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Downloaded from
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Get comfy!
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Official YIFY movies site:
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(Dwight Slade)
Who do you ever pay to talk?
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Maybe a preacher.
Maybe a lecturer. Possibly a politician.
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But even those rarely.
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Comedians are the only ones
that you pay to hear 'em talk.
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Talk to me, make me listen.
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News is supposed to be objective.
Isn't it supposed to be?
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The news!
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But every drug story is negative.
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Oh, well, hold it!
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I've had some killer fucking times on drugs.
Let's hear the whole story.
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(Mary Hicks) What Bill said will never change,
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because it is the basic truths
and they are never wrong.
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(John Humphrys) Plenty of people say
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he is the best American comedian
the country has ever produced
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and he was only 32 when he died.
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- His influence lives on.
- Bill Hicks!
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(Cheering)
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Get out. You're everything that America
should be flushed down the toilet.
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You turd. Get out!
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(Southern accent) "Hey, buddy, we're
Christians. We don't like what you said."
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I said, "Then forgive me."
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♪ The sergeant sent me
and my men on a search
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♪ He wanted us to go out
and get the lay of the /and
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♪ We were to find
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♪ Any people who might be
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♪ The enemies of man...
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Free yourself, folks. You're right.
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You're right. Not those fuckers
who want to tell you how to think.
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You're fucking right!
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Sorry, wrong meeting. Again.
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I keep getting my days mixed up.
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From the moment I met Bill,
throughout our life, it was about laughs.
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Cos I think our parents were just happy
being comfortable. ', Can we just be quiet?
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"And can we just go to church and be
distracted by our religion? It's orderly here."
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Growing up in that environment
you start to get a little antsy,
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because clearly
there has to be something more.
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Lyndon Johnson talked
about the great society back in the '60s
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and I think he was keying into something
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and that was
that America's so wealthy and powerful
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that we have to do
something responsible with it.
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We're gonna defeat poverty,
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we 're gonna do the Peace Corps
or we 're gonna make the world a better place.
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And then I think that Vietnam stalled that.
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So the generation that Bill and I came out of
was, we were looking around going,
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"Well, there's got to be something else
we can do with all this."
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Bill was, uh...
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I don't know, I just... He was interesting.
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All of my children were special.
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I had a girl. I had only a girl.
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Then I had a boy.
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And then I had a baby.
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There was definitely something there that was
different from Steve and Lynn growing up.
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But Bill... You should have known him,
is all I can say.
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They were so much older.
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Five and seven years' difference
is a lot of difference.
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(Steve Hicks chuckles)
You couldn't do anything with him.
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He was too little at that point.
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(Lynn Hicks) Bill was seven
when we got to Houston.
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(Steve) Then we stayed there 12, 13 years.
(Lynn) Yeah.
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(Steve) He was just another kid
playing sports, you know.
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It wasn't evident yet
where his life was gonna go.
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(Mary) And, of course,
by then he had met Dwight.
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(Dwight Slade) What I noticed about him is
he was fast. He had a real strong constitution.
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He could do things better and longer
than everyone else.
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An unbelievable scrambler.
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I was fast but I wasn't a very good scrambler
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but I watched him and I just picked him apart
about what he was doing,
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then I was scrambling all the way
to the end zone, no one would touch me.
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After we’d played a few times,
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I just remember everyone leaving
and us being alone
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and me thinking to myself,
"I think this is gonna be a friend of mine."
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The first time I ever met his parents,
Bill did not want to introduce me.
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He just wanted me to go straight up the stairs.
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He would look at me and just go, "Look,
don't talk to them. Just follow me upstairs."
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But of course, you know, an adult says,
"Hello there! Who are you?
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You stop and you say, "I'm Dwight."
Bill's like, "Come on!"
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You're stuck on the landing
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between Bill at the top of the stairs
and you're at the bottom of the stairs.
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And, "Well, just hold on. Where are you from?"
I go, "I live in Nottingham Forest too."
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"What does your father do?"
"Works for Shell oil. ""uh-huh?"
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'Just /eave him alone!" Bill's screaming at you
to come upstairs. "Come on!"
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"Bill, would you just hold on?
I'd like to know who your friends are."
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"Aaah! What does it matter?
What does it matter?"
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"Well, we're just curious.
ls there a problem we're being curious?"
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When you reached his room, the door would
be closed and locked and you were safe.
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I had told him that I wanted to be an actor
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and he goes, "I'll show you
these jokes that I wrote."
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Because we were joking around so much, he
started saying we should be a comedy team.
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It was completely alien to me.
I had no idea what a comic really was.
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He told me that he'd seen Woody Allen
on Casino Royale.
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This guy made his living being a comic,
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and it really, really fired him up,
the importance of stand--up,
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that society cherished its funny people.
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And for Bill, he knew it. He knew that he was
gonna be the comic that shook people up.
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His mom figured out how to pick the lock.
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The door would open
and she'd be standing there with a butter knife.
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"What are you doing?"
"I know you don't like me picking your lock
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"but I am leaving
and you have not responded to me."
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"Well, don't ever unlock my door again!" Ppkk!
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I'd never met anyone
who talked to his parents like that.
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The Hicks family
is a very smart, intellectual family
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yet there was this suspension of reason
when it came to certain issues.
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(Lynn Hicks) We were raised Southern Baptist
and had to go to church every single Sunday.
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It was just a strict household.
"You do this. You do that."
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(Steve Hicks) The one thing
I always wanted to get straight,
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cos a lot of times it talks about, "The Hickses
were raised fundamentalist Christian.
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"No, we were raised Southern Baptist
and that's much worse."
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(Mary laughs)
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(Mary) And he's right, really.
That's just the way we lived then.
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But hopefully what you're taught there
teaches you the spiritual,
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and I don't mean religion.
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I mean the basics of how to live a life.
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(Lynn) So when I was 17, he was 10.
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I was like, "Get me out of this house.
I want out."
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And off I went to college.
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I rebelled. Steve, in his fashion, rebelled.
And Bill rebelled too.
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(Dwight) Stand--up comedy was not on
the map in the '70s, for kids to want to be.
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But we were very determined
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and so we started to do
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this very much guerrilla-theatre type
of comedy amongst our friends.
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This group of people's just standing around,
and you appear,
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and you do an outrageous sketch
and then you disappear.
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What the hell was that?
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And, of course, once they got wind of it,
they wouldn't let us alone.
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"Are you guys gonna do your thing?"
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After school we would go over to his house
and we would plan them and write them
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and they were like gigs to us.
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And it wasn't lost upon us, the fact
that we already knew what we wanted in life.
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This was what we were going to do.
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You had to sacrifice your family,
your relationship with girls,
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your popularity at school.
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We were sacrificing everything for this.
And there was nowhere to do our craft.
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There was no open mics.
There was nothing in 1970s Houston, Texas.
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As a backdrop to all this
is how we met Kevin Booth.
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Bill and I just thought
that Kevin was hilarious,
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just cos he was this technical genius
who could build things and blow things up.
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(Kevin Booth) I was known
as the instigator and a facilitator.
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You know, if you had an idea for something,
I would go out and figure out how to build it.
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(Dwight) You know, the fact that he was able
to get his parents' RV and hook up a generator
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and then set up speakers and play rock'n'roll
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to the Spartanaires
as they were practicing their routines.
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That just was like classic Kevin.
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(Kevin) Because of this ranch,
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I was able to get what's called
a hardship driver's license when I was 14
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without even like taking any lessons.
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I just thought the two of them were hilarious.
It was like a new breed of person.
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They did all this weird stuff,
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and I guess we just started talking
about music all the time.
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We wanted to be rock stars,
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thinking like this was gonna be our way
to break out of suburbia.
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Bill was like, "Let's go look
at these guitars downtown."
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00:10:06,410 --> 00:10:08,278
I'd never driven downtown before,
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I was like, "OK, I guess I'm game for this,
if you guys are gonna navigate the way."
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(Dwight) He goes,
"Did you see the paper today?"
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He goes, "A comedy workshop has opened up
and they have open mic."
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"Open mic stand-up?" "Yes."
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Oh, my God. Finally.
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(Kevin) So we drove to downtown.
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On our way back we passed this place
called the Comedy Workshop in Montrose.
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Bill and Dwight were like,
"That's that place we've been reading about."
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(Dwight) We couldn't believe it,
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that something like this
had happened in our own backyard.
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And we realized that now we had
a real chance. We could actually be comics.
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Most entertainers have to deal with the fact,
"I've got to get to LA or Hollywood,
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"I got to take acting lessons,
I got to get head shots."
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What's our problem?
We can't go out on school nights.
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I remember my father sitting me down
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and going, "Look, you're not going down
to a nightclub in Houston, Texas."
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00:11:01,532 --> 00:11:03,433
Man.
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00:11:03,534 --> 00:11:06,270
(Mary) We were strict.
We wanted to know where they were.
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00:11:06,370 --> 00:11:08,605
And we wanted to know
when they were going to get home.
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00:11:08,672 --> 00:11:13,410
And if they didn't give us the answer
we wanted, we told them what we wanted.
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00:11:13,510 --> 00:11:16,180
(Dwight) Bill and I talked about it
and he said, "We have to do it",
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00:11:16,280 --> 00:11:18,148
and I was like, "Absolutely."
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00:11:18,248 --> 00:11:22,286
The question was, "How are you gonna
get down there on a school night?"
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00:11:27,024 --> 00:11:29,526
When you're in Bill's bedroom looking out,
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00:11:29,593 --> 00:11:32,696
if you hop that fence, you are
in the parking lot of the Catholic church.
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00:11:32,796 --> 00:11:35,566
You could open the window,
but there also was a storm window,
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00:11:35,632 --> 00:11:40,470
and he became just very efficient at getting
that thing open and getting out that window.
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00:11:40,571 --> 00:11:44,775
(Kevin) You had to be quiet cos the roof
was right above where their kitchen was.
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00:11:46,610 --> 00:11:50,347
The evil Catholic boy
with his 14-year-old driver's license
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00:11:50,447 --> 00:11:52,816
was sitting there
in the Catholic getaway wagon
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00:11:53,083 --> 00:11:56,720
ready to take the Baptist boy
down to the Comedy Store.
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00:12:02,226 --> 00:12:04,127
(Dwight) We'd never been in a nightclub,
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00:12:04,194 --> 00:12:10,567
but when we walked in it was like, "Whoa!
The whole thing is set up for comedy."
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00:12:10,667 --> 00:12:13,737
And there was chairs
and they were all pointed at the stage
193
00:12:14,004 --> 00:12:16,273
and this was what it was all about.
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We did the first few jokes
and it started working.
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00:12:22,179 --> 00:12:25,015
(Kevin) I think everybody
was very receptive to it
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00:12:25,115 --> 00:12:29,486
because they were like these little kids
trying to be a part of this adult world.
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00:12:29,553 --> 00:12:31,788
(James Ladmirault) When Bill first started,
you could see Woody Allen.
198
00:12:32,055 --> 00:12:36,426
He actually had the Woody Allen mannerisms
a bit. But that's not a bad thing.
199
00:12:36,526 --> 00:12:39,329
If you keep doing it and
you don't grow out of it, that's a bad thing,
200
00:12:39,429 --> 00:12:42,699
but you can tell when a comic first starts
who his influence may be.
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00:12:42,799 --> 00:12:48,205
(Dwight) Bill and I got offstage
and we were flying. We had done well.
202
00:12:49,706 --> 00:12:52,643
It was beyond...
You know, the exhilaration was just...
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00:12:52,709 --> 00:12:56,480
it was just, here we go, we're real comics.
204
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And then the shit hit the fan.
205
00:12:59,082 --> 00:13:02,586
Cos Mrs. Hicks calls Scott's mom,
says, "ls Bill over there?"
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00:13:02,653 --> 00:13:06,256
"No, they went
down to the comedy workshop. " "oh."
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00:13:06,356 --> 00:13:11,662
So when Bill gets home, he gets nailed.
Mrs. Hicks calls my parents, and I get nailed.
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00:13:11,728 --> 00:13:15,666
It went from being thrilled
with the fact that, "Hey, we're doing this"
209
00:13:15,732 --> 00:13:17,668
to, "Now what do we do?"
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00:13:17,734 --> 00:13:21,305
We're comics, we have to work on this career.
We can do it.
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00:13:21,405 --> 00:13:23,140
And just as I thought that,
212
00:13:23,206 --> 00:13:26,777
my father came home and said, "I've bought
a business in Klamath Falls, Oregon,
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00:13:27,044 --> 00:13:29,546
"and we 're moving in July."
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00:13:37,187 --> 00:13:39,623
I was devastated, and I go,
"I gotta tell you something.
215
00:13:39,690 --> 00:13:43,160
"In July I'm gonna be moving
to Klamath Falls, Oregon."
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00:13:43,260 --> 00:13:45,562
And there was just this silence.
217
00:13:46,530 --> 00:13:49,499
Bill didn't exhibit any emotion about it.
218
00:13:49,566 --> 00:13:52,536
It was just one more fucking thing
we were gonna have to deal with
219
00:13:52,602 --> 00:13:56,440
and in typical fashion
we just began joking about it.
220
00:13:56,540 --> 00:13:58,442
"When you get up there to Calamity Falls... '
221
00:13:58,542 --> 00:14:00,243
"It's Klamath Falls. " Whatever.
222
00:14:00,310 --> 00:14:04,448
"You're gonna meet a little girlfriend, you're
gonna be happy, you're gonna enjoy yourself "
223
00:14:04,514 --> 00:14:08,285
"Yeah, but I'm missing my friend. "
"oh, you'll make new friends."
224
00:14:08,385 --> 00:14:12,322
You know, so we joked a lot about it
but there was this idea that it was all over.
225
00:14:12,389 --> 00:14:14,725
What were we gonna do?
What could we possibly do?
226
00:14:14,991 --> 00:14:18,295
He never focused on doing solo stand-up.
227
00:14:18,395 --> 00:14:21,665
All our stuff was about characters.
It was about creating these worlds.
228
00:14:21,732 --> 00:14:25,635
So I think when I left,
he just threw himself into music and the band.
229
00:14:25,702 --> 00:14:28,472
(Kevin) I couldn't imagine
Bill performing without Dwight
230
00:14:28,538 --> 00:14:30,107
or Dwight performing without Bill,
231
00:14:30,173 --> 00:14:33,009
and I thought the three of us
were gonna be doing music forever.
232
00:14:33,110 --> 00:14:36,580
Dwight took off And poof, he was gone.
233
00:14:38,682 --> 00:14:43,787
And at the time, too, I had actually seen
Dwight perform comedy without Bill
234
00:14:44,054 --> 00:14:47,057
but I hadn't seen
Bill perform comedy without Dwight.
235
00:14:47,157 --> 00:14:49,693
And so I wasn't sure how it was gonna go.
236
00:14:49,793 --> 00:14:52,763
A big hand for the very funny Mr. Bill Hicks.
237
00:14:53,029 --> 00:14:55,399
-- Yeah!
-- (Applause)
238
00:14:55,465 --> 00:14:57,467
Whoa!
239
00:14:58,602 --> 00:15:00,771
(Chatter)
240
00:15:05,242 --> 00:15:06,510
Thank you.
241
00:15:06,576 --> 00:15:10,380
You guys remember.
I gotta see if this is universal or not.
242
00:15:10,580 --> 00:15:13,617
-- Remember this thing called flinching?
- Yeah.
243
00:15:13,683 --> 00:15:18,088
You know what this is, you guys? Some guy
would come up to you and they'd go, "Hey."
244
00:15:18,155 --> 00:15:22,993
You'd go, "God! Watch out, man!"
And he'd go, "Flinch. I owe you a poke."
245
00:15:23,093 --> 00:15:27,130
The guy would go, "Oh, shit, I flinched.
You're poking me."
246
00:15:27,197 --> 00:15:31,268
You remember that? First time it happened
to me, this guy comes up, says, "Hey, Hicks."
247
00:15:31,368 --> 00:15:35,305
I went, "God! Get away from me."
And he goes, "Ah, flinched. I owe you a poke."
248
00:15:35,405 --> 00:15:38,141
I said, "Get away from me, you jerk."
249
00:15:38,208 --> 00:15:41,178
Principal's walking by.
The principal goes, "What's going on here?"
250
00:15:41,278 --> 00:15:44,147
And that guy goes, "He flinched.
He won't let me poke him."
251
00:15:44,247 --> 00:15:46,483
And I said, "This guy's trying to hit me."
252
00:15:46,550 --> 00:15:49,419
And the principal went, "Did you flinch?"
253
00:15:56,159 --> 00:16:00,430
(David Johndrow) I remember Kevin telling me
early on that he's gonna be a comedian
254
00:16:00,530 --> 00:16:01,998
and he writes comedy,
255
00:16:02,098 --> 00:16:07,103
and I thought that was really strange, because
we were only 16 years old or something
256
00:16:07,204 --> 00:16:11,475
and finally I just said, "Kevin,
I want to go over and meet this Bill guy."
257
00:16:11,541 --> 00:16:14,177
Bill and I had the same sense of humor
from the very beginning
258
00:16:14,244 --> 00:16:16,513
and we just got each other instantly.
259
00:16:16,580 --> 00:16:19,316
It was, "Really? You got a camera?
oh, these pictures are good.
260
00:16:19,382 --> 00:16:22,252
"Well, yeah, you're my photographer.
Take some pictures of me.
261
00:16:22,319 --> 00:16:24,421
"I need pictures for a newspaper."
262
00:16:24,521 --> 00:16:29,259
Just immediately, without question, I was the
photographer and he put complete faith in me.
263
00:16:29,359 --> 00:16:32,128
I just saw it as that I found a kindred spirit.
264
00:16:32,229 --> 00:16:34,998
He was the guy that was out in front,
breaking barriers.
265
00:16:35,065 --> 00:16:36,666
Cos it was a very adult world
266
00:16:36,733 --> 00:16:38,668
and he was like the high schooler
267
00:16:38,735 --> 00:16:41,738
that was telling them what fools they were
for drinking and smoking
268
00:16:42,005 --> 00:16:44,774
and giving them this clear mirror,
269
00:16:45,041 --> 00:16:46,743
and you could tell
they all really respected him.
270
00:16:47,010 --> 00:16:48,578
(James) The good sign for a comic
271
00:16:48,678 --> 00:16:51,281
is not just when audiences
come in and ask for you.
272
00:16:51,381 --> 00:16:55,118
It's when other comics stop what they're doing
and come in the room and watch you.
273
00:16:55,185 --> 00:16:59,122
There has never been anybody funnier
at his age as a stand-up.
274
00:16:59,189 --> 00:17:02,158
Maybe the only other guy that touched him
at that age was Buster Keaton.
