know", and he said...
1:22:16 > 1:22:19And I just... It just devastated me, you know?
1:22:19 > 1:22:21I mean it, you know, so...
1:22:21 > 1:22:24GUITAR MUSIC DROWNS SPEECH
1:22:31 > 1:22:35The foundation of our family was probably laid early on
1:22:35 > 1:22:38in our lives and I don't think that there was ever any hesitation
1:22:38 > 1:22:43of decision in Bill's mind that he just needed to get back home.
1:22:45 > 1:22:48When he picked me up at the airport at LA,
1:22:48 > 1:22:51he came straight from a chemo treatment.
1:22:51 > 1:22:54I kept saying, "You want me to drive?
1:22:54 > 1:22:59That whole trip, he drove the entire way, ten, twelve hours a day,
1:22:59 > 1:23:01every day for four days, and he wouldn't let me drive.
1:23:05 > 1:23:08He came here and he was sitting out on the deck,
1:23:08 > 1:23:11and in years before when he'd go out there and sit on the deck,
1:23:11 > 1:23:14you know, he kind of wanted to be alone.
1:23:14 > 1:23:19So I opened the door and I said, "Bill, do you want to be alone?"
1:23:19 > 1:23:21and he said, "Who wants to be alone?"
1:23:21 > 1:23:23I said, "I'll be right there!"
1:23:23 > 1:23:27As serious as it was, it was a good time.
1:23:27 > 1:23:32He started telling me everything he had been doing,
1:23:32 > 1:23:35filling me in on things he thought I needed to know,
1:23:35 > 1:23:37and he turned to me and he said,
1:23:37 > 1:23:41"Why, you're more broadminded than I thought you were!"
1:23:41 > 1:23:46Also at night, Jim and Bill and I would walk.
1:23:47 > 1:23:51Bill was encouraged by how those tumour markers were going down,
1:23:51 > 1:23:54and that's why Bill didn't want anybody to know.
1:23:56 > 1:24:02His desire to continue to work and perform came before everything else.
1:24:02 > 1:24:03Cos he still travelled.
1:24:03 > 1:24:07This was in August and he was still travelling and performing.
1:24:07 > 1:24:13Receiving an awful cancer diagnosis and still wanting to work,
1:24:13 > 1:24:18I mean, how many people really could do that?
1:24:18 > 1:24:22What he used to say was when he was on stage, it all went away.
1:24:22 > 1:24:26He just got in his zone and did his thing and he never felt it,
1:24:26 > 1:24:28never thought about it.
1:24:28 > 1:24:32He was also in that period of starting to put together Arizona Bay
1:24:32 > 1:24:36and then Rant In E-Minor and he worked with Kevin, his producer.
1:24:36 > 1:24:39We'd started working on Arizona Bay a few months earlier.
1:24:39 > 1:24:41I'm here. Here's my toothbrush.
1:24:41 > 1:24:45Wherever I am. It's my... it's my little home.
1:24:52 > 1:24:54The years and years that Bill and I had worked together
1:24:54 > 1:24:57brought us to a point where the idea of combining music
1:24:57 > 1:25:00and comedy just seemed like the next natural progression.
1:25:03 > 1:25:07OK, here we go. Ready. Plug in.
1:25:09 > 1:25:13"You all saw him. He had a gun."
1:25:19 > 1:25:22Bill, you know, had so much energy and so much focus,
1:25:22 > 1:25:25I never in a million years would have thought something was wrong with him.
1:25:25 > 1:25:28We're recording this for an album.
1:25:28 > 1:25:31I'd like to thank you all for laughing.
1:25:31 > 1:25:34When I got to San Francisco, Bill was smoking again. That was strange.
1:25:34 > 1:25:37What can I say? The hook is deep, man.
1:25:37 > 1:25:40I went nine months without 'em and that fucking hook,
1:25:40 > 1:25:44they dropped it back in the water, boom, and there I was.
1:25:47 > 1:25:49Whoo!
1:25:49 > 1:25:52See, folks, here's the deal, man, in my humble opinion,
1:25:52 > 1:25:55is that what the problem with the world is is very simple.
1:25:55 > 1:25:58We're undergoing evolution and all our institutions are failing
1:25:58 > 1:26:03and crumbling around us because... they're no longer relevant.
1:26:03 > 1:26:05Hahaha!
1:26:05 > 1:26:07I'd say let 'em go.
1:26:07 > 1:26:09That's all. It's just evolution.
