Bill Hicks: A Man Ahead Of His Time

"We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free."

If you have not heard of comedian Bill Hicks, you need to get your life in order. Hicks is one of the rare comics who can make you think beyond the joke. Like Bruce, Carlin, and Pryor before him, he spawned many comics that are making us laugh while turning the world around us around, just a little, so we can get a better look at the absurdity of our society and culture.

"Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye."

"Children are smarter than any of us. Know how I know that? I don't know one child with a full time job and children."

Hicks died of cancer in 1994, but is more popular now than he has ever been. The topics he was tackling at that time are still very relevant today. War, drugs, politics, personal freedom, and how we treat the less fortunate. There is a message to his comedy and when you see him really starting to get into it, you know he is coming from a real place. The comics that have followed in his footsteps include Doug Stanhope, Bill Burr, and Joe Rogan. Kick ass comedians who push the line between what's funny and what's funny but shouldn't be.

 "I love the Pope, I love seeing him in his Pope-Mobile, his three feet of bullet proof plexi-glass. That's faith in action folks! You know he's got God on his side.”

"They lie about marijuana. Tell you pot-smoking makes you unmotivated. Lie! When you're high, you can do everything you normally do, just as well. You just realize that it's not worth the fucking effort."

The BBC just released "American: The Bill Hicks Story" last week on DVD/Blu Ray and I highly recommend it. There are quite a few of  his bits on You Tube also. Do yourself a favor and give a few some of your time. I have been captivated by how he viewed the world and I have found myself realizing that he was spot on about quite a bit. One drawback for me....after seeing him for the first time, I realized that there is no reason for me to even try.

"It's just a ride and we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money, a choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one."