275
00:17:02,225 --> 00:17:07,063
The stuff about his family and his parents
and growing up was entertaining to anybody.
276
00:17:07,130 --> 00:17:10,734
Bill should have been famous right away.
277
00:17:11,001 --> 00:17:15,105
Open house night, open house night,
your parents go out, talk to your teachers,
278
00:17:15,205 --> 00:17:18,008
find out you've been lying through your teeth.
279
00:17:18,108 --> 00:17:20,110
"His name is Bill?"
280
00:17:24,414 --> 00:17:26,416
"I thought it was Moltvic."
281
00:17:29,119 --> 00:17:34,658
Come home the next night and my father's
sitting there and he goes, "Hold it, Moltvic.
282
00:17:43,667 --> 00:17:47,671
"Went out to the school last night and I talked
to your teachers and I talked to Miss Jones
283
00:17:47,771 --> 00:17:51,675
"and she said you called her a frothing slut.
284
00:17:54,110 --> 00:17:56,513
"What is that all about?"
285
00:17:56,580 --> 00:17:59,316
"Well, Dad, she's a loser."
286
00:17:59,416 --> 00:18:05,288
"Everyone's a loser, everyone's a jerk?
Tell me, Mr. Blister, who's the real loser?"
287
00:18:08,491 --> 00:18:11,194
"Promise you won't get mad, Dad."
288
00:18:15,665 --> 00:18:20,971
(Steve Hicks) Where it really hit me was
one weekend I was home from college
289
00:18:21,071 --> 00:18:23,974
and he said, "Come down to this comedy club
290
00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:27,110
and here was Bill performing
and the place was sold out,
291
00:18:27,210 --> 00:18:31,381
and I remember going and telling all my
friends, "Man, you gotta come, this is unreal."
292
00:18:31,481 --> 00:18:34,517
And it hit me pretty powerfully. it really did.
293
00:18:34,584 --> 00:18:40,323
What Bill's comedy was,
was his view of our life.
294
00:18:40,390 --> 00:18:46,196
He had been able to turn that
into this thing that could entertain strangers.
295
00:18:46,262 --> 00:18:49,599
(Chuckles) "oh, that's what you been doing
the last few years."
296
00:18:49,666 --> 00:18:51,668
Both of my parents are college graduates.
297
00:18:51,768 --> 00:18:54,604
My older sister's a college graduate.
I'm a college graduate.
298
00:18:54,671 --> 00:18:57,507
Here came Bill and he said,
"I'm going to LA to be a comedian."
299
00:18:57,574 --> 00:19:00,310
What does that mean, you know?
We had no idea.
300
00:19:01,611 --> 00:19:05,415
(Kevin) When Bill basically said, "I'm moving
to LA and I'm not gonna play music any more",
301
00:19:05,482 --> 00:19:08,218
I was really taken back,
it was definitely depressing.
302
00:19:08,284 --> 00:19:12,522
(James) LA was something that had to be
done. it was the next step. You had to go.
303
00:19:12,622 --> 00:19:15,125
(Mary) I cried, of course, and I said, ''Bill...
304
00:19:15,225 --> 00:19:17,961
(Cries) "nobody will say
a thing if you don't go."
305
00:19:18,028 --> 00:19:23,366
And he said, "Mom, this is hard for me
so I'm going, so please stop crying.
306
00:19:23,466 --> 00:19:27,570
"If I don't make it, I'll come back.
But I've got to try."
307
00:19:30,206 --> 00:19:32,242
(Steve Hicks)
That's how he lived the rest of his life.
308
00:19:32,342 --> 00:19:34,444
I mean, he had girlfriends and relationships.
309
00:19:34,511 --> 00:19:39,549
But certainly life on the road as a comedian,
there's a lot of time by yourself
310
00:19:56,433 --> 00:20:00,136
(Andy Huggins) I was working at the Comedy
Store and Bill came up one afternoon.
311
00:20:00,203 --> 00:20:03,373
Pale, bad haircut, had a suitcase with him.
312
00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:07,644
He said, "I'm here to be a comic",
and I explained to him about amateur nights.
313
00:20:07,711 --> 00:20:11,314
I got lucky, and was passed
on my first audition. Bi/I did too.
314
00:20:11,414 --> 00:20:15,218
The difficult part was stage time
once you became a regular.
315
00:20:15,285 --> 00:20:18,621
Bill was in a hurry too.
He had an impatience about him.
316
00:20:18,688 --> 00:20:23,193
But you went there to be on stage,
to hone your performing abilities,
317
00:20:23,293 --> 00:20:26,196
and, you know, to showcase for producers.
318
00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:33,570
(Steve Hicks) I remember
we went out to visit him.
319
00:20:35,105 --> 00:20:39,375
Being on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles
at the world--famous Comedy Store
320
00:20:39,442 --> 00:20:44,080
where people like Robin Williams and Richard
Pryor and Billy Crystal also performed
321
00:20:44,180 --> 00:20:45,715
and then Bill Hicks.
322
00:20:45,782 --> 00:20:49,619
That was the Mecca for comedy
and Bill got his name up there.
323
00:20:49,719 --> 00:20:52,655
OK, there's one for the books
right there, you know.
324
00:20:52,722 --> 00:20:57,260
He was where he wanted to be,
and that was pretty clear.
325
00:21:01,264 --> 00:21:04,334
(Dwight) You know, he would call me up
in these fits of inspiration
326
00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:09,439
and go, "You have to get down here, we got
to do this script. It's our key out of this."
327
00:21:09,539 --> 00:21:11,641
I'd already decided
that that's what I was gonna do,
328
00:21:11,708 --> 00:21:16,679
so I left the university of Oregon
and drove south to Los Angeles.
329
00:21:18,414 --> 00:21:21,351
I remember knocking at the door
and it was an intense moment.
330
00:21:21,417 --> 00:21:26,022
I had the map out
and I was going, "Dónde ésta..."
331
00:21:26,122 --> 00:21:27,757
And, "Sir, you can't come in here."
332
00:21:28,024 --> 00:21:32,462
"Where...dónde ésta the olives? They
choppé the olives?" "Sir, you can't. Please."
333
00:21:32,562 --> 00:21:36,032
And he goes, "Come on in, "
and of course it was just tiny,
334
00:21:36,132 --> 00:21:39,435
and we would wind up
living there for two years.
335
00:21:39,536 --> 00:21:43,206
I'd driven II hours because Steve wanted to go
down to the Comedy Store. I said, "Sure."
336
00:21:43,306 --> 00:21:47,610
We got in his car, and drove down to
Hollywood and I walk into the Comedy Store.
337
00:21:47,710 --> 00:21:50,814
This is it, you know,
the ground zero of stand-up comedy.
338
00:21:52,582 --> 00:21:56,719
He always went up really early in the show
like second or third.
339
00:21:56,820 --> 00:22:00,757
He never swore. He was the clean-cut comic.
340
00:22:05,428 --> 00:22:08,998
It was a nice way to restart
a new chapter of our friendship.
341
00:22:09,098 --> 00:22:12,035
I think we both knew that we weren't
gonna be working together as stand-ups
342
00:22:12,135 --> 00:22:14,604
cos he had already
gone on to be successful.
343
00:22:14,671 --> 00:22:17,307
The whole focus was
all this was leading to a script.
344
00:22:17,407 --> 00:22:21,344
If we could sell a script, well, then,
that's when you get can excited.
345
00:22:21,411 --> 00:22:26,549
We started to come up with an idea
of, how do we evolve these characters?
346
00:22:26,616 --> 00:22:31,187
The father character and the mother character.
It would make a good movie.
347
00:22:31,287 --> 00:22:34,157
We were writing constantly,
pages and pages of scenes
348
00:22:34,224 --> 00:22:38,161
and we knew these characters,
the voices were in our head.
349
00:22:41,531 --> 00:22:46,236
(Steve Hicks) He flew back from LA
to be the best man at my wedding.
350
00:22:46,302 --> 00:22:48,705
He was always gonna be my best man
351
00:22:48,771 --> 00:22:52,442
and we were gonna be there for each other
whenever those times were.
352
00:22:52,542 --> 00:22:53,810
But he had to perform that night,
353
00:22:54,077 --> 00:22:57,614
and so after the wedding
a bunch of people went down there
354
00:22:57,714 --> 00:23:01,117
and, "Yeah, let's go see him. What the hell!
Let's go down there, you know?"
355
00:23:01,217 --> 00:23:03,119
(Lynn) I didn't know I had a funny brother.
356
00:23:03,219 --> 00:23:06,089
That was the first I was aware
357
00:23:06,155 --> 00:23:10,493
that that was what he wanted to do
as a serious profession.
358
00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:12,662
He was hilarious.
359
00:23:14,230 --> 00:23:18,201
(Dwight) The guy at William Morris said,
"We all want to meet with you."
360
00:23:18,268 --> 00:23:21,437
He was a big frickin' agent in Hollywood.
361
00:23:21,537 --> 00:23:25,275
He looked at us and he goes,
"You guys are 19?" And we go, "Yeah."
362
00:23:25,375 --> 00:23:27,510
He goes, "How did you get in my office?"
363
00:23:27,577 --> 00:23:30,146
So we kind of told him
the story of being stand-ups
364
00:23:30,246 --> 00:23:32,148
and that we're just out of high school
365
00:23:32,215 --> 00:23:34,684
and we're writing a script
about being from high school
366
00:23:34,751 --> 00:23:37,020
and that really intrigued him.
367
00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:39,656
He goes, "I want you to rewrite it.
It doesn't have much of an ending.
368
00:23:39,722 --> 00:23:42,325
"And I really want to see
another script from you guys.
369
00:23:42,425 --> 00:23:45,028
"After that, I want to talk
about representing you.
370
00:23:45,128 --> 00:23:46,796
"You guys are gonna be good screenwriters."
371
00:23:47,063 --> 00:23:50,033
And I was very excited too.
This was my first break.
372
00:23:50,099 --> 00:23:52,168
Bill was just disappointed
373
00:23:52,235 --> 00:23:55,038
because we’d put so much
into that script, obviously,
374
00:23:55,104 --> 00:23:58,241
and he would have liked to hear
that it got bought.
375
00:24:08,051 --> 00:24:15,358
And in the months that followed that,
he just lost interest in writing,
376
00:24:15,425 --> 00:24:20,263
and I could not fire him up about,
"We have a ton of ideas about scripts.
377
00:24:20,330 --> 00:24:24,267
"Let's just write another one. Let's get him
what he wants and see if we can do this."
378
00:24:24,367 --> 00:24:26,302
He just wasn't into it. He didn't want to.
379
00:24:26,402 --> 00:24:30,540
He was through being a screenwriter.
He wanted to move on into being a comic.
380
00:24:30,606 --> 00:24:33,509
-- (Clunk)
- Hello, this is Bill.
381
00:24:33,576 --> 00:24:39,649
I just needed to talk with somebody and
this tape recorder is all I've got right now.
382
00:24:39,716 --> 00:24:42,285
I haven't been funny in a long time.
383
00:24:42,385 --> 00:24:45,555
I haven't come up with new material
in a long time,
384
00:24:45,621 --> 00:24:48,324
and, I tell you what, there's nothing scarier,
385
00:24:48,424 --> 00:24:53,363
especially for me out here, forsaking college
and an easier life, coming out here.
386
00:24:53,429 --> 00:24:58,801
What happens if I am just not funny?
I have nothing. I am a bum.
387
00:24:59,068 --> 00:25:03,072
I could be five years in the Store
and no one gives a shit there.
388
00:25:03,139 --> 00:25:05,375
Fuck doing this stuff
389
00:25:06,376 --> 00:25:10,246
(James) LA wanted six minutes of clean
to do on the Tonight Show,
390
00:25:10,313 --> 00:25:14,317
and, uh...that wasn't enough for Bill,
Bill wasn't growing enough.
391
00:25:14,384 --> 00:25:17,353
The only way you could grow
was to get more stage time.
392
00:25:18,254 --> 00:25:20,757
(Dwight) Bill had...you know, was a veteran.
393
00:25:21,024 --> 00:25:25,094
For Christ's sake, he was 21 years old in 1982.
394
00:25:25,161 --> 00:25:28,998
And he had been a comic for seven years.
395
00:25:29,098 --> 00:25:34,670
Coming to LA was such a romantic
and meaningful and emotional experience
396
00:25:34,771 --> 00:25:37,206
and then leaving was like a thief in the night
397
00:25:37,273 --> 00:25:40,643
with every possession he has
streaming out of the back of his car,
398
00:25:40,710 --> 00:25:44,113
Bill in his leather jacket with his guitar
399
00:25:44,180 --> 00:25:50,019
and me going away with a knapsack to Oregon
just glad to be the hell out of there.
400
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:56,392
And knowing that we both had all the tools
we needed for the rest of our lives.
401
00:25:56,459 --> 00:26:02,999
For Bill, that period in Los Angeles was when
he solidified his identity as a stand-up comic.
402
00:26:03,099 --> 00:26:06,002
You know, it taught him how to be on his own,
to take his comedy seriously,
403
00:26:06,102 --> 00:26:08,538
that this was what he was
gonna do for the rest of his life.
404
00:26:08,638 --> 00:26:11,407
It strengthened him and wised him up.
405
00:26:11,507 --> 00:26:13,643
(James) But even when
he went to LA the first time,
406
00:26:13,743 --> 00:26:16,646
I don't think Bill had really found his voice.
407
00:26:16,746 --> 00:26:21,184
You could be liked and you could be doing
well, but that day you find your voice...
408
00:26:21,250 --> 00:26:23,986
The difference is night and day.
409
00:26:25,121 --> 00:26:28,157
(Kevin) Bill called me
and I thought he was still in LA.
410
00:26:28,257 --> 00:26:30,626
He's like, "Guess what" and I was like, "What?"
He goes, "I'm here."
411
00:26:30,693 --> 00:26:34,464
I was like, "What?" and he goes, "Yeah,
I'm here in Houston and guess what else.
412
00:26:34,530 --> 00:26:37,100
"Me and you are gonna take
psychedelic mushrooms tonight."
413
00:26:37,166 --> 00:26:39,001
I was like, "Yeah, that's funny, Bill. '
414
00:26:39,102 --> 00:26:42,638
He's like, "No, Kevin,
it's not what you think it is."
415
00:26:42,705 --> 00:26:46,676
And if there was the only person
that could talk me into doing it, it was Bill.
416
00:26:46,742 --> 00:26:50,113
And we took some mushrooms
in this vegetarian restaurant,
417
00:26:50,179 --> 00:26:52,215
and we just laughed our asses off
418
00:26:54,784 --> 00:26:59,689
only Bill would try hallucinogenics
before he tried alcohol.
419
00:26:59,755 --> 00:27:05,361
He just had a whole new appetite, you know.
"I want to try everything."
420
00:27:06,629 --> 00:27:08,231
When he came back to Texas
421
00:27:08,297 --> 00:27:12,702
realizing that the difference between where
he was and say where Richard Pryor was,
422
00:27:12,969 --> 00:27:16,339
was a way big thing,
way bigger than he'd thought,
423
00:27:16,405 --> 00:27:18,975
he knew that he was gonna
have to break moulds
424
00:27:19,041 --> 00:27:22,345
and that it wasn’t just enough
that he was the baby-faced kid.
425
00:27:22,411 --> 00:27:26,082
And I don't think he knew exactly
where it was that he had to get to,
426
00:27:26,149 --> 00:27:28,985
but he just knew that he wasn't there yet.
427
00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:35,324
(James) I think we left as kids
and came back as real seasoned comics.
428
00:27:35,391 --> 00:27:39,095
Some sort of forces were moving
people from Houston together.
429
00:27:39,162 --> 00:27:42,532
There were so many kindred spirits
and other comics
430
00:27:42,598 --> 00:27:45,268
that made Houston different
from other parts of the country.
431
00:27:45,368 --> 00:27:49,372
How many guys in here
just broke up with my girlfriend?
432
00:27:49,438 --> 00:27:53,142
(James) There were six of us at the time,
and it was founded by Steve Epstein.
433
00:27:53,242 --> 00:27:57,013
(Steve Epstein) I was more of the court jester
in a sense in that I was kind of goofy.
434
00:27:57,079 --> 00:28:02,518
I...I say, Steve Epstein
was driving a 78 rabbit!
435
00:28:02,618 --> 00:28:04,520
Ooh--orr!
436
00:28:04,620 --> 00:28:07,256
(John Farneti) He’d just flap around
like an unattended fire hose
437
00:28:07,356 --> 00:28:09,091
but he got everything going.
438
00:28:09,192 --> 00:28:11,460
(James) Andy Huggins we met in LA.
439
00:28:11,527 --> 00:28:15,631
I had a feeling Andy was more like
a Houston comic than an LA comic.
440
00:28:15,698 --> 00:28:19,735
And after Armageddon, there'll be
a small reception at the Ramada Inn.
441
00:28:20,002 --> 00:28:22,371
(Andy) Jimmy talked me
into coming back to Houston.
442
00:28:22,471 --> 00:28:25,608
He said, "You want to do stand--up?
We got more stage time for you here."
443
00:28:25,675 --> 00:28:27,243
That's all I needed to hear.
444
00:28:27,343 --> 00:28:32,515
John Farneti was a very successful lawyer,
but just a terrific performer.
445
00:28:32,582 --> 00:28:38,154
I was born in Wyoming. I lived there
until I learned how to read a road map.
446
00:28:38,254 --> 00:28:42,458
(John) I'd wanted to do it since I was six
but there was nowhere on earth to do it.
447
00:28:42,525 --> 00:28:45,261
Then suddenly
there's this place where you just walk in
448
00:28:45,361 --> 00:28:47,663
and people are lined up in the rain
to get in and see it.
449
00:28:47,763 --> 00:28:51,734
And I wanted, like everybody,
to hang around with Bill Hicks.
450
00:28:52,001 --> 00:28:54,604
Everyone knew he was
just head, shoulders, waist,
451
00:28:54,670 --> 00:28:57,206
kneecaps and ankles above everybody else.
452
00:28:57,273 --> 00:29:00,142
My problem with going to U of H,
I went there in the summer session.
453
00:29:00,243 --> 00:29:05,081
All I had in all my classes were jocks
trying to make up credit, you know?
454
00:29:05,147 --> 00:29:07,450
You know that feeling?
They weren't there to learn at all.
455
00:29:07,516 --> 00:29:11,153
I remember the first day
of my eastern philosophy course.
456
00:29:11,220 --> 00:29:15,691
The instructor walks out and goes,
"God is consciousness.
457
00:29:16,726 --> 00:29:22,698
"And we are all God
trying to realize our full potential."
458
00:29:22,965 --> 00:29:25,501
Wow.
459
00:29:25,568 --> 00:29:29,505
This guy in the back row goes,
"Yeah, we gonna need to know that?