1:26:09 > 1:26:13Evolution does not end with us growing opposable thumbs.
1:26:13 > 1:26:15OK? We're at the point now in history, the first time ever,
1:26:15 > 1:26:19we can evolve at will and the way we do it is we evolve ideas.
1:26:19 > 1:26:24By the way, there are more dick jokes coming. Please relax.
1:26:24 > 1:26:27Let's create a new philosophy. What do you say?
1:26:27 > 1:26:29Let's create a new religion. What do you think?
1:26:29 > 1:26:32I mean, it's not necessarily new.
1:26:32 > 1:26:35The...the seeds are real in the religions.
1:26:35 > 1:26:38Love and acceptance and forgiveness. That's good stuff.
1:26:38 > 1:26:43Let's... Let's keep that. Let's just drop all the dogma, OK?
1:26:43 > 1:26:46And let's take care of the planet, OK?
1:26:46 > 1:26:47OK!
1:26:47 > 1:26:50I know I'm starting to lose 'em a little bit here with this shit.
1:26:50 > 1:26:53I'm like digging a fucking hole right now.
1:26:54 > 1:26:56"And another thing!"
1:26:56 > 1:27:00I don't think we would have gotten as much done
1:27:00 > 1:27:04through those couple of months, had I known he was dying.
1:27:04 > 1:27:08He was looking now at his life like, "I've only got so many months to live, "I want to finish the script,
1:27:08 > 1:27:12"make a new Ninja Bachelor Party, record enough material for several more records."
1:27:12 > 1:27:15So I was in heaven. I mean, that was my idea of a good time.
1:27:18 > 1:27:23He actually included tripping on mushrooms as part of the sobriety.
1:27:23 > 1:27:26So it was surprising when Bill said,
1:27:26 > 1:27:28"Let's go to the ranch again and trip on mushrooms.
1:27:28 > 1:27:30Suddenly Bill calls out of the blue.
1:27:30 > 1:27:33"Hey, I think it's time we have another ranch blow-out.
1:27:34 > 1:27:37I'm like, "Wow, OK.
1:27:37 > 1:27:40We just... It's not something that you do that often.
1:27:40 > 1:27:41It's pretty intense.
1:27:44 > 1:27:45The only thing to me
1:27:45 > 1:27:49that signalled that something was a little bit different
1:27:49 > 1:27:54is when I suggested something that we were going to do in the future
1:27:54 > 1:27:56that he didn't say anything,
1:27:56 > 1:27:58like he knew there wasn't going to be a next time.
1:28:00 > 1:28:03Then he wanted to take a photo when we got back to my house.
1:28:03 > 1:28:08I think that he wanted one last photo shoot.
1:28:18 > 1:28:21I think deep down inside, Bill was an activist.
1:28:21 > 1:28:25It wasn't Bill's style to be a part of any kind of mob or group,
1:28:25 > 1:28:26or anything like that.
1:28:26 > 1:28:30Bill was going to do things in his own way.
1:28:30 > 1:28:33I was in Australia during the Waco siege, and I'm from Texas,
1:28:33 > 1:28:35and all the Australians were going...
1:28:35 > 1:28:38"Bill, that guy is such a weirdo, right?
1:28:38 > 1:28:42First of all, everyone hated that guy cos he called himself Jesus,
1:28:42 > 1:28:44you know, and my first thought was,
1:28:44 > 1:28:47"Come on, the guy's real name is Vernon.
1:28:47 > 1:28:51"Let him be Jesus for a couple of months, you know?
1:28:51 > 1:28:53"I mean, what's it to you?"
1:28:53 > 1:28:58March of '93, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
1:28:58 > 1:29:02performed a raid on a kind of a cult compound
1:29:02 > 1:29:07outside of Waco, Texas that was headed by David Koresh.
1:29:07 > 1:29:12This story was so fascinating to Bill that we gathered all our cameras and drove up there.
1:29:12 > 1:29:14We're almost there. Sense anything?
1:29:14 > 1:29:15HE SNIFFS
1:29:15 > 1:29:17I smell some holed-up people.
1:29:20 > 1:29:22Good afternoon. Where are we going to?
1:29:22 > 1:29:25Uh, we were going to get as close as we could and film it.
1:29:25 > 1:29:29The government was careful to make sure that the press was pushed back
1:29:29 > 1:29:33something like two miles away from the compound.
1:29:33 > 1:29:36It's still a matter of debate, like who fired first.
