"Welcome to my show. Welcome to the Comedy of Hate!" - Bill Hicks.
Bill Hicks died on February 26th 1994, a marginal figure in the world of American stand-up comedy.
He had achieved remarkable success here in England, actually selling out a show at London’s Dominion Theatre,
but that same level of success always eluded him in his homeland of America. A crying shame as, in my opinion,
he was one of the bravest, most original and honest comedians that has ever walked the face of the Earth.
At the behest of a friend, I discovered the work of Hicks when Channel 4 first transmitted his show "Revelations"
and the title couldn’t have been more apt for me. Here was a comedian who seemed to say everything I thought,
but was afraid to say. Here was a comedian who not only matched, but exceeded, my own personal penchant for cynicism.
It’s at times like these that we need voices like Bill’s, people who aren’t afraid to take the unpopular stance when
it’s the right stance to take, someone who’ll stick two fingers up in the face of society’s move towards Right-Wing
Conservatism. Someone who… Oh sorry… Wrong meeting!!!
The work of Hicks is not for all tastes as he is a very hardcore (literally, some times) and abrasive comedian. I
would imagine that for every person who 'gets' him, there will likely be two or three more who will find themseves
offended. Which probably goes some way to explaining why Hicks remained a marginal figure in the U.S., a place where
a single exposed breast on TV can cause a moral panic. He seemed unable to get his message out to the masses because
the content of his material usually kept him off Network television.
So below we have reviews of the two works of Hicks’ that have made the journey to UK DVD. They’ve been a long time
coming, but have they been worth the wait?
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
"Welcome to my show. Welcome to the Comedy of Hate!" - Bill Hicks.