460
00:29:31,540 --> 00:29:33,376
"Is that gonna be on the quiz?"
461
00:29:34,243 --> 00:29:39,615
♪ Hey-hey, hey--hey, it's just a sunny day...
462
00:29:39,682 --> 00:29:42,118
(Kevin) From the time he started taking
mushrooms and smoking cigarettes
463
00:29:42,218 --> 00:29:43,486
to that night he first got drunk,
464
00:29:43,552 --> 00:29:45,288
I think it was only a matter of months.
465
00:29:45,388 --> 00:29:49,325
When the Comedy Annex started hopping for
the first time, it was an exciting place to be,
466
00:29:49,392 --> 00:29:53,296
and it was the place to go every night
where there was drugs, alcohol and women.
467
00:29:53,396 --> 00:29:55,298
We were there every night.
468
00:29:55,398 --> 00:29:58,734
(Steve Epstein) Pineapple
and Huggins were hysterical drunks,
469
00:29:59,001 --> 00:30:02,538
so I think he was ready
to /earn from us in other ways.
470
00:30:02,605 --> 00:30:05,508
(Kevin) I remember he came up
to David Johndrow and I
471
00:30:05,574 --> 00:30:08,477
and he was like, "I want to try a drink.
"What's a drink people drink?"
472
00:30:08,544 --> 00:30:12,148
I said, "You want to try drinking
for the first time, order a margarita."
473
00:30:12,248 --> 00:30:14,617
Then he went up to the bar and goes,
"I'll have seven margaritas."
474
00:30:14,684 --> 00:30:19,055
And he downed seven margaritas
and went up on stage.
475
00:30:19,155 --> 00:30:20,389
(Steve Epstein) He never drunk before,
476
00:30:20,456 --> 00:30:24,226
and the bitterness came out for the first time,
it just came pouring out.
477
00:30:24,293 --> 00:30:30,433
He was literally crawling around the stage
with a full house of 200 people watching him.
478
00:30:30,533 --> 00:30:33,436
But he was still funny.
People were still laughing the whole time.
479
00:30:33,536 --> 00:30:37,773
(David) The drinking was a way
that he was able to have this breakthrough
480
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:42,778
of really going out on the edge and
not being concerned with people's reactions.
481
00:30:43,045 --> 00:30:45,247
Then all of a sudden he could really be bold
482
00:30:45,314 --> 00:30:48,351
and really say what he wanted
and not be concerned.
483
00:30:48,451 --> 00:30:51,354
-- How's your ex--girlfriend?
-- Oh, my girlfriend! Thanks, pal!
484
00:30:51,454 --> 00:30:54,824
Throw salt on the fucking wound! Thanks a lot!
485
00:30:55,091 --> 00:30:58,627
Why don't you just come up here
and throw salt on? Here's my heart. Throw salt.
486
00:30:58,728 --> 00:31:01,263
Come on. Dig it in.
487
00:31:02,398 --> 00:31:04,300
Yeah, my girlfriend left me. Five years.
488
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:07,737
I loved her more than anything
in the fucking world and she just split on me.
489
00:31:08,003 --> 00:31:11,207
Remember your first love?
Didn't that hurt? isn't it hard to get over?
490
00:31:11,273 --> 00:31:15,778
But I think it helped my career
when she left me.
491
00:31:16,045 --> 00:31:18,381
Cos I'm a driven man now.
492
00:31:18,447 --> 00:31:20,149
I was driven by a fantasy,
493
00:31:20,216 --> 00:31:24,019
that one day, this girl who I loved more than
anyone in the world and I gave my heart to,
494
00:31:24,086 --> 00:31:28,023
and she spat upon it and spun out the door,
495
00:31:28,090 --> 00:31:33,295
one day this girl's gonna be living
in a trailer park somewhere in Oklahoma.
496
00:31:34,096 --> 00:31:35,698
Swampy trailer ground
497
00:31:35,765 --> 00:31:40,169
and clouds of Aids mosquitoes
swarming around her
498
00:31:40,236 --> 00:31:42,671
and blocking out the light from the sun.
499
00:31:42,738 --> 00:31:45,641
She has like nine
naked little kids with rickets.
500
00:31:45,708 --> 00:31:49,211
They got birds in their hair
and jam on their face
501
00:31:49,311 --> 00:31:53,349
and rats laying babies in their ears at night.
502
00:31:53,449 --> 00:31:57,820
And they bring home dead animals
beside the road to eat.
503
00:31:58,087 --> 00:32:00,322
And she lives with this ex--welder
who doesn't have a job.
504
00:32:00,423 --> 00:32:02,124
He's got fur all over his back.
505
00:32:02,191 --> 00:32:04,393
He's fat like 600 pounds
506
00:32:04,493 --> 00:32:08,197
and he makes love to her
with a broom handle at night.
507
00:32:09,198 --> 00:32:14,737
And one night he's gonna be romancing her
with that stick and his heart is gonna explode
508
00:32:15,004 --> 00:32:21,043
and she's trapped under 600 pounds
of flaccid, sweaty, fish belly cellulite
509
00:32:21,143 --> 00:32:24,013
that's moving like the tides of the ocean
510
00:32:24,113 --> 00:32:28,017
and blood and phlegm and bile
pours out of his mouth
511
00:32:28,083 --> 00:32:31,787
and nose into her face, into her face,
512
00:32:32,054 --> 00:32:37,059
and just before she drowns in that vomit
she turns to the TV and I'm gonna be on it.
513
00:32:37,159 --> 00:32:39,161
Ha--ha--ha.
514
00:32:44,033 --> 00:32:48,637
(David) once Bill decided
that he would just be in his home base
515
00:32:48,704 --> 00:32:51,474
and he would just do his own comedy
the way he wanted
516
00:32:51,574 --> 00:32:55,144
and that the world would come to him,
well, it did.
517
00:32:55,211 --> 00:32:58,347
(John) He was just too good
not for fame to find him,
518
00:32:58,447 --> 00:33:02,117
no matter how many corners
it had to go around.
519
00:33:02,184 --> 00:33:05,654
(David) Jay Leno showed up at the Annex
and they all adored Jay Leno at the time,
520
00:33:05,754 --> 00:33:09,124
cos he was the professional stand-up comic.
521
00:33:09,225 --> 00:33:11,126
He was just the best.
522
00:33:11,227 --> 00:33:13,729
(James) Jay did help. Jay liked Bill's act.
523
00:33:13,996 --> 00:33:17,600
He gave Bill advice.
He made a few phone calls.
524
00:33:20,069 --> 00:33:25,174
(John) When Leno said this guy was good, I
would imagine Letterman knew totally he was.
525
00:33:25,274 --> 00:33:27,209
(Applause)
526
00:33:27,276 --> 00:33:30,145
Hello. Good evening.
527
00:33:30,246 --> 00:33:32,348
Good evening. My name is Bill Hicks.
528
00:33:32,414 --> 00:33:35,150
Thank you.
529
00:33:35,217 --> 00:33:37,686
Full name is William Melvin Hicks.
530
00:33:37,753 --> 00:33:42,024
Thanks, Dad. It's a name
with certain connotations, huh?
531
00:33:42,091 --> 00:33:46,328
(Southern accent) Hi, my name is Melvin Hicks.
This is my wife and my sister.
532
00:33:46,428 --> 00:33:48,631
Ha--ha. OK, man.
533
00:33:51,066 --> 00:33:52,635
All right.
534
00:33:52,701 --> 00:33:55,804
(Steve Hicks) He called us
every time he was gonna be on
535
00:33:56,071 --> 00:33:58,507
and I used to always tell him,
"Bill, it's just not you, "
536
00:33:58,574 --> 00:34:04,313
but, you know, that first time, the impact
and nirvana of being on national TV,
537
00:34:04,380 --> 00:34:08,017
I mean, we felt that too, watching him,
and I was like, "Man, that was great."
538
00:34:08,117 --> 00:34:10,452
Christmas rolled around,
my friends got go--carts.
539
00:34:10,519 --> 00:34:14,356
I'm 12 years old, I got a college dictionary.
540
00:34:14,423 --> 00:34:16,458
Mom goes, "Bill, it's the thought that counts!"
541
00:34:16,525 --> 00:34:20,362
(Chuckles) Oh, Mom,
but what were you thinking? Seriously.
542
00:34:20,429 --> 00:34:22,431
Yeah, well...
543
00:34:23,432 --> 00:34:25,568
Laughter has become big business in Houston.
544
00:34:25,668 --> 00:34:29,138
(David) Now you've been on television,
it's like a stamp of approval.
545
00:34:29,204 --> 00:34:33,409
So if you were on the David Letterman Show,
it was like, "Yeah."
546
00:34:46,522 --> 00:34:49,391
(Mary) He did not want
Jim and me to see him.
547
00:34:49,458 --> 00:34:52,161
I guess he thought we wouldn't understand.
548
00:34:52,227 --> 00:34:55,164
But we did sneak into that one in Austin.
549
00:34:55,264 --> 00:34:57,766
Steve thought we were in shock
when we saw Bill perform.
550
00:34:58,033 --> 00:35:00,402
(Steve) I know you were in shock...
(Mary) Uh--uh.
551
00:35:00,469 --> 00:35:04,440
...cos he did not know they were
in the audience so it was the entire show.
552
00:35:04,506 --> 00:35:10,112
(Mary) I was not shocked, I was in awe,
to tell you the truth, I could not believe...
553
00:35:10,212 --> 00:35:13,248
- How the years have changed your memory.
- (Mary laughs)
554
00:35:13,315 --> 00:35:17,419
(Mary) I couldn't believe that he was up there
and he had such poise.
555
00:35:17,519 --> 00:35:22,157
I think Bill was the one in shock.
But all he said was, "Well, that's what I do."
556
00:35:22,257 --> 00:35:24,994
And I said, "Well, that was very good."
557
00:35:26,428 --> 00:35:30,432
(David) And then the odd thing about it is
he didn't really temper his material for them.
558
00:35:30,532 --> 00:35:32,001
Not like I would have.
559
00:35:32,101 --> 00:35:35,037
And I think they kind of treated it like,
"Well, that's his world.
560
00:35:35,137 --> 00:35:38,574
"We don't understand it,
but that's what he does."
561
00:35:41,176 --> 00:35:43,779
He was open for anything, really.
562
00:35:44,046 --> 00:35:46,515
Yeah, I have had a good job.
I've had a good job.
563
00:35:46,582 --> 00:35:49,518
I'm not complaining
about every fucking job I had.
564
00:35:49,585 --> 00:35:54,156
I used to work at a lady's shoe store. I liked
that. I got to see this all day long, man.
565
00:35:54,223 --> 00:35:57,393
It was great. Women came in,
they'd wear dresses to try on these shoes.
566
00:35:57,459 --> 00:35:59,695
I'm the guy
that helped them on with their shoes.
567
00:35:59,762 --> 00:36:03,065
I don't know if you ladies do that on purpose,
but keep it up, will you?
568
00:36:03,132 --> 00:36:06,135
They're sitting there going, "Oh..."
569
00:36:11,006 --> 00:36:12,441
"How does it look?"
570
00:36:12,508 --> 00:36:16,078
Oh, God.
571
00:36:18,981 --> 00:36:20,716
It looks great.
572
00:36:20,983 --> 00:36:23,986
Yeah, it's you. It's definitely you.
573
00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:27,156
"Mm.
574
00:36:27,256 --> 00:36:29,525
"It's kind of tight."
575
00:36:29,591 --> 00:36:31,760
Oh, no.
576
00:36:36,331 --> 00:36:39,101
"I can stretch it out for you."
577
00:36:42,705 --> 00:36:46,308
So after I got fired from that job...
578
00:36:46,408 --> 00:36:48,410
No one said it'd be pretty!
579
00:36:49,545 --> 00:36:54,216
(Kevin) Bill was always an all-or-nothing guy.
There was no halfway for Bill.
580
00:36:54,283 --> 00:36:56,485
And wanting to experiment with mushrooms
581
00:36:56,552 --> 00:37:01,724
was to him a way of trying to, like,
further his evolution as a person.
582
00:37:01,990 --> 00:37:04,693
Just hearing about something
was not good enough.
583
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:09,098
Bill always wanted revelation to be first-hand.
584
00:37:12,034 --> 00:37:13,435
Our family got this ranch,
585
00:37:13,502 --> 00:37:18,640
and it ended up being a place where
we could come and get away from everybody.
586
00:37:18,741 --> 00:37:21,577
A lot of our friends were like,
"You guys are just trying to get fucked up, "
587
00:37:21,643 --> 00:37:26,248
so Bill was like, "No, we really are
trying to get somewhere else with this."
588
00:37:26,348 --> 00:37:30,319
(David) So we would go out
and fast a little bit and prepare
589
00:37:30,385 --> 00:37:33,155
and then have this experience
and see what happened.
590
00:37:33,255 --> 00:37:36,325
Well, some really amazing things happened.
591
00:37:38,127 --> 00:37:41,563
The world is one magical motherfucker,
592
00:37:41,663 --> 00:37:45,567
and if you take a certain amount
of mushrooms, you're in a magical world.
593
00:38:07,322 --> 00:38:11,326
A lot of people have this thought
when they take these,
594
00:38:11,393 --> 00:38:14,429
"Does anybody know about this?"
595
00:38:14,496 --> 00:38:16,365
Because it's like a secret.
596
00:38:16,465 --> 00:38:20,636
It's like this fundamental thing
about the human brain,
597
00:38:20,736 --> 00:38:24,306
but no one knows about it
and no one talks about it.
598
00:38:32,147 --> 00:38:36,451
There was one time in particular,
the harmonic convergence.
599
00:38:36,518 --> 00:38:40,756
(Kevin) It was basically this time
when all the planets were to align
600
00:38:41,023 --> 00:38:44,493
in some alignment that only happens
once every Io,000 years.
601
00:38:47,429 --> 00:38:49,665
I remember walking down this tunnel of light
602
00:38:49,731 --> 00:38:53,001
and feeling like Bill and I
were walking into a spaceship.
603
00:38:53,068 --> 00:38:56,138
Bill was just asking,
"Who are you and why are you here?"
604
00:38:56,238 --> 00:38:57,506
And basically being told
605
00:38:58,407 --> 00:39:01,109
that the boundaries
of space and time were all in our minds
606
00:39:01,210 --> 00:39:04,079
and that we all are one, and everything is one.
607
00:39:04,179 --> 00:39:08,483
We all are one, everything is one.
We all are one, everything is one.
608
00:39:08,550 --> 00:39:12,621
I remember Bill just looking at me like, "oh,
my God. Can you believe that just happened?"
609
00:39:12,721 --> 00:39:16,225
And at first I was like going, you know,
"That was just something I thought of",
610
00:39:16,291 --> 00:39:19,094
and then Bill explained
everything that I had just seen
611
00:39:19,194 --> 00:39:22,097
and then the day went even further than that
612
00:39:22,197 --> 00:39:24,967
where it was like tapping
into these other minds,
613
00:39:25,067 --> 00:39:27,102
like, thousands of them all at once.
614
00:39:27,202 --> 00:39:30,739
And I'm really skeptical.
I was ready to say, "OK, we're on drugs."
615
00:39:31,006 --> 00:39:34,109
But something about what happened
on this day was different.
616
00:39:34,209 --> 00:39:36,979
It was significant and very tangible.
617
00:39:37,045 --> 00:39:39,114
We all are one, everything is one.
618
00:39:39,214 --> 00:39:41,450
(David) You know,
this was accepted by human beings
619
00:39:41,516 --> 00:39:44,653
that you take substances
to change your consciousness,
620
00:39:44,753 --> 00:39:47,656
from the beginning of human history.
621
00:39:47,723 --> 00:39:50,759
(Kevin) After that day,
I think he really was like 100% sure
622
00:39:51,026 --> 00:39:54,196
that something did exist on the other side
623
00:39:54,263 --> 00:39:57,399
and it helped him go out there
and become a lot more fearless,
624
00:39:57,499 --> 00:40:03,272
and a part of his art was being able to
broadcast cutting edge ideas to the public.
625
00:40:03,338 --> 00:40:06,174
(Bill) We came here for the truth, right?
626
00:40:06,275 --> 00:40:10,579
That's all I want out of life, is the truth.
Is that too much to ask for?
627
00:40:10,679 --> 00:40:13,649
You ever see a positive story
about drugs on the news?
628
00:40:13,715 --> 00:40:15,484
Ever? Me either.
629
00:40:15,550 --> 00:40:19,254
Isn't that weird?
The news is supposed to be objective.
630
00:40:20,255 --> 00:40:22,791
Same LSD story every time. We've all heard it.
631
00:40:23,058 --> 00:40:28,363
Young man takes acid, thinks he can fly,
jumps out of a building. What a tragedy.
632
00:40:28,430 --> 00:40:31,533
What a dick, really, when you think about it.
633
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:36,271
If he thought he could fly, why didn't he take
off from the ground and check it out first?
634
00:40:38,540 --> 00:40:43,111
Why give acid a bad name
cos you're a moron, you know?
635
00:40:46,782 --> 00:40:51,053
I'd like to see a positive LSD story.
Would that be newsworthy, just once?
636
00:40:51,153 --> 00:40:52,721
Today a young man on acid realized
637
00:40:52,821 --> 00:40:56,558
that all matter is merely energy
condensed to a slower vibration,
638
00:40:56,625 --> 00:41:00,529
that we are all one consciousness
going through itself, subjectively,
639
00:41:00,595 --> 00:41:03,265
there's no such thing as death,
life is only a dream,
640
00:41:03,365 --> 00:41:05,267
and you're the imagination of yourselves.
641
00:41:05,367 --> 00:41:07,436
Here's Tom with the weather.
642
00:41:11,540 --> 00:41:13,375
Wow.
643
00:41:13,442 --> 00:41:15,610
(Kevin) All the drinking and drugging too,
644
00:41:15,677 --> 00:41:20,182
some of the club owners were concerned
about how erratic the shows would be.
645
00:41:20,282 --> 00:41:24,052
Alcohol with Bill was definitely
like throwing gasoline onto a fire.
646
00:41:24,152 --> 00:41:27,322
You know, it was kind of a tightrope, cos
you never knew what was gonna happen,
647
00:41:27,422 --> 00:41:30,459
and usually, if there was
a lot of drinks being pounded down,
648
00:41:30,559 --> 00:41:32,327
it was gonna go bad.
649
00:41:32,427 --> 00:41:34,529
I mean he was always like an angry kid
650
00:41:34,596 --> 00:41:38,200
but when he drank the alcohol
he was letting everybody have it.
651
00:41:38,300 --> 00:41:42,170
And so we were like,
"ooh, this is a new kind of comedy."