1:29:36 > 1:29:41But one thing is for sure, that they were just firing into a plywood building that was filled with,
1:29:41 > 1:29:43you know, men, women and children.
1:29:43 > 1:29:47The whole country just stood by and was just like,
1:29:47 > 1:29:49"Well, they're fanatics, "they got what they deserved",
1:29:49 > 1:29:52and that's what enraged Bill the most, to be that one guy going,
1:29:52 > 1:29:56"Hey, everybody, did you just see what they did?
1:29:56 > 1:29:59"Now, seriously, does everybody really think that's OK?"
1:29:59 > 1:30:04Ladies and gentlemen, I have some very shocking news for you.
1:30:04 > 1:30:06I have seen footage that you probably have never seen,
1:30:06 > 1:30:10some of you never have, that's never aired on network television,
1:30:10 > 1:30:15of footage of the Bradley tanks shooting fire into the compound.
1:30:15 > 1:30:18The Branch Davidians did not start the fire.
1:30:18 > 1:30:24They were murdered, in cold blood, by the pussies, the liars,
1:30:24 > 1:30:26the scumbags, the ATF,
1:30:26 > 1:30:30and the meaning of it all, the reason you didn't see it,
1:30:30 > 1:30:32the reason they said the Branch Davidians started the fire...
1:30:32 > 1:30:35No, they didn't, cos they know now that David Koresh was trying
1:30:35 > 1:30:38to finish that fucking whatever, Seven Seals horseshit he was doing.
1:30:38 > 1:30:39They know that.
1:30:39 > 1:30:42They burned these fucking people alive because the message
1:30:42 > 1:30:46they want to convey to you is state power will always win.
1:30:46 > 1:30:48We'll paint you as a child molester
1:30:48 > 1:30:51and we'll paint you as a methamphetamine manufacturer,
1:30:51 > 1:30:54we'll say any lie we want over our propaganda machine,
1:30:54 > 1:30:56the mainstream media,
1:30:56 > 1:30:58and we'll burn you and your children in your fucking homes.
1:30:58 > 1:31:01So you just be apathetic, America, you stay docile,
1:31:01 > 1:31:05and don't you ever forget you're free to do what we tell you.
1:31:10 > 1:31:13The real implication is why no mainstream media has picked up
1:31:13 > 1:31:15on this footage and thought that it was news.
1:31:15 > 1:31:17This tells you something about America
1:31:17 > 1:31:20and the state of freedom that you live under.
1:31:20 > 1:31:25Just seeing it firsthand, and seeing them do it on TV.
1:31:25 > 1:31:27What if that was you in there?
1:31:27 > 1:31:30You may not agree with them, but what if the day comes
1:31:30 > 1:31:31where you're the guy in that church
1:31:31 > 1:31:34practising something that they don't like?
1:31:34 > 1:31:39Bill really was in the state of mind, of, you know, for one,
1:31:39 > 1:31:41I'm not taking any shit from anybody any more, and two,
1:31:41 > 1:31:45I'm going to just tell everybody exactly what it is they need to hear,
1:31:45 > 1:31:47because time is of the essence here.
1:31:50 > 1:31:54That last day we tripped out here, Bill was preparing for his last Letterman appearance.
1:31:54 > 1:31:55It was only a matter of days.
1:31:55 > 1:31:58He was taking this one really seriously.
1:31:59 > 1:32:02And of course, Bill was the only one
1:32:02 > 1:32:06thinking that this was going to be the last time he was going to perform
1:32:06 > 1:32:09something to be seen by the entire American public.
1:32:09 > 1:32:14And he called me up, he was like, "Kevin, I think I finally did it. It went so good".
1:32:14 > 1:32:16PHONE RINGS
1:32:18 > 1:32:24And then about an hour or so later, he called and he was just like, "I can't believe it, they cut it".
1:32:29 > 1:32:33Bill's reaction, I am pretty sure,
1:32:33 > 1:32:36was because he knew what he was facing.
1:32:36 > 1:32:39I just remember him saying, you know, "I'm done with this.
1:32:39 > 1:32:42"I'm tired of trying to please these people,
1:32:42 > 1:32:46"I'm trying to be myself and they want me to be somebody else,
1:32:46 > 1:32:51"and so I'm just not going to do it any more", it was kind of final like that.
1:32:51 > 1:32:55Then he invites me over to Igby's and as we were walking in, he goes,
1:32:55 > 1:32:57"This'll be my last night working at Igby's.
