"It's just a ride." - Billy Hicks

Did you hear the one about the comedian who found the path to enlightenment?

His name was Bill Hicks and he arrived crashing on the path sideways, brought forth by his many deeds which included acting as a self-appointed heat seeking missile for truth.

I personally believe Dale Carnegie would have cautioned Bill about accusing Hitler of being an underachiever.

A social commentator extraordinaire, Bill Hicks embellished the term "smoke 'em if you got 'em", and of course, he smoked enough of a God approved, righteous right rejected plant to heat all the homes in Minneapolis in the winter time.
Born in Valdosta, Georgia, in 1961 to Southern Baptist parents, Mary and Jim Hicks, William Melvin Hicks had a strong desire from childhood to become a comedian. He certainly achieved his dream but it was not an easy ride. Once started, it took him well over a decade to reach any level of real success, and at the peak of his fame he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Since his untimely death in 1994 at the age of 32, Bill Hick's fame sky-rocketed.

Hicks was a cynic of monstrous proportions, known as the outlaw comic and the dark poet, he was not afraid to lampoon anyone or any situation that he felt was unjust. A contentious and often caustic commentator of the politics of his day and a staunch critic of organized religion, Bill brought his tornado of rage to the stage. Apart from his condemnation of Bush and the first Iraq War, he was probably most famous for his defense of cigarette smoking, and would regularly puff away on stage, while cracking jokes about cancer and death.

Combined with his refusal to slam psychotropic drugs, his ridicule of his Deep Southern roots and his regular send up of Christians, led to the belief that Bill Hicks was not popular with everyone. In fact, during one performance Hicks had a gun pointed at him, and after another had his ankle broken by some punters who didn't take too kindly to his show.

Without a doubt Bill Hicks appealed to a certain section of society, and not everyone it would seem, even to this day, appreciated his idea of what was "funny."

Some people feel that his constant onstage ranting and raving like a demented angry mad person, was not entertaining, but just plain rude. Even his father never understood why he liked to use the "F" word in his routines, making the observation that great comedians such as Bob Hope never had to swear or "do blue" to get a laugh.

Others feel that Hicks was a political atheist, not a comedian, and therefore was not performing his role properly. Other detractors commented that he was a comedian but with a stoner philosophy, who made use of lazy shock tactics and half-baked philosophies.

It is therefore no surprise that since his death, Bill Hicks has become a "Truther's" pin up boy. "Truther" being the current moniker for modern-day conspiracy theorists of the more skeptical variety.

Likewise one begins to get an understanding why the British band "Radiohead" dedicated their second seminal album, "The Bends," to him. Ostensibly an album about front man Thom Yorke's miserable upbringing; the suffering of the guy with the lazy eye, it makes sense that another iconoclast with a dark sense of humor should make such a show of devotion.

During his lifetime, Bill Hicks' stand up comedy career was arguably more popular in the UK than it was in his homeland. This may be down to the fact that he was the first US comedian to come out and publicly criticize the Iraq War, something that was unheard of for American comedians at that time.

His vitriolic sarcasm seemed to find favor with the British sense of humor and appetite for stand up at that time; hence the UK's Channel 4 aired his shows virtually uncut, unlike the Letterman Show back home where his performances were often toned down. In fact his last show did not air at all which incited Bill to write a 39 page letter to The New Yorker which further confirmed his beliefs that television controlled society.

Despite this media blackout, Bill Hicks certainly lives on.

Even today, his performances are viewed many times over, with fans deriving countless hours of amusement from them. His comments about the Iraq War and the politics of the day seem to be timeless. Made all the more poignant by an almost scary duplication of US military intervention played out on the world's stage since his death, this has only served to deepen his popularity and cult status, with many a devout follower lamenting "Why didn't we listen to Bill Hicks?"

The fact that the political material remained timeless probably says more about American foreign policy than it does about Bill Hicks.

Of course, since his death there have been many imitators and so called pretenders to the throne; even before his death there was an uncanny similar routine on the comedy circuit covering cancer and smoking. Needless to say, Bill had about as much respect for imitators as he did hecklers.

There is also an army of people who are just as intent on making Bill Hicks their own cult figurehead. The cult of Bill Hicks supporters has ironically become almost a religion, the very thing that Bill Hicks appeared to oppose.

It is difficult to write a balanced portrait of Hicks, or come to an analysis of the man behind the stage veneer. And anyway why bother? To do so would be an insult to his memory. To Bill, "balanced" equated to "mediocre," and there is no worse sin that mediocrity.

Maybe the last word should go to Bill Hicks himself, his final written words, and those which were read out at his funeral:

"I left in love, in laughter, and in truth and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit."

As Bill said, "It's just a ride."