652
00:41:42,237 --> 00:41:45,073
♪ Shout...
653
00:41:47,442 --> 00:41:50,178
(Andy) Bill was what we used to call
a short ball. He got drunk real quick.
654
00:41:50,278 --> 00:41:51,546
What happened?
655
00:41:51,613 --> 00:41:55,417
(Kevin) The main thing that I always
remember was him getting on stage
656
00:41:55,484 --> 00:41:58,220
and people in the audience
sending him up drinks.
657
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:02,591
Fuck it, I'll drink red wine if no one's
gonna offer me anything real. Fuck you.
658
00:42:02,657 --> 00:42:05,727
And people said I couldn't improvise.
659
00:42:05,994 --> 00:42:09,731
(David) He could drink a lot because
he had all the adrenaline of the show
660
00:42:09,998 --> 00:42:13,668
and he said, "I'm a bull,
I can't be brought down."
661
00:42:13,735 --> 00:42:17,572
Conflict.
662
00:42:17,672 --> 00:42:20,375
(Kevin) Coke dealers
would be giving Bill free coke.
663
00:42:20,442 --> 00:42:21,476
Can I get a shock of Jack up here?
664
00:42:21,543 --> 00:42:25,180
(Kevin) How much can we get Bill
to take on stage? Let's all watch.
665
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:27,549
It was just like a red flag for club owners.
666
00:42:27,616 --> 00:42:29,684
He was like suddenly
not on Letterman any more.
667
00:42:29,751 --> 00:42:32,154
He started losing bookings.
668
00:42:32,254 --> 00:42:36,058
Just be careful going home tonight,
cos I'm driving right along with you fuckers.
669
00:42:36,158 --> 00:42:39,594
(Lynn) I got there in the middle of the set
and nobody was laughing, really.
670
00:42:39,694 --> 00:42:43,165
(Steve) But he was laying down on his back
671
00:42:43,265 --> 00:42:46,134
- screaming into the microphone.
- (Lynn) it was awful.
672
00:42:46,201 --> 00:42:50,305
(Steve) it was terrible. it wasn't a show any
more. it was a drunk on stage is what it was.
673
00:42:50,372 --> 00:42:54,443
I'd taken a friend from work. "You're gonna
love him. He's my brother. He's hilarious."
674
00:42:54,543 --> 00:42:58,580
(Lynn) You know, to have a room clear,
I felt bad for him.
675
00:42:58,647 --> 00:43:01,383
(Steve) He called me the next day
and said, "Well, they fired me too.
676
00:43:01,483 --> 00:43:04,086
"Seems to be the thing. Everybody fires me."
677
00:43:04,152 --> 00:43:06,755
I'd go, "Yeah, it wasn't funny."
678
00:43:09,124 --> 00:43:12,994
(Steve) Bill didn't bring these problems
into the family.
679
00:43:13,095 --> 00:43:17,132
Just the fact that now he drank
and now he smoked, well, so did I,
680
00:43:17,232 --> 00:43:19,134
so how big of a deal was that?
681
00:43:19,201 --> 00:43:22,204
(Mary) You know, I don't know
what I would have said, had I said anything.
682
00:43:22,270 --> 00:43:24,573
Maybe I should have, but I didn't.
683
00:43:24,673 --> 00:43:28,677
But I knew there was something in there
during that time.
684
00:43:28,743 --> 00:43:31,012
You can see it in his eyes.
685
00:43:31,079 --> 00:43:34,449
(Steve) That was after he got in that fight
and he broke his leg
686
00:43:34,549 --> 00:43:37,786
and he was performing
and leaning on crutches.
687
00:43:38,053 --> 00:43:42,557
I'd like this man to leave the room. if I could
have that, please. Thank you very much, sir.
688
00:43:42,624 --> 00:43:46,294
Yeah, why don't you pull out the fact that
you're a mobile biped right in front of me?
689
00:43:46,361 --> 00:43:49,598
Why don't you do a fucking cartwheel
into your stall, sir?
690
00:43:49,698 --> 00:43:53,235
Thank you, I'd like to do
my impression of Ironside now.
691
00:43:53,301 --> 00:43:55,403
Next week we have Helen Keller...
692
00:43:55,470 --> 00:43:58,640
No. I'm delirious. I'm delirious.
693
00:43:58,707 --> 00:44:00,709
It's the heroin.
694
00:44:03,512 --> 00:44:05,347
Seriously.
695
00:44:05,413 --> 00:44:07,382
Aah!
696
00:44:09,651 --> 00:44:11,586
Good evening.
697
00:44:11,653 --> 00:44:16,124
Don't worry, there is no pain.
I just didn't want to spill my beer.
698
00:44:16,191 --> 00:44:19,161
There are priorities even in the world of pain.
699
00:44:19,261 --> 00:44:21,663
(David) I wish that we had been
more worried about him, maybe.
700
00:44:21,730 --> 00:44:25,333
But there was kind of a code that we had,
Kevin and Bill and I,
701
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:28,136
which was, "You were gonna do
what you were gonna do
702
00:44:28,203 --> 00:44:31,273
"and I'm there for you
but I'm not gonna stop you."
703
00:44:31,373 --> 00:44:34,609
But it was kind of coo/
because it was like we had faith in each other.
704
00:44:34,676 --> 00:44:37,646
We tended to trust
that he knew what he was doing.
705
00:44:37,712 --> 00:44:41,349
(Ranting) I got beaten up by a guy in a kilt!
Are you happy? You wanna see blood?
706
00:44:41,416 --> 00:44:42,684
(Andy) it suffered.
707
00:44:42,784 --> 00:44:47,022
There were club owners that were willing to
forgive and forget, cos he was that good,
708
00:44:47,088 --> 00:44:51,126
and there were other club owners
that...you know, it wasn't worth it.
709
00:44:51,193 --> 00:44:53,094
It wasn't worth it.
710
00:44:54,095 --> 00:44:58,166
(Dwight) When I saw him at my wedding,
he was clearly enmeshed in substance abuse.
711
00:44:58,233 --> 00:45:01,369
You know, and he'd obviously been up
all night and he looked beaten.
712
00:45:01,469 --> 00:45:04,539
My wife-to-be, and she'd never met Bill,
she didn't know anything about him,
713
00:45:04,639 --> 00:45:09,611
thought he was wild, funny but wild,
could not be contained.
714
00:45:09,678 --> 00:45:12,314
(Andy) There were half a dozen of us
that were in a bad shape that way,
715
00:45:12,380 --> 00:45:17,118
and we were drinking suicidally,
basically, that's where it was headed.
716
00:45:17,219 --> 00:45:20,589
(Steve) We were sitting up,
me and Bill, and he just started crying,
717
00:45:20,655 --> 00:45:26,361
and he broke down and he said, "Man,
I've got a problem. My life is out of control."
718
00:45:26,428 --> 00:45:30,098
My big answer was,
"Well, just stop, then, Bill. Stop doing that."
719
00:45:30,165 --> 00:45:32,033
And he straightened back up real quick
720
00:45:32,133 --> 00:45:35,437
but it was the one thing
I always thought I let Bill down about.
721
00:45:35,537 --> 00:45:39,774
And it was just from ignorance. I didn't know
how to handle it, didn't know what to do.
722
00:45:40,041 --> 00:45:43,745
(Kevin) And when a Bill Hicks show became
more about, "How drunk can we get Bill"
723
00:45:44,012 --> 00:45:47,282
instead of, "Let's see how far
Bill can take us with his ideas, "
724
00:45:47,349 --> 00:45:49,584
that's when the party was over.
725
00:45:49,684 --> 00:45:52,654
You know, realizing,
"What the fuck am I doing?
726
00:45:52,721 --> 00:45:56,024
"These people are not my friends, you know?
These people are trying to kill me."
727
00:45:56,124 --> 00:46:01,029
Led him down the path of knowing, "If I don't
make a drastic change, I'm gonna die."
728
00:46:05,500 --> 00:46:07,636
(Andy) That was a moment of clarity for Bill.
729
00:46:07,736 --> 00:46:11,539
(James) That could have been
the wake-up call. I guess he just woke up.
730
00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:16,111
He realized what he was working for
and this was in the way of it.
731
00:46:20,482 --> 00:46:24,719
(Andy) Bill quit drinking in February of '88,
I quit in April,
732
00:46:24,986 --> 00:46:28,256
and we started going to meetings together
in downtown Houston.
733
00:46:28,323 --> 00:46:32,127
(James) Being the stupid alcoholic I am,
I'm going, "Good, good for him,
734
00:46:32,193 --> 00:46:35,297
"he should go in there not thinking
about what a fuck-up I was.
735
00:46:35,397 --> 00:46:38,633
"You need to get sober and get clean.
Good job."
736
00:46:38,700 --> 00:46:42,671
(David) Bill knew there was no way he was
gonna be able to sustain any kind of sobriety
737
00:46:42,771 --> 00:46:47,008
surrounded by all these Houston comics.
738
00:46:47,108 --> 00:46:50,278
(James) He told me,
you have to get rid of the people,
739
00:46:50,345 --> 00:46:55,283
that you can't be around the same
environment and expect to survive.
740
00:46:55,350 --> 00:46:57,352
(Kevin) Bill realized that he had to jump ship
741
00:46:57,419 --> 00:47:02,624
and as crazy as it sounds, moving to a big
city by yourself is the way to get sober,
742
00:47:02,724 --> 00:47:06,027
and, um...Bill just disappeared to New York.
743
00:47:15,103 --> 00:47:19,140
When you're dealing with drugs
and alcohol, willpower, it's the opposite,
744
00:47:19,240 --> 00:47:23,244
it's when you admit that you don't have,
you're powerless.
745
00:47:25,413 --> 00:47:29,184
(Steve Hicks) I don't think there was ever
a question that he was not gonna continue
746
00:47:29,250 --> 00:47:32,454
even though the struggles
must have been mighty.
747
00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:36,091
He was tapped on the shoulder
and this was what he was going to do
748
00:47:36,157 --> 00:47:39,194
and it doesn't mean
it's gonna be handed to you
749
00:47:39,260 --> 00:47:44,132
and I'm sure that it had to have
been unbelievably challenging.
750
00:47:44,232 --> 00:47:46,735
(James) He told me that it was six months
751
00:47:47,001 --> 00:47:49,571
before he could start being funny again.
752
00:47:50,572 --> 00:47:54,309
(Steve) That's when he went from being
just an above--average comedian
753
00:47:54,409 --> 00:47:57,078
to being something spectacular.
754
00:48:06,388 --> 00:48:07,389
(Applause)
755
00:48:07,489 --> 00:48:10,625
- Let me hear you say yo!
-- (Audience members) Yo!
756
00:48:10,725 --> 00:48:13,628
-- Say it! Yo!
- Yo!
757
00:48:13,695 --> 00:48:16,297
-- Well, all right.
-- All right.
758
00:48:16,364 --> 00:48:20,335
That's it, end of your part. Thank you.
Hope you don't mind if I smoke.
759
00:48:20,402 --> 00:48:23,405
I know it's getting harder
to find a place to smoke these days.
760
00:48:23,505 --> 00:48:27,475
I feel like I'm in high school
with the bathroom window cracked again.
761
00:48:27,542 --> 00:48:30,545
I don't do drugs. I don't think
they tell us the truth about drugs, though.
762
00:48:30,645 --> 00:48:35,483
They tell you marijuana smoking
makes you unmotivated. That's bullshit.
763
00:48:35,550 --> 00:48:38,486
When I was high, I could do everything
I normally could do just as well.
764
00:48:38,553 --> 00:48:42,757
I just realized it wasn't worth
the fucking effort, man, that was it.
765
00:48:43,024 --> 00:48:47,262
Why get out of bed? I'm just gonna get stuck
in traffic and go to a job I hate. Fuck it.
766
00:48:47,362 --> 00:48:50,165
Stay in bed and watch cartoons.
767
00:48:50,999 --> 00:48:53,635
(John) By the time he came back
in /ate '88 for a show,
768
00:48:53,701 --> 00:48:56,538
he almost didn't talk to me or Jimmy,
who was with him on the bill that night.
769
00:48:56,604 --> 00:49:01,342
He was staying away from me, "You guys
drink, you get loaded. I can't be near that, "
770
00:49:01,443 --> 00:49:03,578
which we didn't understand or appreciate.
771
00:49:03,645 --> 00:49:05,613
Here he is, Bill Hicks!
772
00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:07,982
(Cheering and applause)
773
00:49:13,221 --> 00:49:15,256
Cut!
774
00:49:15,356 --> 00:49:17,559
How about a hand
for Jimmy the odious Pineapple,
775
00:49:17,625 --> 00:49:19,527
-- and John...
-- (Cheering and applause)
776
00:49:19,627 --> 00:49:23,965
...John, his whimsical show, Farneti.
777
00:49:24,065 --> 00:49:25,967
(Woman) Yes!
778
00:49:26,067 --> 00:49:29,571
Give them some love, guys.
Damn, give them some love.
779
00:49:29,637 --> 00:49:33,107
Can I get a coke before I get one of my...?
780
00:49:33,208 --> 00:49:35,143
I started out in this club ten years ago.
781
00:49:35,243 --> 00:49:38,580
(Laughs) Pretty bold of me to admit that.
782
00:49:38,646 --> 00:49:41,115
I want you to know
I started out when I was 15 years old.
783
00:49:41,216 --> 00:49:44,285
It's kind of weird doing comedy when you're 15
and want to impress strangers.
784
00:49:44,385 --> 00:49:46,287
I don't know these people.
It's scary, you know?
785
00:49:46,387 --> 00:49:49,657
You don't know if you're funny.
You don't know, you know, what you're doing.
786
00:49:49,757 --> 00:49:54,295
All the other comics were helpful. If I had a
bad show they'd buy me a drink or something.
787
00:49:54,395 --> 00:49:57,265
If I had a good show,
we'd celebrate and get a drink.
788
00:49:57,332 --> 00:49:59,033
Pretty soon,
I was trying to get a little better.
789
00:49:59,133 --> 00:50:02,570
People I didn't even know
would buy me a drink after the show.
790
00:50:02,670 --> 00:50:06,741
Women would come up to me, you know,
buy me drinks or offer me coke
791
00:50:07,008 --> 00:50:09,210
and I started doing coke
and drinking every night
792
00:50:09,277 --> 00:50:13,748
and women I don't even know
getting me coke and booze and...
793
00:50:14,015 --> 00:50:17,752
Phew. I just want to tell you
what my life's been like for ten years.
794
00:50:20,021 --> 00:50:22,290
How's y'all's jobs?
795
00:50:22,357 --> 00:50:25,360
(James) I said, "Bill, gosh,
you're not doing your mom any more.
796
00:50:25,426 --> 00:50:28,329
"That's so funny. "
He goes, "Yes, but I've done that."
797
00:50:28,429 --> 00:50:33,034
"Yeah, but it's funny. "I was still in the
thing where, "This is what he's all about."
798
00:50:33,134 --> 00:50:35,770
But he was in this thing,
"I have other things I want to say."
799
00:50:36,037 --> 00:50:39,674
John Kennedy is murdered. Martin Luther King
is murdered. Jesus Christ is murdered.
800
00:50:39,741 --> 00:50:45,046
Reagan's shot, wounded, cancer eight times.
That fucker still walks, doesn't he?
801
00:50:45,113 --> 00:50:47,148
(Growls)
802
00:50:47,215 --> 00:50:49,050
(Kevin) When Bill first came back
803
00:50:49,117 --> 00:50:52,253
and announced to me that he really
was sober several months later,
804
00:50:52,320 --> 00:50:53,621
I didn't believe him at first,
805
00:50:53,721 --> 00:50:57,091
and I watched him do a set at the LaffStop
806
00:50:57,191 --> 00:50:59,360
and all of a sudden it was like,
"oh, my God. "Bill was back.
807
00:50:59,460 --> 00:51:03,131
The fundamentalists, they try to get
creationism taught in schools as a science.
808
00:51:03,197 --> 00:51:04,999
Now what exactly would that be?
809
00:51:05,066 --> 00:51:08,603
"We're gonna be preaching this science,
on the sixth day God created the world.
810
00:51:08,670 --> 00:51:14,008
"On the seventh day he rested, and...
Well, shit, class dismissed, you got it!"
811
00:51:14,075 --> 00:51:16,744
(Kevin) it was like he had rehatched
out of a cocoon or something like that.
812
00:51:17,011 --> 00:51:18,346
He had the same stamina
813
00:51:18,413 --> 00:51:21,683
that he had as the young boy
that could run the 220s on the track team,
814
00:51:21,783 --> 00:51:23,618
and smoke everybody.
815
00:51:23,685 --> 00:51:27,555
You know, and I said, "Now is the time
we have to make a video recording
816
00:51:27,622 --> 00:51:29,557
of a feature-length set,
817
00:51:29,624 --> 00:51:31,726
and that's when we did Sane Men.
818
00:51:33,728 --> 00:51:36,064
I remember coming in
to do the show that day
819
00:51:36,164 --> 00:51:40,702
and I was just so scared that he was gonna
break his sobriety before he went on stage.
820
00:51:40,768 --> 00:51:45,406
And Jimmy Pineapple,
who opened the show, had also gone sober.
821
00:51:45,473 --> 00:51:50,478
Backstage, Jimmy said, "Screw it, I'm gonna
down some whiskeys before I go on stage."
822
00:51:50,578 --> 00:51:54,215
(James) I hadn't been sober that long.
I go, "I could try it again later."
823
00:51:54,315 --> 00:51:56,818
But for this show, these audiences,
824
00:51:57,085 --> 00:51:59,387
working with Bill,
I wanted to knock it out of the ball park
825
00:51:59,454 --> 00:52:03,691
and I wasn't gonna fuck around
with the jitters about being sober.
826
00:52:04,659 --> 00:52:10,198
I know some of you people are looking up here
and saying, "Hey, man, this guy is it."
827
00:52:15,370 --> 00:52:17,405
Well, you're right.
828
00:52:18,406 --> 00:52:20,675
I am it. I've always been it.
829
00:52:20,742 --> 00:52:23,678
Even when I was a kid, I was it.
830
00:52:23,778 --> 00:52:26,414
When we played tag...
831
00:52:29,083 --> 00:52:31,619
...some kid would hit me
and say, "Hey, you're it",
832
00:52:31,686 --> 00:52:35,156
and I'd say, "You're goddamn right, buddy."
833
00:52:36,190 --> 00:52:39,794
(Kevin) And here I am really praying
that Bill's not gonna do the same thing
834
00:52:40,061 --> 00:52:41,796
and I went back into Bill's green room
835
00:52:42,063 --> 00:52:45,633
and Bill was still just drinking water
and pacing around and smoking.
