Bill Hicks Biography| Wiki
Bill Hicks born William Melvin Hicks was an American stand-up comedian, satirist, social critic, and musician. His material touched on a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy.
Bill Hicks Age| Birthday
William Melvin Hicks was born on December 16, 1961, and lived for 32 years dying in 1994.
Bill Hicks Religion
Hicks began to mock his family’s Southern Baptist religious beliefs. Once he told his father that Beliefs are neat and that he should cherish them, but he shouldn’t share them like they’re the truth. Hicks was however into Transcendental Meditation and other forms of spirituality. Over one Thanksgiving weekend, Hicks and his friends undertook a transcendental meditation residence course in Galveston. Hicks’s parents were worried about his rebellious nature and took him to a psychoanalyst at age 17. According to Hicks, the analyst took him aside after the first group session and told him, “You can continue coming if you want to, but it’s them, not you.”
Bill Hicks Death |What Did Bill Hicks Die Of?
Hicks’s death was caused by pancreatic cancer. He died on February 26, 1994, at the age of 32. His body was buried in their family grave plot in Magnolia Cemetery, Leakesville, Mississippi.
Bill Hicks Net worth
Before his death, Hicks secured a net worth of 10 million dollars. Most of his wealth came from a career as a comedian. Touring across Europe and the USA, while performing his stand up comedies, the shows, all of this added weight in his bank account. Aside from that, he also did some music, most of his albums are still doing good in the music market.
Bill Hicks Cancer
On June 16, 1993, Hicks was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that had spread to his liver. This made him start receiving weekly chemotherapy, while still touring and also recording his album, ‘Arizona Bay’ with Booth. At around that time, he was also working closely with comedian Fallon Woodland on a pilot episode of a new talk show, titled Counts of the Netherworld for Channel 4 at the time of his death. After being diagnosed with cancer, Hicks would often joke that any given performance could be his last; the public, however, was unaware of his condition, and only a few close friends and family members knew of the disease and how serious it had affected him.
Bill Hicks Comedian | Bill Hicks Stand Up
Hicks was drawn to comedy at an early age, taking his time to study the likes of Woody Allen and Richard Pryor, and would write routines with his friend Dwight Slade. At school, he began performing comedy for his classmates. While at home, he would write his own one-liners and slide them under the bedroom door of Steve, the only family member he respected, for critical analysis. At the age of 16, while still in high school, Hicks had already begun performing at the Comedy Workshop located in Houston, Texas. During the 1980s, he toured the U.S. extensively and made a number of high-profile television appearances which catapult him to fame, but it was in the UK that he amassed a significant fan base, filling large venues during his tour scheduled for 1991.
Bill Hicks Relentless
Hick’s first recording titled Relentless was recorded at the Centaur Theatre in 1992 during the annual Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Despite the common title, the CD was recorded at a separate performance, after the Just for Laughs festival had closed.
Bill Hicks Book
Hick’s collection of his write-ups titled: ‘Love All The People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines‘ is a posthumously released collection of his routines, letters, and lyrics. It was first published on February 2004 in the UK (ISBN 1-84119-878-1), then later during the year in November 2004 in the US (ISBN 1-932360-65-4). A second edition that was more detailed and expanded was published In May 2005. The book is a chronological selection of his works from throughout his career, presenting the gradual evolution of his attitudes and style, with a foreword from John Lahr.
Bill Hicks, It’s Just A Ride | It’s Just A Ride Bill Hicks
After Hicks recorded the Revelations video for Channel 4, He closed the show with his soon-to become-famous philosophy regarding life, “It’s Just a Ride.
“The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly colored, and it’s very loud, and it’s fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to wonder, “Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?” And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, “Hey, don’t worry; don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.” And we … kill those people. “Shut him up! I’ve got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real.” It’s just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok … But it doesn’t matter, because 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 of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.”
Bill Hicks Sane Man
In 1989, s the first officially video recorded Bill Hicks show he released his first video, Sane Man; a remastered version with 30 minutes of extra footage was released in 1999.
Bill Hicks Heckler
Another of Hicks’ most quoted lines was delivered during a gig in Chicago in 1989 which was later released as the bootleg I’m Sorry, Folks. After a heckler repeatedly shouted “Free Bird”, Hicks screamed, “Hitler had the right idea; he was just an underachiever!” Hicks followed this remark with a clarification regarding the comment, calling for unbiased genocide against the whole of humanity.
