Bill Hicks

“Where I come up with materials, particularly is… it’s very simple: anything that defies my sense of reason. I don’t look outside myself for answers. I kinda feel like everyone has a voice of reason inside them. I believe it’s been quelled to a large degree by our multimedia society that we live in but anything that defies my voice of reason comes out and you hold it up to the light of reason, that’s the premise, and then you start nailing it, and those are the jokes until what’s left is a laughter, I think, of recognition of the truth.”

– Bill Hicks
1961 – 1994
(transcribed from his last interview on CapZeyeZ Public Viewing)

With his acerbic wit and relentless attack on falsehoods to get at that rare nugget of truth, Bill Hicks set the gold standard for what comedy should be.

Considered by many to be his opus magnum, Rant in E-Minor was released three years along with Arizona Bay, another album, three years after his death.

Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Hicks never had any anger about his condition. Instead, in a race against time, Hicks went about his tours, spreading about his gospel one stand-up at a time.

He played his last show on January 6 and spent his last remaining moments in his parents’ house in Little Rock, Arkansas. On February 26, Hicks left this mortal coil in hope.

He was only 32.

~ by croatoa on February 23, 2007.