836
00:52:45,700 --> 00:52:49,404
(David) We were already making films
for Axis Television
837
00:52:49,470 --> 00:52:54,308
and I was backstage and Kevin had said,
"Wait till you see his new stuff "
838
00:52:54,409 --> 00:52:59,814
This was like the sober Bill, and I guess
he'd been on the road working new material.
839
00:53:00,081 --> 00:53:03,284
How about a nice round of applause
for Mr. Bill Hicks?
840
00:53:03,384 --> 00:53:05,286
(Applause)
841
00:53:05,386 --> 00:53:07,188
Yeah, it's good to be here.
842
00:53:07,255 --> 00:53:09,257
I haven't been here in two years.
843
00:53:10,658 --> 00:53:12,760
Thanks.
844
00:53:13,027 --> 00:53:15,530
That warmth I've missed in Austin.
845
00:53:15,596 --> 00:53:17,598
"So? We been here.
846
00:53:18,166 --> 00:53:20,034
"It's not our fault you got to travel around.
847
00:53:20,134 --> 00:53:23,337
"Shit. We supposed to follow you around?
You supposed to be back here.
848
00:53:23,404 --> 00:53:26,107
"What are you doing? Where are you?"
849
00:53:26,174 --> 00:53:29,544
Where have I been?
I've been on my flying saucer tour.
850
00:53:29,610 --> 00:53:31,479
Which means like flying saucers,
851
00:53:31,546 --> 00:53:33,614
like two have been appearing
in small southern towns
852
00:53:33,681 --> 00:53:36,384
in front of a handful of hillbillies lately.
853
00:53:37,418 --> 00:53:40,154
No one doubts my existence.
854
00:53:41,355 --> 00:53:45,460
I've noticed a certain anti--intellectualism
going around this country, man.
855
00:53:45,560 --> 00:53:48,696
I was in Nashville, Tennessee, last week,
and after the show I went to a waffle house.
856
00:53:48,763 --> 00:53:51,666
I'm sitting there and I'm eating
and I'm reading a book. I don't know anybody.
857
00:53:51,733 --> 00:53:54,168
I'm eating and I'm reading a book.
858
00:53:54,268 --> 00:53:57,038
And this waitress comes over to me.
"Tut--tut--tut!
859
00:53:57,105 --> 00:53:59,307
"What are you reading for?"
860
00:54:01,309 --> 00:54:04,078
I went, "Wow, I've never been asked that."
861
00:54:04,145 --> 00:54:07,715
Not what am I reading,
but what am I reading for?
862
00:54:07,982 --> 00:54:10,418
Well, God damn it, you stumped me.
863
00:54:15,389 --> 00:54:16,724
I read for a lot of reasons
864
00:54:16,991 --> 00:54:21,496
but the main one is so I don't end up
being a fucking waffle waitress.
865
00:54:21,562 --> 00:54:26,634
Am I stepping out of some intellectual closet
here? I read. There, I said it.
866
00:54:26,701 --> 00:54:28,169
I feel better.
867
00:54:28,269 --> 00:54:32,473
(David) Suddenly he’s just commanding
the audience. There's no breaks.
868
00:54:32,540 --> 00:54:34,509
It's just perfectly choreographed.
869
00:54:34,575 --> 00:54:37,145
I don't do drugs.
I want to thank management for offering.
870
00:54:37,245 --> 00:54:40,414
(Clears throat) But I said no.
871
00:54:40,515 --> 00:54:44,318
When I say no, it means how much
and can I get some more? No.
872
00:54:44,418 --> 00:54:47,522
It means...seriously,
it means no...is the bar open?
873
00:54:47,588 --> 00:54:49,490
OK, no, it means...
874
00:54:49,557 --> 00:54:51,492
Let's see.
875
00:54:51,559 --> 00:54:54,128
No, I used to do drugs.
I had no luck with drugs, man.
876
00:54:54,195 --> 00:54:56,197
Got pulled over tripping once.
877
00:54:56,297 --> 00:54:59,066
Whoo! There's a dream come true.
878
00:54:59,167 --> 00:55:01,736
I'll match that to any drunk story you got.
879
00:55:03,404 --> 00:55:05,506
Pulled over tripping. Jesus!
880
00:55:05,573 --> 00:55:10,978
The cop was tapping on this window.
We're staring at him in this mirror over here.
881
00:55:14,715 --> 00:55:17,151
"How tall are you?"
882
00:55:25,126 --> 00:55:28,229
Ooh--ooh!
883
00:55:29,363 --> 00:55:31,399
Shit.
884
00:55:31,499 --> 00:55:33,534
Ambush.
885
00:55:33,601 --> 00:55:36,304
Big one and a little one.
886
00:55:36,404 --> 00:55:38,506
Twins?
887
00:55:39,674 --> 00:55:42,143
Oh, shit.
888
00:55:42,243 --> 00:55:44,212
Be cool.
889
00:55:46,347 --> 00:55:48,683
(David) I think he had to work
to get to that point.
890
00:55:48,749 --> 00:55:52,019
He had to go through some dark shows
and break some furniture
891
00:55:52,119 --> 00:55:55,022
but after going through that
I think he knew where his limits were
892
00:55:55,089 --> 00:55:59,427
and, uh...how much the audience could take
and how far he could push 'em.
893
00:55:59,527 --> 00:56:02,964
Our emotions are running wild
and our mind has stopped, man.
894
00:56:03,030 --> 00:56:07,969
The flag--burning thing. Oh, God, did that
bring up some fucking retarded emotions!
895
00:56:08,069 --> 00:56:11,639
The flag! The flag! They can't mean the flag!
896
00:56:12,974 --> 00:56:15,610
They didn't say that,
they said, "if the guy burns the flag,
897
00:56:15,676 --> 00:56:19,347
"he perhaps doesn't need to go to jail
for a fucking year."
898
00:56:19,413 --> 00:56:22,183
Pretty harsh on their part, isn't it?
899
00:56:22,250 --> 00:56:26,654
People are going, "Hey, buddy,
let me tell you something.
900
00:56:29,724 --> 00:56:33,227
"My daddy died for that flag."
901
00:56:34,495 --> 00:56:37,331
"Really? I bought mine.
902
00:56:39,400 --> 00:56:42,370
"You know they sell them at Kmart and shit?
Three bucks."
903
00:56:42,436 --> 00:56:44,472
"He died in the Korean War for that flag."
904
00:56:44,538 --> 00:56:47,208
"What a coincidence.
Mine was made in Korea.
905
00:56:50,144 --> 00:56:53,014
"He didn't die for a fucking flag.
It's a piece of cloth.
906
00:56:53,080 --> 00:56:58,185
"He died for what the flag represents,
which is the freedom to burn the fucking flag."
907
00:56:58,552 --> 00:57:05,426
And as my friend Jimmy Pineapple would say,
case fucking closed.
908
00:57:05,493 --> 00:57:08,963
(Kevin) We filmed two sets that night.
His parents were there for the first set.
909
00:57:09,063 --> 00:57:12,967
And now that he had gone sober,
I think they were just more proud of him
910
00:57:13,034 --> 00:57:16,504
and I don't think Bill
was really censoring himself that much.
911
00:57:16,570 --> 00:57:18,272
He'd kind of gone beyond that.
912
00:57:18,372 --> 00:57:22,576
(Mary) Bill's demeanor was different.
His eyes were brighter.
913
00:57:22,643 --> 00:57:26,414
My thought was,
"Thank goodness that that's behind us."
914
00:57:26,514 --> 00:57:31,552
I never said anything like that to Bill.
I just accepted him like he was.
915
00:57:32,653 --> 00:57:34,522
(Birdsong)
916
00:57:35,756 --> 00:57:39,126
-- Watch this, Uncle Bill!
- Wow.
917
00:57:39,193 --> 00:57:43,130
(Steve) We did have this place south of Austin
called Wimberley,
918
00:57:43,230 --> 00:57:48,602
and when he'd come to Austin,
Bill went down there with us.
919
00:57:48,669 --> 00:57:54,742
You know, I think that he just really
got into the rhythm of this place,
920
00:57:55,009 --> 00:57:56,544
which was a total getaway.
921
00:57:56,610 --> 00:57:58,679
-- The cracker man.
-- (Chuckling)
922
00:57:58,746 --> 00:58:01,716
All right. It's a duck frenzy.
923
00:58:01,983 --> 00:58:04,285
- Yeah!
-- (Squeals)
924
00:58:04,352 --> 00:58:08,222
(Steve Hicks) Coming from the hecticness
of what he did, what all of us did,
925
00:58:08,289 --> 00:58:11,225
that was a great little place
to spend a week, you know,
926
00:58:11,292 --> 00:58:14,228
before he went back out and hit it again.
927
00:58:14,328 --> 00:58:18,232
(Kevin) I really don't think
the full Bill kicked in until he went sober.
928
00:58:18,332 --> 00:58:19,967
I really don't.
929
00:58:20,034 --> 00:58:24,372
I think a lot of people were still
coming to see the shock jock comedian,
930
00:58:24,472 --> 00:58:29,443
and now Bill was slipping in
some loftier ideas to lead people with.
931
00:58:29,510 --> 00:58:31,979
You know, just because this is a comedy club
932
00:58:32,079 --> 00:58:35,249
doesn't mean that we can't do
something more with this.
933
00:58:35,316 --> 00:58:37,485
My clothes have got to be clean, Dad.
934
00:58:37,551 --> 00:58:41,022
-- We're gonna have to do them again.
-- Well, that's right.
935
00:58:41,122 --> 00:58:46,594
(Dwight) When I saw him in Chicago in 1989,
we hadn't seen each other for three years.
936
00:58:46,660 --> 00:58:50,765
His life was completely on track
and he was beaming about it.
937
00:58:51,032 --> 00:58:54,568
It's been a very exciting week for me
because I'm working with Dwight, who...
938
00:58:54,668 --> 00:58:59,407
He and I started off doing comedy together
when we were 13 years old in Houston, Texas.
939
00:58:59,507 --> 00:59:02,143
It's good to be in Chicago.
What a great town, man!
940
00:59:02,209 --> 00:59:04,612
Went to Linkin Park Zoo.
How many people have been there?
941
00:59:04,712 --> 00:59:06,614
A couple? Yeah?
942
00:59:06,714 --> 00:59:09,583
Well, if you haven't been there,
I'll save you a little time.
943
00:59:09,650 --> 00:59:11,419
I'll do a quick visual impression for you guys.
944
00:59:11,485 --> 00:59:14,688
First time ever seen.
This is every animal in Linkin Park zoo.
945
00:59:14,955 --> 00:59:20,227
Here we go. Save you some time. Ladies and
gentlemen, every animal in the Linkin Park Zoo.
946
00:59:20,327 --> 00:59:22,163
(Snoring)
947
00:59:22,563 --> 00:59:24,665
(Snoring)
948
00:59:25,299 --> 00:59:26,734
(Snoring)
949
00:59:27,501 --> 00:59:28,969
(Snoring)
950
00:59:30,371 --> 00:59:32,406
(Snoring)
951
00:59:34,475 --> 00:59:37,144
What a fucking rip--off.
952
00:59:37,244 --> 00:59:39,747
(Dwight) We had
this unique relationship that...
953
00:59:40,014 --> 00:59:43,350
I brought out things in him
that normally would not be brought out,
954
00:59:43,417 --> 00:59:45,019
and he did the same thing.
955
00:59:45,119 --> 00:59:47,521
What do you fee/? What's inside you?
956
00:59:47,588 --> 00:59:51,258
What makes you tick?
What fires you up? What pisses you off?
957
00:59:51,325 --> 00:59:54,161
It's nice to have someone
in your life that's like that.
958
00:59:54,261 --> 00:59:57,631
He brought that out of you.
He expected it out of you.
959
00:59:57,698 --> 01:00:02,136
This is called logic. it won't hurt you, it'll
set you free. But we'll get to that later.
960
01:00:02,203 --> 01:00:08,008
(Dwight) I think a lot of comics have confused
being a great comic with being like Bill Hicks.
961
01:00:08,109 --> 01:00:13,013
Well, no, being a great comic has to do with
your inner voice matching your outer voice.
962
01:00:13,080 --> 01:00:14,348
That's what Bi/I did.
963
01:00:14,415 --> 01:00:18,686
His personality on stage was just
an animated extension of who he was.
964
01:00:18,786 --> 01:00:21,555
Hey, get this, man. I was in Las Vegas, right?
965
01:00:21,622 --> 01:00:26,026
I'm going to get an elevator at the hotel. I'm
smoking. There's a lady next to me coughing.
966
01:00:26,093 --> 01:00:29,296
"Heh--hem! Heh--heh--heh--hem!"
Shut the fuck...
967
01:00:29,396 --> 01:00:34,034
I look out the window of the hotel and I see
the sunset, and it's green and purple,
968
01:00:34,101 --> 01:00:36,170
and it's 3pm,
969
01:00:36,270 --> 01:00:38,672
and then a mushroom cloud
forms in the desert,
970
01:00:38,739 --> 01:00:43,077
and the hotel starts shaking
and every elevator stops working.
971
01:00:43,177 --> 01:00:44,778
I was a little bit curious.
972
01:00:45,045 --> 01:00:48,315
So I turn to this lady who lived in Las Vegas
and I say, "What was that?"
973
01:00:48,415 --> 01:00:51,652
And she goes, "Oh! That's the army.
We don't know what they're doing out there.
974
01:00:51,719 --> 01:00:53,621
"Ha--ha--ha!"
975
01:00:56,056 --> 01:00:58,592
And you're worried about my cigarette smoke?
976
01:00:58,659 --> 01:01:02,296
I would get a fucking priority list happening.
977
01:01:02,396 --> 01:01:07,201
And then I talked to people who lived in Vegas
and they go, "Well, they're 100 miles away."
978
01:01:07,268 --> 01:01:12,006
Yeah, well, my little deodorant aerosol can is
50 miles from the ozone so shut the fuck up.
979
01:01:12,106 --> 01:01:15,209
I'll use Cheez Whiz aerosol, anything I want.
980
01:01:15,276 --> 01:01:21,282
Shut up. Quit setting off nuclear bombs, OK,
it being our planet and all, don't you think?
981
01:01:21,382 --> 01:01:23,751
What gives them the right to set off bombs?
982
01:01:24,018 --> 01:01:26,153
Ha--ha! I love y'all.
983
01:01:27,087 --> 01:01:29,456
(Dwight) He knew that he was
just formulated to be a comic
984
01:01:29,557 --> 01:01:31,692
who was supposed to shake things up.
985
01:01:31,759 --> 01:01:34,328
It's all about money, not freedom, y'all, OK?
986
01:01:34,428 --> 01:01:37,798
Ha--ha. Nothing to do with fucking freedom.
You think you're free?
987
01:01:38,065 --> 01:01:40,701
Try going somewhere
without any fucking money, OK?
988
01:01:40,801 --> 01:01:42,236
(Dwight) When you laugh at 'em,
989
01:01:42,303 --> 01:01:44,638
it makes you think about things
you hadn't thought about before.
990
01:01:44,705 --> 01:01:49,643
It's about fucking money, not about freedom.
Don't ever think that it is. Thank you. Sorry.
991
01:01:49,710 --> 01:01:52,546
I am a child of God sent here
to bring salvation to the earth,
992
01:01:52,613 --> 01:01:55,649
and you're welcome.
993
01:01:55,716 --> 01:01:59,253
(Dwight) When people walked out of
his shows, they may not have admitted it,
994
01:01:59,320 --> 01:02:01,989
but they just were changed a little bit.
995
01:02:02,089 --> 01:02:04,091
(James) He knew that he'd have problems
996
01:02:04,158 --> 01:02:08,562
because he would be going to places that
his fan base, his audience, may not follow it.
997
01:02:08,662 --> 01:02:14,335
(Kevin) As Bill evolved as a comedian,
the comedy clubs were probably de-evolving.
998
01:02:14,401 --> 01:02:17,004
- (Yells)
-- Please quit yelling, man.
999
01:02:17,071 --> 01:02:20,641
It's not funny, it's stupid, it's repetitive
and why the fuck would you yell?
1000
01:02:20,708 --> 01:02:23,477
-- (Yelling)
-- I'm serious.
1001
01:02:23,544 --> 01:02:26,013
OK, what does that mean now?
Now what does it mean?
1002
01:02:26,080 --> 01:02:28,182
I understand where it comes from. So do you.
1003
01:02:28,282 --> 01:02:31,552
Now what does it all mean?
What is the culmination of yelling that?
1004
01:02:31,619 --> 01:02:35,055
- (Man yells) Jimmy Shorts!
-- He's not here. He's not gonna be here.
1005
01:02:35,155 --> 01:02:39,593
Now what? Now where are we? We're here at
you interrupting me again, you fucking idiot.
1006
01:02:39,693 --> 01:02:43,497
Yes, we're here at the same point again
1007
01:02:43,564 --> 01:02:47,034
where you, the fucking peon masses,
1008
01:02:47,134 --> 01:02:50,437
can once again ruin anyone
who tries to do anything
1009
01:02:50,537 --> 01:02:53,173
because you don't know
how to do it on your own!
1010
01:02:53,240 --> 01:02:58,245
That's where we're fucking at once again,
the useless waste of fucking flesh
1011
01:02:58,312 --> 01:03:01,515
that has ruined everything good
in this goddamn world!
1012
01:03:03,384 --> 01:03:06,587
(Andy) People started to notice Bill
at this point.
1013
01:03:06,654 --> 01:03:09,323
(Steve Hicks) You know,
a lot of the places I travelled to
1014
01:03:09,390 --> 01:03:11,625
to be able to experience that with him.
1015
01:03:11,692 --> 01:03:15,095
We were brothers, we were pretty close,
and that's what we did,
1016
01:03:15,162 --> 01:03:17,298
you know, going to Las Vegas for the first time
1017
01:03:17,398 --> 01:03:21,669
and being there on opening night
by request by Rodney Dangerfield.
1018
01:03:21,769 --> 01:03:24,004
You know, and it was coo/ being backstage
1019
01:03:24,071 --> 01:03:27,675
at the filming of an HBO
one Night Stand special.
1020
01:03:27,741 --> 01:03:33,480
(Man) From the Vic Theatre in Chicago,
please welcome Bill Hicks!
1021
01:03:33,547 --> 01:03:35,282
(Cheering)
1022
01:03:36,083 --> 01:03:37,751
(Cheering)
1023
01:03:40,454 --> 01:03:43,490
Good evening, brothers and sisters,
friends and neighbors,
1024
01:03:43,557 --> 01:03:48,462
vibrations in the mind of the one true God
whose name is love.
1025
01:03:50,264 --> 01:03:52,433
How many smokers do we have here tonight?
1026
01:03:52,533 --> 01:03:55,069
(Cheering)
1027
01:03:55,169 --> 01:03:58,772
That's a lot of energy for you fuckers.
