Bill Hicks draw and appeal many years after he died can be can be summed up in the fact this screening of a British made documentary was completely sold out.Im glad i managed to get tickets quite a while beforehand.
Like many Jazz and Blues Singers of previous generations , Bills art was so far ahead of what the American mainstream could palate that is was more valued and understood in Britain than the States.The British quite simply got him, having seen the success and failings of Empire and knowing victory does not last forever and crippling defeat is sure to come.
A true comedian is really a philosopher as opposed to a gagteller , the role of a comedian in our society is to tell the truth politicians do not want the public to realise.
Bill , after many adventures , reached a special boundary a genuine true artist reaches when the inner self is at communion with the external expression.He was in , as they say , the zone at a time when the country to which he had the patriotic duty to tell the basic truths , which are always universal and last forever , was not prepared to countenance or even listen.
This documentary is , ironically , an attempt by devoted British filmmakers to make Bill Hicks as big and respected a figure in the US as he is here.
After the showing there was a Q&A session with the filmmakers who stated the film was eventually whittled down to a manageable length from over 325 hours of taped video interviews.
One final late tribute to Bill Hicks was when the one show that gave a mainstream platform but then unfairly cut his set because they felt is was too much for the audience to handle made a very belated amends by airing , 15 years too late , the very sketch that was cut.In a way it is an emotional reminder to how much Bills legacy has pierced the mainstream and also how much the demand for the alternative non-establishment narrative the American Public craves has changed what the Big channels are willing to broadcast.
It comes in 3 parts:
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