Bill Hicks Girlfriend
While on stage, Hicks once said a joke regarding his girlfriend and his detest for getting children.’ That’s why my girlfriend and I broke up: she wanted kids, and I… well, she wanted kids. I had no idea her philosophy was flawed. She goes, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a kid? To have this fresh, clean slate which we could fill. A little clean spirit, innocent, and to fill it with good ideas.” Yeah, yeah, how about this? If you’re so fucking altruistic, why don’t you leave the little clean spirit wherever it is right now? Okay? Horrible act, childbirth. Nightmare. Bringing… I would never bring a kid to this fucking planet.’
Bill Hicks Last Show
He performed the final show of his career at Caroline’s in New York on January 6, 1994; before moving back to his parents in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he met his death.
Bill Hicks Last Words
His family released a brief essay that Hicks had written the week before his death that reads: “I was born William Melvin Hicks on December 16, 1961, in Valdosta, Georgia. Ugh. Melvin Hicks from Georgia. Yee Har! I already had gotten off to life on the wrong foot. I was always “awake,” I guess you’d say. Some part of me clamoring for new insights and new ways to make the world a better place.
All of this came out years down the line, in my multitude of creative interests that are the tools I now bring to the Party. Writing, acting, music, comedy. A deep love of literature and books. Thank God for all the artists who’ve helped me. I’d read these words and off I went – dreaming my own imaginative dreams. Exercising them at will, eventually to form bands, comedy, more bands, movies, anything creative. This is the coin of the realm I use in my words – Vision.
On June 16, 1993, I was diagnosed with having “liver cancer that had spread from the pancreas.” One of life’s weirdest and worst jokes imaginable. I’d been making such progress recently in my attitude, my career and realizing my dreams that it just stood me on my head for a while. “Why me!?” I would cry out, and “Why now!?”
Well, I know now there may never be any answers to those particular questions, but maybe in telling a little about myself, we can find some other answers to other questions. That might help our way down our own particular paths, towards realizing my dream of New Hope and New Happiness.
Amen.
I left in love, in laughter, and in truth and wherever truth, love, and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.”
Bill Hicks Biopic
In 2012, Russell Crowe announced that he would direct a Bill Hicks biopic. Initially, Crowe was thought to be playing Hicks, but Mark Staufer, the actor’s schoolmate and writer on the film, suggested the part is now open for casting. Production was expected to start in 2013, but, as of 2018, no further announcements regarding the film’s progress had been made. On October 28, 2018, it was announced that Richard Linklater was set to direct a biopic about Hicks.
Bill Hicks Quotes
”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. There is a difference.”
“Here is my final point…About drugs, about alcohol, about pornography…What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, or take into my body as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet? And for those who are having a little moral dilemma in your head about how to answer that question, I’ll answer it for you. NONE of your fucking business. Take that to the bank, cash it, and go fucking on a vacation out of my life.”
“Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.
“We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.”
Bill Hicks Album
Official albums
- Dangerous (1990)
- Relentless (1992)
- Arizona Bay (1997)
- Rant in E-Minor (1997)
- Philosophy: The Best of Bill Hicks (2001)
- Love, Laughter, and Truth (2002)
- Flying Saucer Tour Vol. 1 (2002)
- Shock and Awe (2003)
- Salvation (2005)
- The Essential Collection (2010)
Bill Hicks Collection
Annex Houston released in 1986 was a video of an early stand-up performance by Hicks recorded live in Texas.
Sane Man released in 1989 is the first officially video recorded Bill Hicks show.
Ninja Bachelor Party is a 1991 low-budget comedy film produced by and starring Bill Hicks, Kevin Booth, and David Johndrow. It is a parody of martial arts movies and was intentionally dubbed improperly.
One Night Stand is a 1991 HBO stand-up series that first aired on February 15, 1989. The half-hour series aired weekly and featured stand-up comedy specials from some of the top-performing comedians. The series originally comprised 55 specials over the course of its four years on HBO.
Relentless was recorded in 1992 at the Centaur Theatre during the annual Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Despite the common title, the CD was recorded at a separate performance, after the Just for Laughs festival had closed.
Revelations released in 1992, is a live performance that Hicks performed at the Dominion Theatre, London in November 1992.
A documentary titled American: The Bill Hicks Story, based on interviews with his family and friends, premiered on March 12, 2010, at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.