1:32:57 > 1:33:01I go, "Why do you say that?" To me it made no sense at all.
1:33:01 > 1:33:03"I mean, it's a nice club. You like the club.
1:33:03 > 1:33:06He goes, "Some things you just know.
1:33:06 > 1:33:10I thought maybe it's cos he was going to move to England...
1:33:10 > 1:33:15Folks, I appreciate you coming out. It's a very sentimental evening for me and a very exciting one.
1:33:15 > 1:33:17But this is my final live performance I am ever going to do,
1:33:17 > 1:33:20stand-up comedy-wise.
1:33:20 > 1:33:22True. No, no, no, don't get me wrong.
1:33:22 > 1:33:24It's not sour grapes.
1:33:24 > 1:33:28I've loved every, you know, moment of the 16 years I've been doing it,
1:33:28 > 1:33:31in total anonymity in the country I love, and, uh...
1:33:31 > 1:33:37every delayed flight, every EconoLodge, I've loved it all,
1:33:37 > 1:33:41playing the Comedy Pouch in Possum Ridge, Arkansas,
1:33:41 > 1:33:44every three months, it was my treat.
1:33:44 > 1:33:48When I saw the Igby's tape, it just flat out blew me away.
1:33:48 > 1:33:53You listen to any set after he knew he was sick and they're phenomenal, raging.
1:33:53 > 1:33:56You can just feel the, "I got to get this shit out".
1:33:56 > 1:34:00I went in and I said, "I want to do a show
1:34:00 > 1:34:03"where we rid the world of all these fevered egos that are tainting
1:34:03 > 1:34:06"our collective unconscious, and the CBS guy goes,
1:34:06 > 1:34:08"Will there be titty?"
1:34:08 > 1:34:11And I said, "Yeah, all right, sure.
1:34:11 > 1:34:13Uh... sure.
1:34:13 > 1:34:16Boom! A cheque falls in my lap. I'm a producer.
1:34:16 > 1:34:18We've had creative meetings.
1:34:18 > 1:34:21"What are these titties going to do?" "Uh... jiggle?"
1:34:21 > 1:34:26"Son, you're a genius. Where have you been all our lives?
1:34:26 > 1:34:29"Oh, at the Comedy Pouch in Possum Ridge, Arkansas, you fuck.
1:34:29 > 1:34:32"I had no idea if I said the word titty, I'd get my own show,
1:34:32 > 1:34:36"but damn it, damn me for not thinking of that.
1:34:36 > 1:34:39What does everyone love?
1:34:39 > 1:34:41Titties. Yes.
1:34:43 > 1:34:47Kevin called me and said, "Bill's coming over and he wants to talk to us about something.
1:34:47 > 1:34:51And so when he came over, we knew that something was wrong
1:34:51 > 1:34:56because he was kind of weepy and he was hugging us and saying he loved us
1:34:56 > 1:35:01and then told us that he had cancer and had been told that he was going to die soon.
1:35:01 > 1:35:04You know, it was just like that feeling of just falling into a tunnel
1:35:04 > 1:35:07and going, "Oh, God, everything makes sense all of a sudden".
1:35:07 > 1:35:12He called and told me and then asked me who he should tell,
1:35:12 > 1:35:14whether he should tell other people or not.
1:35:14 > 1:35:20"Of course you fucking..." You know, "these are your best friends. You have to tell them".
1:35:20 > 1:35:23It was just shock forever, you know.
1:35:23 > 1:35:25Still can't believe it.
1:35:25 > 1:35:29It always just seemed then, as it seems now, that Bill is, uh...
1:35:29 > 1:35:32out of town and he's mad at me and he'll call me when he gets over it.
1:35:32 > 1:35:34An awful thing, but Bill's going to beat it
1:35:34 > 1:35:38and this has got to be at least 20 minutes of material
1:35:38 > 1:35:42and it's going to be difficult, but he'll do it, he'll do it.
1:35:42 > 1:35:45It just fucking sucks. You're just like...
1:35:45 > 1:35:50I'd lost my mom four years earlier to the same thing, pancreatic cancer.
1:35:50 > 1:35:54Only Bill, only Bill could that happen to.
1:35:54 > 1:35:56I mean the timing of it was so Bill, you know?
1:35:56 > 1:36:00He said, "John, you know, everything that happens is right,
1:36:00 > 1:36:03"and that the last thing you have is family.
1:36:03 > 1:36:07"The only thing you truly have, is family.