That's good. Usually you get...
1028
01:03:59,039 --> 01:04:01,075
(Coughing)
1029
01:04:03,344 --> 01:04:05,145
(Coughing)
1030
01:04:05,245 --> 01:04:06,980
Thank you, guys, thank you.
1031
01:04:07,081 --> 01:04:10,718
Next time I need you, just hawk up
a chunk of lung for me, all right?
1032
01:04:10,984 --> 01:04:15,255
Rear back, launch a phlegm gem
towards the stage.
1033
01:04:15,356 --> 01:04:16,990
(Hawks)
1034
01:04:17,057 --> 01:04:21,995
But listen to this.
How many non--smokers do we have here?
1035
01:04:22,096 --> 01:04:24,231
(Cheering)
1036
01:04:30,504 --> 01:04:33,707
Bunch of whining little maggots.
1037
01:04:42,349 --> 01:04:44,685
You obnoxious,
1038
01:04:44,752 --> 01:04:46,687
self--righteous...
1039
01:04:46,754 --> 01:04:49,390
slugs.
1040
01:04:49,456 --> 01:04:52,192
(Cheering)
1041
01:04:52,292 --> 01:04:54,294
Don't take that wrong.
1042
01:04:55,529 --> 01:04:59,032
I'd quit smoking
if I didn't think I'd become one of you.
1043
01:05:02,636 --> 01:05:06,106
But you got to understand something.
I don't do anything else. I don't drink.
1044
01:05:06,206 --> 01:05:09,977
Now, a lot of you non--smokers are drinking,
OK? I'm a non-drinker and I smoke.
1045
01:05:10,077 --> 01:05:14,248
Now, to me, we're trading off vices.
That seems fair to me.
1046
01:05:15,182 --> 01:05:18,385
Yeah. Little fuck. "No, it's not. No, it's not.
1047
01:05:18,485 --> 01:05:23,123
"Why should our lives be threatened by your
nasty habit? Nyeh--nyeh--nyeh--nyeh--nyeh!"
1048
01:05:23,223 --> 01:05:24,391
Yeah, but you know what?
1049
01:05:24,491 --> 01:05:29,563
I can't kill anyone in a car cos
I'm smoking a fucking cigarette, all right?
1050
01:05:29,663 --> 01:05:31,665
And I've tried.
1051
01:05:34,001 --> 01:05:37,671
Turn off all the lights and rush 'em,
they always see the glow.
1052
01:05:42,543 --> 01:05:46,013
"Man, there's a big firefly heading this way.
1053
01:05:46,079 --> 01:05:48,415
"Shit! It's knocking over shrubs!"
1054
01:05:50,751 --> 01:05:55,189
(James) It's really weird, he could do
an HBO special one night at a big arena,
1055
01:05:55,289 --> 01:05:59,126
and then to go back on the road
and do crappy clubs.
1056
01:05:59,193 --> 01:06:01,695
(Woman) ♪ American Airlines flight 577.
1057
01:06:01,962 --> 01:06:04,364
(Steve Hicks) I think to him
that was part of the journey,
1058
01:06:04,465 --> 01:06:09,002
getting his vision out to more people,
that was what he needed to do.
1059
01:06:09,102 --> 01:06:10,637
I'm really tired. I apologize.
1060
01:06:10,704 --> 01:06:15,075
I'm really tired of...from travelling,
and tired of doing comedy,
1061
01:06:15,142 --> 01:06:20,113
and tired of staring out
at your blank faces looking back at me,
1062
01:06:21,248 --> 01:06:27,020
wanting me to fill your empty lives with humor
you couldn't possibly think of yourself.
1063
01:06:27,120 --> 01:06:29,656
Good evening.
1064
01:06:29,723 --> 01:06:32,593
(Andy) American audiences, people
are too quick to take of fence over here.
1065
01:06:32,659 --> 01:06:35,462
He just couldn't get any momentum going.
1066
01:06:35,529 --> 01:06:41,201
(James) So I guess there was a frustration
/eve/ of you grow past where you're working
1067
01:06:41,268 --> 01:06:45,539
and Bill was moving faster
than the audiences at times.
1068
01:06:47,140 --> 01:06:49,376
What is pornography, man? No one knows.
1069
01:06:49,443 --> 01:06:50,744
The Supreme Court says
1070
01:06:51,011 --> 01:06:54,615
pornography is any act that has
no artistic merit and causes sexual thoughts.
1071
01:06:54,681 --> 01:06:59,520
That's their definition essentially.
No artistic merit. Causes sexual thoughts.
1072
01:06:59,586 --> 01:07:01,588
Hm.
1073
01:07:01,655 --> 01:07:05,993
Well, that sounds like every commercial
on television, doesn't it?
1074
01:07:07,027 --> 01:07:11,331
You know, when I see those two twins
on that Double Mint commercial,
1075
01:07:11,398 --> 01:07:13,534
I'm not thinking of gum.
1076
01:07:16,570 --> 01:07:18,071
I am thinking of chewing.
1077
01:07:18,138 --> 01:07:22,476
Maybe that's the connection they're trying
to make there in a roundabout way.
1078
01:07:25,579 --> 01:07:27,581
You've all seen that Busch Beer commercial.
1079
01:07:27,648 --> 01:07:30,751
The girl in the short hot pants opens
the beer bottle on her belt buckle,
1080
01:07:31,018 --> 01:07:34,721
leaves it between her legs,
it foams over the bottle and over her hand,
1081
01:07:34,988 --> 01:07:39,192
and the voiceover goes,
"Get yourself a Busch."
1082
01:07:40,527 --> 01:07:42,496
Hm.
1083
01:07:44,197 --> 01:07:47,467
You know, correct me if I'm wrong,
that looks just... No.
1084
01:07:47,534 --> 01:07:49,002
No.
1085
01:07:49,102 --> 01:07:54,308
That fine liquor company wouldn't try
and plant that idea in my head, would they?
1086
01:07:54,408 --> 01:07:58,278
Not that fine upstanding liquor company.
1087
01:07:58,345 --> 01:08:00,647
Let me tell you what commercial
they'd like to do if they could,
1088
01:08:00,714 --> 01:08:03,216
and I guaran--fucking--tee
if they could, they'd do this right here.
1089
01:08:03,283 --> 01:08:07,955
Here's the woman's face. Beautiful.
Camera pulls back. Naked breast.
1090
01:08:08,055 --> 01:08:10,624
Camera pulls back. She's totally naked.
1091
01:08:10,691 --> 01:08:13,961
Legs apart. Two fingers right here.
1092
01:08:14,962 --> 01:08:17,531
And it just says drink Coke.
1093
01:08:24,137 --> 01:08:27,307
Now, I don't know the connection here,
1094
01:08:27,374 --> 01:08:31,411
but God damn if Coke
isn't on my shopping list this week!
1095
01:08:32,713 --> 01:08:37,384
(David) After doing these big long shows,
which always wore him out, being on the road,
1096
01:08:37,484 --> 01:08:41,622
it was good to be back in Austin
and to be playing music with his friends.
1097
01:08:41,688 --> 01:08:43,757
The start of the Marblehead Johnson thing
1098
01:08:44,024 --> 01:08:48,395
was the three of us playing the night
of the first Gulf War breaking out,
1099
01:08:48,495 --> 01:08:51,098
and Bill had these new songs
that he had written.
1100
01:08:51,164 --> 01:08:55,636
My band Year Zero broke up
and we were looking for something to do
1101
01:08:55,702 --> 01:09:01,575
and Bill came to town one day
and sat in with us, and it totally jelled.
1102
01:09:01,642 --> 01:09:03,543
You're watching the live feed of the war
1103
01:09:03,610 --> 01:09:07,080
and the classic...you know, the shells
going over downtown Baghdad.
1104
01:09:07,180 --> 01:09:09,149
It was weird watching that kick off live,
1105
01:09:09,216 --> 01:09:13,453
and that's the surreal thing about American
wars now is that they're televised
1106
01:09:13,520 --> 01:09:16,990
with some sort of ratings blood lust.
1107
01:09:17,090 --> 01:09:21,328
♪ Just one thing I know for sure
Chicks dig jerks
1108
01:09:21,395 --> 01:09:23,330
♪ Yeah...
1109
01:09:23,397 --> 01:09:29,236
(John) Bill then got the HBO special
and gained greater and wider notoriety.
1110
01:09:29,302 --> 01:09:31,571
Still there wasn't that explosion.
1111
01:09:31,638 --> 01:09:34,241
Why didn't the country like Bill
as much as we do?
1112
01:09:34,307 --> 01:09:38,111
(Steve Hicks) He went
to the Just For Laughs Festival at Montreal.
1113
01:09:38,178 --> 01:09:42,082
Just For Laughs
is like the Cannes Film Festival for comedy.
1114
01:09:42,149 --> 01:09:44,751
They come from all over the world
and it's a big deal.
1115
01:09:45,018 --> 01:09:48,288
(Kevin) He realized for the first time
in Canada that there was a new boundary
1116
01:09:48,388 --> 01:09:55,128
and far more thirst for his perspective about
what was going on with the American dream.
1117
01:09:55,195 --> 01:09:57,197
First of all, this needs to be said.
1118
01:09:57,264 --> 01:09:59,733
There never was a war.
1119
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:06,339
How can you say that, Bill?
Well, a war is when two armies are fighting.
1120
01:10:10,210 --> 01:10:12,412
So you see right there, I think.
1121
01:10:13,180 --> 01:10:15,148
We can all agree. Yeah.
1122
01:10:15,248 --> 01:10:18,018
Those guys were in hog heaven out there.
You understand, man?
1123
01:10:18,118 --> 01:10:21,121
They had a big weapons catalogue opened up.
1124
01:10:21,188 --> 01:10:23,657
"What's G12 do, Tommy?"
1125
01:10:23,724 --> 01:10:28,462
"Well, it says here it destroys everything
but the fillings in their teeth.
1126
01:10:28,562 --> 01:10:33,333
"Helps us pay for the war effort."
"Shit, pull that one up."
1127
01:10:33,433 --> 01:10:35,602
"Pull up G12, please."
1128
01:10:35,702 --> 01:10:37,437
Shhwwshh!
1129
01:10:44,044 --> 01:10:45,712
Kkkcckkk!
1130
01:10:46,713 --> 01:10:49,316
"Cool. What's G13 doing?"
1131
01:10:50,584 --> 01:10:52,719
Everyone got excited about the technology,
1132
01:10:52,786 --> 01:10:57,157
and I guess it was pretty incredible
watching a missile fly down an air vent.
1133
01:10:57,224 --> 01:10:58,492
Pretty unbelievable.
1134
01:10:58,592 --> 01:11:05,132
But couldn't we feasibly use that same
technology to shoot food at hungry people?
1135
01:11:05,198 --> 01:11:08,268
You know what I mean? Flying over Ethiopia.
There's a guy that needs a banana.
1136
01:11:08,335 --> 01:11:10,337
Shh--kkkrrrkkk!
1137
01:11:12,205 --> 01:11:14,674
Shh--ww--shh!
1138
01:11:20,247 --> 01:11:25,519
Here he was not only just playing
in the arena of international comedy,
1139
01:11:25,585 --> 01:11:28,188
he was excelling in that arena.
1140
01:11:28,288 --> 01:11:33,026
Cos I live in the States,
a very puritanical place, full of superstition,
1141
01:11:33,093 --> 01:11:37,397
and ancient, ancient religions that
no longer serve their function on this planet,
1142
01:11:37,464 --> 01:11:40,133
because they're based on fear instead of love.
1143
01:11:40,200 --> 01:11:44,538
But, uh...they say
rock'n'roll is the devil's music.
1144
01:11:44,604 --> 01:11:46,606
Well, let's say that it is. I got news for you.
1145
01:11:46,706 --> 01:11:49,209
Let's say that rock'n'roll is the devil's music
1146
01:11:49,309 --> 01:11:53,647
and we know it for a fact
to be absolutely unequivocally true.
1147
01:11:56,550 --> 01:11:59,152
(Laughs) Boy, at least he fucking jams.
1148
01:12:00,787 --> 01:12:03,256
OK, did you hear that correctly?
1149
01:12:03,356 --> 01:12:06,293
If it's a choice between
eternal hell and good tunes
1150
01:12:06,393 --> 01:12:10,330
or eternal heaven
and New Kids On The fucking Block...
1151
01:12:11,765 --> 01:12:16,136
I'm gonna be surfing on the lake of fire,
rockin' out.
1152
01:12:16,203 --> 01:12:18,772
Oh, come on, Bill, they're the New Kids.
Don't pick on them.
1153
01:12:19,039 --> 01:12:23,376
They're so good, they're so clean-cut and
they're such a good image for the children.
1154
01:12:23,443 --> 01:12:29,149
Fuck that. When did mediocrity and banality
become a good image for your children?
1155
01:12:29,249 --> 01:12:33,019
I want my children to listen
to people who fucking rocked!
1156
01:12:33,119 --> 01:12:36,690
I don't care if they died
in puddles of their own vomit!
1157
01:12:36,790 --> 01:12:41,027
I want someone who plays
from his fucking heart!
1158
01:12:41,094 --> 01:12:45,298
I want 'em to fucking play with one hand
and put a gun in their other fucking hand!
1159
01:12:45,398 --> 01:12:48,535
Now, I hope you enjoyed the show! Bkkk!
1160
01:12:48,602 --> 01:12:51,471
Yes! Yes!
1161
01:12:53,573 --> 01:12:56,776
Play from your fucking heart!
1162
01:13:02,749 --> 01:13:07,520
(Clears throat) I am available
for children's parties, by the way.
1163
01:13:07,587 --> 01:13:09,089
(Kevin) I don't think Bill knew
1164
01:13:09,155 --> 01:13:12,759
that this video they made there was gonna
suddenly be broadcast on British TV,
1165
01:13:13,026 --> 01:13:15,362
and then that was gonna be
the beginning of the next step.
1166
01:13:25,272 --> 01:13:28,575
(Jack Dee) From the United States,
please raise the roof for Bill Hicks.
1167
01:13:28,675 --> 01:13:30,443
- Yeah!
-- (Cheering)
1168
01:13:30,543 --> 01:13:33,480
I love being a comedian. It's the greatest
job in the world for one simple reason.
1169
01:13:33,546 --> 01:13:36,016
I don't have a boss.
Definite plus in a lifestyle, man.
1170
01:13:36,116 --> 01:13:38,351
Every job I've had with a boss,
always harassed.
1171
01:13:38,418 --> 01:13:41,421
"Hicks, how come you're not working?"
"There's nothing to do."
1172
01:13:41,521 --> 01:13:44,224
"Well, you pretend like you're working."
1173
01:13:44,291 --> 01:13:47,761
"Well, why don't you pretend I'm working?
1174
01:13:48,028 --> 01:13:51,298
"You get paid more than me. You fantasize."
1175
01:13:51,364 --> 01:13:53,700
(Steve Hicks) In Edinburgh,
he won the Judges'' Award.
1176
01:13:53,767 --> 01:13:57,304
He realized, "Man, OK,
there is an audience for what I do."
1177
01:13:57,404 --> 01:13:59,539
(John) Here's an American ridiculing America.
1178
01:13:59,606 --> 01:14:04,077
He had been so good at making fun
of his parents, especially his father.
1179
01:14:04,144 --> 01:14:06,746
Now he was terrific
at making fun of his fatherland.
1180
01:14:07,013 --> 01:14:10,984
(Kevin) The American dream
was supposed to be us running from the Brits,
1181
01:14:11,084 --> 01:14:16,323
and now Americans are having to tell the Brits
what's become of the American dream.
1182
01:14:16,389 --> 01:14:20,026
(Steve Hicks) They did get it.
They got it. They could handle it.
1183
01:14:20,126 --> 01:14:24,564
How that manifested itself
was his confidence went through the roof,
1184
01:14:24,664 --> 01:14:29,402
and he definitely attributed that
to being in the UK.
1185
01:14:30,704 --> 01:14:34,140
This is amazing. Last show I did...
You're not gonna believe this.
1186
01:14:34,207 --> 01:14:37,677
Belfast, Ireland, last week.
Never been to Belfast, Ireland.
1187
01:14:37,744 --> 01:14:42,282
Played to 900 screaming and adoring fans
1188
01:14:42,349 --> 01:14:47,354
in a turn--of--the--century theatre
that Oscar Wilde performed in,
1189
01:14:48,421 --> 01:14:53,760
only to come back to America,
the country I toured ceaselessly for 15 years
1190
01:14:54,027 --> 01:14:58,298
to play Adolf's Comedy Bunker in Idaho,
1191
01:14:59,432 --> 01:15:04,738
in front of 25 apathetic people,
strangers one and all,
1192
01:15:05,005 --> 01:15:09,209
who stared at me like a dog
that had just been shown a card trick.
1193
01:15:15,548 --> 01:15:18,118
One of life's little ironies.
1194
01:15:19,352 --> 01:15:23,289
(John) When Bill talked to me about
breaking out in England and making it there,
1195
01:15:23,390 --> 01:15:25,325
I thought, "oh, shit, " you know?
1196
01:15:25,392 --> 01:15:29,295
Over in England? But it was
pretty much for him a fait accompli.
1197
01:15:29,396 --> 01:15:31,398
"This is the place that gets me,
1198
01:15:31,498 --> 01:15:36,636
"I'm filling theatres, not comedy clubs,
impartial comedy clubs. "
1199
01:15:36,703 --> 01:15:39,372
(Kevin) It wasn't really until
I saw the Revelations special
1200
01:15:39,439 --> 01:15:41,775
that we were all like, "oh, my God, "you know.
1201
01:15:42,042 --> 01:15:46,479
"Bill's like a rock star over there,
that's amazing. You know, finally."
1202
01:15:46,546 --> 01:15:47,680
(Cheering and applause)
1203
01:15:50,450 --> 01:15:53,086
(Cheering and applause)
1204
01:16:01,161 --> 01:16:03,396
You're in the right place.
1205
01:16:03,496 --> 01:16:05,732
It's Bill.
1206
01:16:05,999 --> 01:16:08,134
I'm so sick of arming the world
1207
01:16:08,234 --> 01:16:11,371
and then sending troops over to destroy
the fucking arms, you know what I mean?
1208
01:16:11,471 --> 01:16:16,142
We keep arming these little countries
then we go and blow the shit out of them.
1209
01:16:16,242 --> 01:16:18,111
We're like the bullies of the world, you know?
1210
01:16:18,211 --> 01:16:25,118
We're like Jack Palance in the movie Shane
throwing the pistol at the sheep herder's feet.
1211
01:16:25,185 --> 01:16:27,187
Pick it up.
1212
01:16:31,658 --> 01:16:35,161
"I don't want to pick it up, mister.
You'll shoot me."
1213
01:16:39,399 --> 01:16:41,534
(Whispers) Pick up the gun.
1214
01:16:45,038 --> 01:16:47,040
"Mister, I don't want no trouble, huh?
1215
01:16:47,140 --> 01:16:51,411
"I just came downtown here to get
some hard--rock candy for my kids,
1216
01:16:51,511 --> 01:16:54,347
"some gingham for my wife.
1217
01:16:54,414 --> 01:16:57,684
"I don't even know what gingham is,
but she goes...
1218
01:16:57,750 --> 01:17:01,154
"she goes through
about ten rolls a week of that stuff.
1219
01:17:01,221 --> 01:17:03,223
"I ain't looking for no trouble, mister."
1220
01:17:06,025 --> 01:17:07,994
(Whispers) Pick up the gun.
1221
01:17:08,094 --> 01:17:10,363
(Groaning)
1222
01:17:23,343 --> 01:17:25,378
Pkk! Pkk! Pkk!
1223
01:17:27,213 --> 01:17:29,182
"You all saw him.
1224
01:17:29,249 --> 01:17:32,252
"He had a gun."
1225
01:17:32,352 --> 01:17:33,620
(Kevin) Bill was a true patriot,
1226
01:17:33,686 --> 01:17:37,323
and that is like a true American and a true
patriot does question the Government
1227
01:17:37,390 --> 01:17:40,260
and that's what being a patriot means,
is that you question the powers.
1228
01:17:40,326 --> 01:17:43,129
I mean, I think he was still
always proud to be an American
1229
01:17:43,229 --> 01:17:47,133
but he was embarrassed about the things
that his government was becoming.
1230
01:17:47,233 --> 01:17:51,271
By the way, if anyone here
is in advertising or marketing,
1231
01:17:51,337 --> 01:17:53,640
kill yourself.
1232
01:17:53,706 --> 01:17:55,675
Thank you, thank you. Thanks.
1233
01:17:55,775 --> 01:17:59,746
Just a little thought.
I'm just trying to plant seeds.
1234
01:18:00,013 --> 01:18:02,549
Maybe...maybe one day they'll take root,
I don't know.
1235
01:18:02,615 --> 01:18:05,051
You try. You do what you can.
1236
01:18:06,052 --> 01:18:08,188
(Whispers) Kill yourself.
1237
01:18:09,122 --> 01:18:11,057
Seriously, though, if you are, do.
1238
01:18:11,124 --> 01:18:13,493
Uh...no, really.
1239
01:18:13,560 --> 01:18:17,997
There's no rationalization for what you do
and you are Satan's little helpers.
1240
01:18:18,097 --> 01:18:20,066
OK? Kill yourself, seriously.
1241
01:18:20,133 --> 01:18:22,268
You're the ruiner of all things good.
Seriously.
1242
01:18:22,368 --> 01:18:24,704
This is not a joke.
"There's gonna be a joke coming."
1243
01:18:24,971 --> 01:18:26,639
There's no fucking joke coming.
1244
01:18:26,706 --> 01:18:30,743
You are Satan's spawn,
filling the world with bile and garbage.
1245
01:18:31,010 --> 01:18:32,645
You are fucked and you are fucking us.
1246
01:18:32,712 --> 01:18:37,417
Kill yourself. It's the only way
to save your fucking soul. Kill yourself.
1247
01:18:37,517 --> 01:18:39,652
(Cheering)
1248
01:18:39,752 --> 01:18:41,588
Thanks, thanks.
1249
01:18:41,654 --> 01:18:43,590
Planting the seeds.
1250
01:18:43,656 --> 01:18:47,560
I know all the marketing people are going,
"He's doing a joke." There is no joke here.
1251
01:18:47,660 --> 01:18:50,530
Suck a tailpipe. Fucking hang yourself.
1252
01:18:50,597 --> 01:18:54,100
Borrow a gun from a Yank friend.
I don't care how you do it.
1253
01:18:54,167 --> 01:18:58,504
Rid the world
of your evil fucking machinations.
1254
01:18:58,571 --> 01:19:01,174
Machi... Whatever. You know what I mean.
1255
01:19:02,642 --> 01:19:05,111
I know what all the marketing people
are thinking now too.
1256
01:19:05,211 --> 01:19:08,615
"Oh, you know what Bill's doing?
He's going for that anti--marketing dollar.
1257
01:19:08,715 --> 01:19:11,951
"That's a good market. He's very smart."
1258
01:19:13,653 --> 01:19:18,291
Oh, man, I am not doing that,
you fucking evil scumbags.
1259
01:19:19,292 --> 01:19:21,461
"Oh, you know what Bill's doing now?
1260
01:19:21,527 --> 01:19:24,697
"He's going for the righteous indignation
dollar. That's a big dollar.
1261
01:19:24,964 --> 01:19:28,334
"A lot of people are feeling that indignation.
We've done research. Huge market.
1262
01:19:28,401 --> 01:19:30,169
"He's doing a good thing."
1263
01:19:30,236 --> 01:19:33,172
God damn it, I'm not doing that,
you scumbags.
1264
01:19:33,239 --> 01:19:37,343
Quit putting a goddamn dollar sign
on every fucking thing on this planet.
1265
01:19:37,410 --> 01:19:41,381
(David) It's a universal idea,
but supposedly it's the American creed,
1266
01:19:41,481 --> 01:19:45,618
which is free men, who can say
what they want and believe what they want,
1267
01:19:45,685 --> 01:19:47,153
and that's a powerful idea
1268
01:19:47,253 --> 01:19:50,556
when you see somebody that believes
so much in that kind of freedom.
1269
01:19:50,657 --> 01:19:53,493
(Jimmy) That's exactly what you work for.
That's what it's all about.
1270
01:19:53,559 --> 01:19:55,728
Audiences that get what you're saying.
1271
01:19:59,499 --> 01:20:02,735
(Dwight) I got called by NBC,
1272
01:20:03,002 --> 01:20:06,673
so I flew down and spent
the whole week with him.
1273
01:20:06,773 --> 01:20:09,442
He was really relaxed
and he had some time off
1274
01:20:09,542 --> 01:20:13,680
and when we were driving around Los Angeles
we started developing new characters.
1275
01:20:13,746 --> 01:20:16,582
Los Angeles, California, stars in the making.
1276
01:20:16,683 --> 01:20:21,287
Everyone's got a résumé in their hands
and dreams in their eyes
1277
01:20:21,354 --> 01:20:24,424
and he'd given up smoking
and he goes, "I just fee/ great."
1278
01:20:24,524 --> 01:20:27,593
(Kevin) Bill never stopped
wanting to make it in America.
1279
01:20:27,694 --> 01:20:31,764
He was now kind of wondering,
"What does the future hold for me?"
1280
01:20:32,031 --> 01:20:35,068
(Steve Hicks) You know, when I would go
watch him in Austin four nights in a row,
1281
01:20:35,168 --> 01:20:36,602
I would be amazed
1282
01:20:36,703 --> 01:20:40,540
that maybe something that was
just a throwaway line the first night
1283
01:20:40,606 --> 01:20:43,810
became a five-minute bit by the fourth night.
1284
01:20:44,077 --> 01:20:48,781
Put on a helmet, go wait in that foxhole. We'll
tell you when we need you to kill somebody.
1285
01:20:49,048 --> 01:20:50,316
You know, I'm so sick...
1286
01:20:50,416 --> 01:20:54,087
I've watched these fucking congressional
hearings and all these military guys
1287
01:20:54,187 --> 01:20:57,523
and all the pundits seriously...
"Oh, the esprit de corps will be affected
1288
01:20:57,590 --> 01:20:59,559
"and we are such a moral..."
1289
01:20:59,625 --> 01:21:04,630
Excuse me, aren't you all fucking
hired killers? Shut up! You are thugs.
1290
01:21:04,697 --> 01:21:08,000
When we need you to go blow the fuck
out of a nation of little brown people,
1291
01:21:08,067 --> 01:21:09,335
we'll let you know.
1292
01:21:09,402 --> 01:21:13,740
Until then, what do the fucking military...
1293
01:21:14,006 --> 01:21:16,008
"We are the military!
1294
01:21:17,009 --> 01:21:19,445
"Is that a village of children and kids?
Where's the napalm?"
1295
01:21:19,545 --> 01:21:21,013
Shh--kkk!
1296
01:21:21,114 --> 01:21:24,784
"I don't want any gay people
hanging around me while I'm killing kids.
1297
01:21:26,386 --> 01:21:28,087
"I just don't want to see it."
1298
01:21:29,422 --> 01:21:33,693
(Steve) That was, uh...June of '93,
and I have those shows on video,
1299
01:21:33,793 --> 01:21:38,297
and I was at work one day
and he called my wife
1300
01:21:38,398 --> 01:21:42,368
and he said, "Do you have a doctor,
a family doctor, here in Austin?"
1301
01:21:42,435 --> 01:21:43,703
And she said, "Yeah, we do,"
1302
01:21:43,803 --> 01:21:48,040
and he goes, "Could you call and make me an
appointment? I'm having stomach problems."
1303
01:21:48,107 --> 01:21:53,813
Bill called a lot of times while
he was waiting to go on or whatever at a show
1304
01:21:54,080 --> 01:21:58,418
and I heard Jim say,
"Are you getting ready to go on?"
1305
01:21:58,484 --> 01:22:01,988
And Bill said, "No, I'm in the hospital."
1306
01:22:02,054 --> 01:22:04,257
(Steve) And I remember
my wife answered the phone,
1307
01:22:04,357 --> 01:22:08,361
and then she said something like, "oh, it's
your brother. He's got cancer or something",
1308
01:22:08,428 --> 01:22:10,596
like he was making a joke or something,
1309
01:22:10,663 --> 01:22:13,132
and I got on the phone and, "What's up?"
1310
01:22:13,199 --> 01:22:17,503
And he said, "Well, I got bad news,"
you know, and he said...
1311
01:22:17,570 --> 01:22:22,442
And I just...it just devastated me, you know?
I mean it, you know, so...
1312
01:22:22,542 --> 01:22:24,510
(Fades to silence)
1313
01:22:31,684 --> 01:22:37,123
The foundation of our family
was probably /aid early on in our lives
1314
01:22:37,190 --> 01:22:42,228
and I don't think that there was ever
any hesitation of decision in Bill's mind
1315
01:22:42,295 --> 01:22:44,530
that he just needed to get back home.
1316
01:22:46,365 --> 01:22:53,139
When he picked me up at the airport at LA,
he came straight from a chemo treatment.
1317
01:22:53,206 --> 01:22:55,374
And I kept saying, "You want me to drive?
1318
01:22:55,441 --> 01:23:00,480
That whole trip, he drove the entire way, ten,
twelve hours a day, every day for four days,
1319
01:23:00,580 --> 01:23:02,682
and he wouldn't let me drive.
1320
01:23:05,418 --> 01:23:08,654
(Mary) He came here
and he was sitting out on the deck,
1321
01:23:08,754 --> 01:23:12,625
and in years before when he'd go out there
and sit on the deck,
1322
01:23:12,692 --> 01:23:15,328
you know, he kind of wanted to be alone.
1323
01:23:15,394 --> 01:23:19,131
So I opened the door and I said,
"Bill, do you want to be alone?"
1324
01:23:19,232 --> 01:23:21,133
And he said, "Who wants to be alone?"
1325
01:23:21,234 --> 01:23:24,136
(Chuckles) I said, "I'll be right there."
1326
01:23:24,203 --> 01:23:28,541
As serious as it was, it was a good time.
1327
01:23:28,608 --> 01:23:33,145
He started telling me
everything he had been doing,
1328
01:23:33,246 --> 01:23:37,183
filling me in on things
he thought I needed to know,
1329
01:23:37,283 --> 01:23:41,287
and he turned to me and he said, "Why, you're
more broad--minded than I thought you were."
1330
01:23:41,387 --> 01:23:42,655
(Chuckles)
1331
01:23:42,722 --> 01:23:46,792
Also at night, Jim and Bill and I would walk.
1332
01:23:48,528 --> 01:23:52,765
Bill was encouraged by
how those tumor markers were going down,
1333
01:23:53,032 --> 01:23:56,702
and that's why Bill
didn't want anybody to know.
1334
01:23:56,802 --> 01:24:03,476
(Lynn) His desire to continue to work
and perform came before everything else.
1335
01:24:03,543 --> 01:24:08,147
Cos he still travelled. This was in August
and he was still travelling and performing.
1336
01:24:08,247 --> 01:24:14,554
Receiving an awful cancer diagnosis
and still wanting to work,
1337
01:24:14,654 --> 01:24:18,491
I mean, how many people really could do that?
1338
01:24:18,558 --> 01:24:20,393
(Steve Hicks) And you know
what he used to say was
1339
01:24:20,493 --> 01:24:23,029
when he was on stage it all went away.
1340
01:24:23,129 --> 01:24:25,598
He just got in his zone and did his thing
1341
01:24:25,665 --> 01:24:29,669
and he never felt it, never thought about it.
1342
01:24:29,735 --> 01:24:33,339
He was also in that period
starting to put together Arizona Bay
1343
01:24:33,406 --> 01:24:35,141
and then Rant In E-Minor
1344
01:24:35,207 --> 01:24:37,143
and he worked with Kevin, his producer.
1345
01:24:37,209 --> 01:24:40,346
(Kevin) We had started working
on Arizona Bay a few months earlier.
1346
01:24:40,413 --> 01:24:42,648
I'm here. Here's my toothbrush.
1347
01:24:42,715 --> 01:24:46,218
Wherever I am. It's my...it's my little home.
1348
01:24:52,525 --> 01:24:56,295
(Kevin) The years and years that Bill and I
had worked together brought us to a point
1349
01:24:56,362 --> 01:24:59,131
where the idea
of combining music and comedy
1350
01:24:59,198 --> 01:25:01,534
just seemed like the next natural progression.
1351
01:25:04,637 --> 01:25:07,073
OK, here we go. Ready. Play again.
1352
01:25:10,509 --> 01:25:13,613
You all saw him. He had a gun.
1353
01:25:13,679 --> 01:25:16,115
(Plays tune)
1354
01:25:20,252 --> 01:25:23,255
(Kevin) Bill, you know,
had so much energy and so much focus
1355
01:25:23,356 --> 01:25:27,193
I never in a million years would have
thought something was wrong with him.
1356
01:25:27,259 --> 01:25:30,563
(Bill) You know we're recording this for an
album. I'd like to thank you all for laughing.
1357
01:25:30,663 --> 01:25:32,131
(Audience laughs)
1358
01:25:32,231 --> 01:25:35,668
(Kevin) When I got to San Francisco,
Bill was smoking again. That was strange.
1359
01:25:35,735 --> 01:25:37,737
What can I say? The hook is deep, man.
1360
01:25:38,004 --> 01:25:40,006
I went nine months without 'em
1361
01:25:40,072 --> 01:25:45,044
and that fucking hook, they dropped it
back in the water, boom, and there I was.
1362
01:25:48,214 --> 01:25:50,182
Whoo!
1363
01:25:50,282 --> 01:25:53,319
See, folks, here's the deal,
man, in my humble opinion,
1364
01:25:53,419 --> 01:25:56,122
is that what the problem with the world is
is very simple.
1365
01:25:56,188 --> 01:25:57,590
We're undergoing evolution
1366
01:25:57,690 --> 01:26:01,027
and all our institutions
are failing and crumbling around us
1367
01:26:01,027 --> 01:26:03,996
because they're no longer relevant.
1368
01:26:04,096 --> 01:26:06,232
Ha--ha--ha!
1369
01:26:06,298 --> 01:26:08,634
I'd say let 'em go.
1370
01:26:08,701 --> 01:26:13,639
That's all. It's just evolution. Evolution does
not end with us growing opposable thumbs.
1371
01:26:13,706 --> 01:26:17,977
OK? We're at the point now in history,
the first time ever, we can evolve at will.
1372
01:26:18,044 --> 01:26:20,646
And the way we do it is we evolve ideas.
1373
01:26:20,713 --> 01:26:25,017
By the way, there are more dick jokes coming.
Please relax.
1374
01:26:25,117 --> 01:26:27,420
Let's create a new philosophy.
What do you say?
1375
01:26:27,520 --> 01:26:29,422
Let's create a new religion. What do you think?
1376
01:26:29,522 --> 01:26:36,162
I mean, it's not necessarily new.
The...the seeds are real in the religions.
1377
01:26:36,262 --> 01:26:41,133
Love and acceptance and forgiveness.
That's good stuff. Let's...let's keep that.
1378
01:26:41,200 --> 01:26:46,672
Let's just drop all the dogma, OK?
And let's take care of the planet, OK?
1379
01:26:46,772 --> 01:26:48,507
OK.
1380
01:26:48,574 --> 01:26:51,277
I know I'm starting to lose 'em
a little bit here with this shit.
1381
01:26:51,343 --> 01:26:53,746
I'm like digging a fucking hole right now.
1382
01:26:55,448 --> 01:26:57,283
And another thing.
1383
01:26:57,349 --> 01:27:02,088
(Kevin) I don't think we would have gotten
as much done through those couple of months,
1384
01:27:02,154 --> 01:27:04,056
had I known he was dying.
1385
01:27:04,123 --> 01:27:07,626
He was looking now at his life like,
"I've only got so many months to live,
1386
01:27:07,693 --> 01:27:10,529
"I want to finish the script,
make a new Ninja Bachelor Party,
1387
01:27:10,629 --> 01:27:13,132
"record enough material
for several more records."
1388
01:27:13,232 --> 01:27:17,336
So I was in heaven.
I mean that was my idea of a good time.
1389
01:27:20,172 --> 01:27:23,976
He actually included tripping on mushrooms
as part of the sobriety.
1390
01:27:24,076 --> 01:27:29,448
So it was surprising when Bill said, "Let's go
to the ranch again and trip on mushrooms."
1391
01:27:29,515 --> 01:27:31,484
(David) Suddenly Bill calls out of the blue.
1392
01:27:31,550 --> 01:27:35,488
"Hey, I think it's time
we have another ranch blow--out."
1393
01:27:35,554 --> 01:27:40,760
I'm like, "Wow, OK. We just had... "
It's not something that you do that often.
1394
01:27:41,026 --> 01:27:42,762
It's pretty intense.
1395
01:27:45,231 --> 01:27:49,401
The only thing to me that signaled
that something was a little bit different
1396
01:27:49,502 --> 01:27:54,406
is when I suggested something
that we were gonna do in the future
1397
01:27:54,507 --> 01:27:57,009
that he didn't say anything,
1398
01:27:57,076 --> 01:28:01,046
like he knew
there wasn't gonna be a next time.
1399
01:28:01,113 --> 01:28:04,617
Then he wanted to take a photo
when we got back to my house.
1400
01:28:04,683 --> 01:28:09,021
I think that he wanted one last photo shoot.
1401
01:28:19,064 --> 01:28:22,067
(Kevin) I think deep down inside,
Bill was an activist.
1402
01:28:22,134 --> 01:28:25,638
It wasn't Bill's style to be a part of any kind
of mob or group, or anything like that.
1403
01:28:25,704 --> 01:28:30,176
I mean, Bill was gonna do things
in his own way.
1404
01:28:30,242 --> 01:28:34,013
I was in Australia during the week,
and I'm from Texas,
1405
01:28:34,113 --> 01:28:39,251
and all the Australians were going...going,
"Bill, that guy is such a weirdo," right?
1406
01:28:39,318 --> 01:28:43,489
First of all, I'm thinking, don't hate that guy
cos he called himself Jesus, you know,
1407
01:28:43,556 --> 01:28:49,028
and my first thought was, "Come on,
the guy's real name is Vernon.
1408
01:28:49,128 --> 01:28:53,499
"Let him be Jesus for a couple of months,
you know? I mean, what's it to you?"
1409
01:28:54,333 --> 01:28:59,672
(Kevin) March of '93, the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
1410
01:28:59,738 --> 01:29:03,709
performed a raid on a kind of a cult compound
outside of Waco, Texas
1411
01:29:03,976 --> 01:29:06,579
that was headed by David Koresh.
1412
01:29:06,645 --> 01:29:10,216
This story was so fascinating to Bill
that we gathered all our cameras
1413
01:29:10,316 --> 01:29:12,284
and drove up there.
1414
01:29:12,351 --> 01:29:14,954
Hi, Bill, we're almost there. Sense anything?
1415
01:29:15,054 --> 01:29:18,157
(Sniffs) I smell some holed--up people.
1416
01:29:18,224 --> 01:29:19,725
(Chuckles)
1417
01:29:20,726 --> 01:29:22,595
Good afternoon. Where are we going to?
1418
01:29:22,661 --> 01:29:25,998
Oh, we were gonna get
as close as we could and film it.
1419
01:29:26,098 --> 01:29:30,169
(Kevin) The government was careful to
make sure that the press was pushed back
1420
01:29:30,236 --> 01:29:34,240
something like two miles
away from the compound.
1421
01:29:34,340 --> 01:29:37,276
It's still a matter of debate
like who fired first.
1422
01:29:37,376 --> 01:29:41,447
But one thing is for sure, that
they were just firing into a plywood building
1423
01:29:41,513 --> 01:29:44,416
that was filled with, you know,
men, women and children.
1424
01:29:44,516 --> 01:29:47,753
The whole country just stood by and was just
like, "Well, they're a bunch of fanatics,
1425
01:29:48,020 --> 01:29:49,655
"they got what they deserved, "
1426
01:29:49,755 --> 01:29:52,524
and I think that's what enraged Bill the most,
1427
01:29:52,591 --> 01:29:57,196
to be that one guy going, "Hey, everybody,
did you just see what they did?
1428
01:29:57,263 --> 01:30:00,566
"Now, seriously, does everybody
really think that's OK, you know?"
1429
01:30:00,666 --> 01:30:04,470
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have some very shocking news for you.
1430
01:30:04,536 --> 01:30:08,607
I have seen photos that you probably
have never seen, some of you never have,
1431
01:30:08,674 --> 01:30:11,043
that's never aired on network television,
1432
01:30:11,143 --> 01:30:16,615
footage of Bradley tanks
shooting fire into the compound.
1433
01:30:16,682 --> 01:30:19,151
The Branch Davidians did not start the fire.
1434
01:30:19,218 --> 01:30:28,460
They were murdered in cold blood by
the pussies, the liars, the scumbags, the ATF,
1435
01:30:28,560 --> 01:30:31,063
and the meaning of it all,
the reason you didn't see it,
1436
01:30:31,163 --> 01:30:34,300
the reason they said the Branch Davidians
started the fire... No, they didn't,
1437
01:30:34,400 --> 01:30:36,669
cos they know now
that David Koresh was trying to finish
1438
01:30:36,735 --> 01:30:39,705
that fucking whatever,
seven--seals horse shit he was doing.
1439
01:30:39,772 --> 01:30:41,240
They know that.
1440
01:30:41,307 --> 01:30:43,175
They burn these fucking people alive
1441
01:30:43,275 --> 01:30:47,646
because the message they want to convey
to you is state power will always win.
1442
01:30:47,713 --> 01:30:52,551
We'll paint you as a child molester and we'll
paint you as a methamphetamine manufacturer,
1443
01:30:52,618 --> 01:30:56,622
we'll say any lie we want over our
propaganda machine, the mainstream media,
1444
01:30:56,722 --> 01:30:59,191
and we'll burn you and your children
in your fucking homes.
1445
01:30:59,258 --> 01:31:02,628
So you just be apathetic, America,
you stay docile,
1446
01:31:02,695 --> 01:31:06,332
and don't you ever forget
you're free to do what we tell you.
1447
01:31:10,436 --> 01:31:14,506
The real implication is why no mainstream
media has picked upon this footage
1448
01:31:14,573 --> 01:31:16,375
and thought that it was news.
1449
01:31:16,442 --> 01:31:22,014
This tells you something about America
and the state of freedom that you live under.
1450
01:31:22,081 --> 01:31:26,452
(Kevin) Just seeing it first--hand,
and seeing him do it on TV.
1451
01:31:26,552 --> 01:31:28,153
What if that was you in there?
1452
01:31:28,253 --> 01:31:30,689
You may not agree with them,
but what if the day comes
1453
01:31:30,789 --> 01:31:35,294
where you're the guy in that church
practicing something that they don't like?
1454
01:31:35,361 --> 01:31:37,296
Bill really was in the state of mind,
1455
01:31:37,396 --> 01:31:41,633
of, you know, for one, I'm not taking
any shit from anybody any more,
1456
01:31:41,700 --> 01:31:45,537
or two, I'm gonna just tell everybody
exactly what it is they need to hear,
1457
01:31:45,604 --> 01:31:49,308
because time is of the essence here.
1458
01:31:51,510 --> 01:31:52,478
(Kevin) That last day we tripped out here,
1459
01:31:52,578 --> 01:31:54,246
Bill was preparing
for his last Letterman appearance.
1460
01:31:54,313 --> 01:31:58,717
It was only a matter of days.
He was taking this one really seriously.
1461
01:32:00,619 --> 01:32:05,657
And of course, Bill was the only one thinking
that this was gonna be the last time
1462
01:32:05,758 --> 01:32:09,595
he was gonna perform something to be seen
by the entire American public.
1463
01:32:09,661 --> 01:32:14,733
And he called me up, he was like, "David,
I think I finally did it. it went so good."
1464
01:32:15,000 --> 01:32:17,403
(Ringing)
1465
01:32:19,204 --> 01:32:23,108
And then about an hour or so later, he called
and he was just like, "I can't believe it,
1466
01:32:23,175 --> 01:32:25,244
"they cut it."
1467
01:32:30,682 --> 01:32:37,389
Bill's reaction, I am pretty sure,
was because he knew what he was facing.
1468
01:32:37,456 --> 01:32:40,359
I just remember him saying,
you know, "I'm done with this.
1469
01:32:40,426 --> 01:32:43,128
"I'm tired of trying to please these people,"
1470
01:32:43,195 --> 01:32:47,299
and then, "I'm trying to be myself
and they want me to be somebody else,
1471
01:32:47,399 --> 01:32:52,337
"and so I'm just not gonna do it any more,"
it was kind of final like that.
1472
01:32:52,438 --> 01:32:54,473
(Steve Epstein)
Then he invites me over to Igby's
1473
01:32:54,573 --> 01:32:58,644
and as we were walking, he goes, "This is
gonna be my last night working at Igby's."
1474
01:32:58,710 --> 01:33:01,547
I go, "Why do you say that?"
To me it made no sense at all.
1475
01:33:01,647 --> 01:33:07,352
"I mean, it's a nice club. You like the club."
He goes, "Some things you just know."
1476
01:33:07,419 --> 01:33:11,156
I thought maybe it's cos
he was gonna move to England.
1477
01:33:11,256 --> 01:33:12,524
Folks, I appreciate you coming out.
1478
01:33:12,591 --> 01:33:15,461
It's a very sentimental evening for me
and a very exciting one.
1479
01:33:15,527 --> 01:33:21,266
But this is my final live performance
I am ever going to do, stand--up comedy--wise.
1480
01:33:21,333 --> 01:33:24,736
True. No, no, no, don't get me wrong.
It's not sour grapes.
1481
01:33:25,003 --> 01:33:28,740
I've loved every, you know, moment
of the 16 years I've been doing it,
1482
01:33:29,007 --> 01:33:31,143
in total anonymity in the country I love,
1483
01:33:31,210 --> 01:33:37,282
and, uh...every delayed flight,
every Econo Lodge, I've loved it all,
1484
01:33:37,382 --> 01:33:43,288
playing the Comedy Pouch
in Possum Ridge, Arkansas, every three months,
1485
01:33:43,355 --> 01:33:45,390
it was my treat.
1486
01:33:45,457 --> 01:33:49,194
(Dwight) When I saw the Igby's tape,
it just flat out blew me away.
1487
01:33:49,294 --> 01:33:54,133
You listen to any set after he knew he was sick
and they're phenomenal, raging.
1488
01:33:54,199 --> 01:33:57,636
You can just feel
the, "I got to get this shit out."
1489
01:33:57,703 --> 01:34:01,039
I went in and I said, "I want to do a show
1490
01:34:01,039 --> 01:34:03,342
"where we rid the world
of all these fevered egos
1491
01:34:03,408 --> 01:34:05,611
"that are taking our collective unconscious,"
1492
01:34:05,677 --> 01:34:08,580
and the CBS guy goes, "Will there be titty?"
1493
01:34:08,647 --> 01:34:14,086
And I said, "Yeah, all right, sure. Uh...sure."
1494
01:34:14,153 --> 01:34:18,757
Boom! A check falls in my lap.
I'm a producer. We've had creative meetings.
1495
01:34:19,024 --> 01:34:22,628
"What are these titties gonna do?"
"Uh...jiggle?"
1496
01:34:22,694 --> 01:34:27,399
"Son, you're a genius.
Where have you been all our lives?
1497
01:34:27,499 --> 01:34:30,569
"Oh, at the Comedy Pouch
in Possum Ridge, Arkansas, you fuck.
1498
01:34:30,669 --> 01:34:33,505
"I had no idea if I said the word titty,
I'd get my own show,
1499
01:34:33,572 --> 01:34:37,743
"but damn it,
damn me for not thinking of that."
1500
01:34:38,010 --> 01:34:40,279
What does everyone love?
1501
01:34:41,413 --> 01:34:43,782
(Whispers) Titties. Yes.
1502
01:34:44,049 --> 01:34:46,318
(David) Kevin called me
and said, "Bill's coming over
1503
01:34:46,418 --> 01:34:48,520
"and he wants to talk to us about something."
1504
01:34:48,587 --> 01:34:51,657
And so when he came over,
we knew that something was wrong
1505
01:34:51,723 --> 01:34:56,461
because he was kind of weepy
and he was hugging us and saying he loved us
1506
01:34:56,562 --> 01:35:01,700
and then told us that he had cancer
and had been told that he was gonna die soon.
1507
01:35:01,967 --> 01:35:05,237
You know, it was just like that feeling
of just falling into a tunnel
1508
01:35:05,337 --> 01:35:08,440
and going, "Oh, God,
everything makes sense all of a sudden."
1509
01:35:08,507 --> 01:35:10,442
(James) He called and told me
1510
01:35:10,509 --> 01:35:13,178
and then asked me who he should tell,
1511
01:35:13,245 --> 01:35:15,581
whether he should tell other people or not.
1512
01:35:15,647 --> 01:35:17,749
"Of course you fucking...
1513
01:35:18,016 --> 01:35:21,620
"You know, these are your best friends.
You have to tell them."
1514
01:35:21,687 --> 01:35:25,023
It was just shock forever, you know.
Still can't believe it.
1515
01:35:25,123 --> 01:35:30,629
It always just seemed then,
as it seems now, that Bill is, uh...out of town
1516
01:35:30,696 --> 01:35:33,599
and he's mad at me
and he'll call me when he gets over it.
1517
01:35:33,665 --> 01:35:35,601
(Andy) An awful thing, but Bill's gonna beat it
1518
01:35:35,667 --> 01:35:39,671
and this has got to be
at least 20 minutes of material
1519
01:35:39,771 --> 01:35:43,675
and it's gonna be difficult
but he'll do it, he'll do it.
1520
01:35:43,742 --> 01:35:45,611
This fucking sucks. You're just like...
1521
01:35:45,677 --> 01:35:51,683
I'd lost my mom four years earlier
to the same thing, pancreatic cancer.
1522
01:35:51,750 --> 01:35:55,153
Only Bill, only Bill could that happen to.
1523
01:35:55,220 --> 01:35:57,689
I mean the timing of it was so Bill, you know?
1524
01:35:57,789 --> 01:36:01,360
He said, "John, you know,
everything that happens is right,
1525
01:36:01,460 --> 01:36:04,696
"and that the last thing
that you have is family.
1526
01:36:04,963 --> 01:36:08,133
"It's the only thing you truly have is family."
1527
01:36:08,233 --> 01:36:12,237
Which, of course, it goes without saying,
it never occurred to me.
1528
01:36:12,304 --> 01:36:15,374
(David) Right before we hung up
I said, "I'll see you again, "
1529
01:36:15,474 --> 01:36:18,443
and he said, "I know, " and hung up.
1530
01:36:18,510 --> 01:36:20,078
(Steve Hicks) He said, "I don't want to die.
1531
01:36:20,145 --> 01:36:22,981
"It is like the biggest joke on me
in the world.
1532
01:36:23,048 --> 01:36:26,318
"You know, here I've been a comedian
all my life, and now the big joke's on me,
1533
01:36:26,385 --> 01:36:29,187
"right when it was all coming together."
1534
01:36:29,988 --> 01:36:32,257
(Bill) ls there a point to all this?
Let's find a point.
1535
01:36:35,394 --> 01:36:38,530
Is there a point to my act?
I would say there is.
1536
01:36:40,432 --> 01:36:43,035
I have to.
1537
01:36:44,069 --> 01:36:46,338
The world is like a ride in an amusement park,
1538
01:36:46,405 --> 01:36:50,108
and when you choose to go on it, you think it's
real, cos that's how powerful our minds are,
1539
01:36:50,175 --> 01:36:53,679
and the ride goes up and down
and round and round, it has thrills and chills,
1540
01:36:53,779 --> 01:36:58,183
and it's very brightly colored
and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while.
1541
01:36:58,283 --> 01:37:00,285
Some people have been on the ride
for a long time
1542
01:37:00,352 --> 01:37:03,989
and they begin to question,
"Is this real or is this just a ride?"
1543
01:37:04,089 --> 01:37:07,326
And other people have remembered
and they come back to us and say, "Hey,
1544
01:37:07,392 --> 01:37:12,097
"don't worry, don't be afraid ever
because this is just a ride,"
1545
01:37:12,197 --> 01:37:14,733
and we kill those people.
1546
01:37:15,000 --> 01:37:16,535
Ha--ha!
1547
01:37:16,635 --> 01:37:21,640
"Shut him up. We have a lot
invested in this ride. Shut him up.
1548
01:37:21,740 --> 01:37:23,975
"Look at my furrows of worry.
1549
01:37:24,042 --> 01:37:29,981
"Look at my big bank account and my family.
This has to be real."
1550
01:37:30,082 --> 01:37:34,086
It's just a ride. But we always kill
those good guys who try and tell us that.
1551
01:37:34,152 --> 01:37:37,022
You ever notice that?
And let the demons run amok.
1552
01:37:37,122 --> 01:37:39,391
But it doesn't matter because...
1553
01:37:40,592 --> 01:37:44,996
it's just a ride
and we can change it any time we want.
1554
01:37:45,097 --> 01:37:49,167
It's only a choice. No effort. No work. No job.
No savings of money.
1555
01:37:49,267 --> 01:37:53,004
A choice right now between fear and love.
1556
01:37:53,105 --> 01:37:58,210
The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks
on your door, buy guns, close yourself off.
1557
01:37:58,276 --> 01:38:01,313
The eyes of love, instead,
see all of us as one.
1558
01:38:01,380 --> 01:38:05,684
Here's what we can do to change the world
right now to a better ride.
1559
01:38:05,951 --> 01:38:08,487
Take all that money we spend
on weapons and defense each year,
1560
01:38:08,553 --> 01:38:11,390
and, instead, spend it feeding, clothing
and educating the poor of the world
1561
01:38:11,490 --> 01:38:14,626
which it would many times over,
not one human being excluded,
1562
01:38:14,693 --> 01:38:18,530
and we can explore space together...
1563
01:38:18,630 --> 01:38:21,433
-- (Applause)
--..both inner and outer...
1564
01:38:21,500 --> 01:38:23,335
forever in peace.
1565
01:38:23,402 --> 01:38:27,372
Thank you very much.
You've been great. I hope you enjoyed it.
1566
01:38:27,472 --> 01:38:29,107
Thank you very much.
1567
01:38:29,174 --> 01:38:31,510
(Cheering and applause)
1568
01:39:08,280 --> 01:39:09,548
My mom called me the other day.
1569
01:39:09,614 --> 01:39:14,085
She's going, "Bill, honey,
it's your daddy's birthday tomorrow.
1570
01:39:14,186 --> 01:39:18,590
"I want you to call him up and wish him
a happy birthday. It'll mean so much to him.
1571
01:39:18,657 --> 01:39:20,358
"Please don't you forget to do that.
1572
01:39:20,459 --> 01:39:23,428
"It'll mean so much to him,
to wish him a happy birthday.
1573
01:39:23,495 --> 01:39:27,532
"Please do it for me, honey. Please."
I said, "OK, Mom, sure."
1574
01:39:27,632 --> 01:39:31,002
I called up my dad.
Said, "Dad, happy birthday."
1575
01:39:31,102 --> 01:39:34,005
He goes, "Thanks, son. Here's your mother."
1576
01:40:21,720 --> 01:40:25,156
(Lynn) I kind of look
at the audience out there too.
1577
01:40:25,257 --> 01:40:29,194
Are they going to be able to take
that inspiration that they fee/
1578
01:40:29,294 --> 01:40:32,030
and move it forward?
1579
01:40:32,130 --> 01:40:34,165
(Dwight) It's not enough
just to make jokes about it.
1580
01:40:34,232 --> 01:40:36,535
You have to kick over some tables.