1:36:07 > 1:36:11Which, of course, it goes without saying, it never occurred to me!
1:36:11 > 1:36:15Right before we hung up I said, "I'll see you again, and he said,
1:36:15 > 1:36:16"I know", and hung up.
1:36:17 > 1:36:19He said, "Man, I don't want to die.
1:36:19 > 1:36:22"It is like the biggest joke on me in the world.
1:36:22 > 1:36:24"Here I've been a comedian all my life,
1:36:24 > 1:36:28"and now the big joke's on me, right when it was all coming together".
1:36:28 > 1:36:29Is there a point to all this?
1:36:29 > 1:36:31Let's find a point.
1:36:34 > 1:36:36Is there a point to my act? I would say there is.
1:36:39 > 1:36:42I have to.
1:36:42 > 1:36:44The world is like a ride in an amusement park,
1:36:44 > 1:36:47and when you choose to go on it, you think it's real,
1:36:47 > 1:36:52cos that's how powerful our minds are, and the ride goes up and down and round and round,
1:36:52 > 1:36:55it has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured
1:36:55 > 1:36:57and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while.
1:36:57 > 1:36:59Some people have been on the ride for a long time
1:36:59 > 1:37:01and they begin to question,
1:37:01 > 1:37:03"Is this real or is this just a ride?"
1:37:03 > 1:37:06And other people have remembered and they come back to us and say,
1:37:06 > 1:37:08"Hey, "don't worry, don't be afraid, ever,
1:37:08 > 1:37:13"because this is just a ride", and we...
1:37:13 > 1:37:15kill those people.
1:37:15 > 1:37:18"Shut him up!
1:37:18 > 1:37:20"We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up!
1:37:20 > 1:37:22"Look at my furrows of worry.
1:37:22 > 1:37:26"Look at my big bank account and my family.
1:37:26 > 1:37:29"This has to be real."
1:37:29 > 1:37:31It's just a ride.
1:37:31 > 1:37:33But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that.
1:37:33 > 1:37:36Ever notice that? And let the demons run amok.
1:37:36 > 1:37:38But it doesn't matter, because...
1:37:39 > 1:37:43..it's just a ride and we can change it any time we want.
1:37:43 > 1:37:45It's only a choice.
1:37:45 > 1:37:48No effort. No work. No job. No savings of money.
1:37:48 > 1:37:51A choice right now between fear and love.
1:37:51 > 1:37:55The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door,
1:37:55 > 1:37:57buy guns, close yourself off.
1:37:57 > 1:38:00The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one.
1:38:00 > 1:38:04Here's what we can do to change the world right now to a better ride.
1:38:04 > 1:38:07Take all that money we spend on weapons and defence each year,
1:38:07 > 1:38:10and, instead, spend it feeding, clothing and educating the poor
1:38:10 > 1:38:13of the world which it would many times over,
1:38:13 > 1:38:17not one human being excluded, and we can explore space together...
1:38:17 > 1:38:18APPLAUSE
1:38:18 > 1:38:21..both inner and outer...
1:38:21 > 1:38:23forever in peace. Thank you very much.
1:38:23 > 1:38:26You've been great. I hope you enjoyed it.
1:38:26 > 1:38:29Thank you very much.
1:38:29 > 1:38:31RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE
1:39:07 > 1:39:09My mom called me the other day.
1:39:09 > 1:39:13She's going, "Bill, honey, it's your daddy's birthday tomorrow.
1:39:13 > 1:39:16"I want you to call him up and wish him a happy birthday.
1:39:16 > 1:39:19"It'll mean so much to him. Please don't you forget to do that.
1:39:19 > 1:39:23"It'll mean so much to him, to wish him a happy birthday.
1:39:23 > 1:39:25"Please do it for me, honey.
1:39:25 > 1:39:27"Please." I said, "OK, Mom, sure.
1:39:27 > 1:39:30I called up my dad. Said, "Dad, happy birthday.
1:39:30 > 1:39:32He goes, "Thanks, Son. Here's your mother.
1:40:20 > 1:40:24I kind of look at the audience out there too.
1:40:24 > 1:40:27Are they going to be able to take that inspiration that they feel
1:40:27 > 1:40:30and move it forward?
1:40:30 > 1:40:32It's not enough just to make jokes about it.
1:40:32 > 1:40:36You have to kick over some tables.
1:41:00 > 1:41:03Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
1:41:03 > 1:41:06E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk