American: The Bill Hicks Story Page #4

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I haven't come up with new material

in a long time,

and, I tell you what, there's nothing scarier,

especially for me out here, forsaking college

and an easier life, coming out here.

What happens if I am just not funny?

I have nothing. I am a bum.

I could be five years in the Store

and no one gives a sh*t there.

F*** doing this stuff.

LA wanted six minutes of clean

to do on the Tonight Show,

and, uh... that wasn't enough for Bill,

Bill wasn't growing enough.

The only way you could grow

was to get more stage time.

Bill had... you know, was a veteran.

For Christ's sake, he was 21 years old in 1982.

And he had been a comic for seven years.

Coming to LA was such a romantic

and meaningful and emotional experience

and then leaving was like a thief in the night

with every possession he has

streaming out of the back of his car,

Bill in his leather jacket with his guitar

and me going away with a knapsack to Oregon

just glad to be the hell out of there.

And knowing that we both had all the tools

we needed for the rest of our lives.

For Bill, that period in Los Angeles was when

he solidified his identity as a stand-up comic.

You know, it taught him how to be on his own,

to take his comedy seriously,

that this was what he was

gonna do for the rest of his life.

It strengthened him and wised him up.

But even when

he went to LA the first time,

I don't think Bill had really found his voice.

You could be liked and you could be doing

well, but that day you find your voice...

The difference is night and day.

Bill called me

and I thought he was still in LA.

He's like, "Guess what" and I was like, "What?"

He goes, "I'm here."

I was like, "What?" and he goes, "Yeah,

I'm here in Houston and guess what else.

"Me and you are gonna take

psychedelic mushrooms tonight. "

I was like, "Yeah, that's funny, Bill."

He's like, "No, Kevin,

it's not what you think it is. "

And if there was the only person

that could talk me into doing it, it was Bill.

And we took some mushrooms

in this vegetarian restaurant,

and we just laughed our asses off.

Only Bill would try hallucinogenics

before he tried alcohol.

He just had a whole new appetite, you know.

"I want to try everything."

When he came back to Texas

realising that the difference between where

he was and say where Richard Pryor was,

was a way big thing,

way bigger than he'd thought,

he knew that he was gonna

have to break moulds

and that it wasn't just enough

that he was the baby-faced kid.

And I don't think he knew exactly

where it was that he had to get to,

but he just knew that he wasn't there yet.

I think we left as kids

and came back as real seasoned comics.

Some sort of forces were moving

people from Houston together.

There were so many kindred spirits

and other comics

that made Houston different

from other parts of the country.

How many guys in here

just broke up with my girlfriend?

There were six of us at the time,

and it was founded by Steve Epstein.

I was more of the court jester

in a sense in that I was kind of goofy.

I... I say, Steve Epstein

was driving a 78 rabbit!

Ooh-orr!

He'd just flap around

like an unattended fire hose

but he got everything going.

Andy Huggins we met in LA.

I had a feeling Andy was more like

a Houston comic than an LA comic.

And after Armageddon, there'll be

a small reception at the Ramada Inn.

Jimmy talked me

into coming back to Houston.

He said, "You want to do stand-up?

We got more stage time for you here. "

That's all I needed to hear.

John Farneti was a very successful lawyer,

but just a terrific performer.

I was born in Wyoming. I lived there

until I learned how to read a road map.

I'd wanted to do it since I was six

but there was nowhere on earth to do it.

Then suddenly

there's this place where you just walk in

and people are lined up in the rain

to get in and see it.

And I wanted, like everybody,

to hang around with Bill Hicks.

Everyone knew he was

just head, shoulders, waist,

kneecaps and ankles above everybody else.

My problem with going to U of H,

I went there in the summer session.

All I had in all my classes were jocks

trying to make up credit, you know?

You know that feeling?

They weren't there to learn at all.

I remember the first day

of my eastern philosophy course.

The instructor walks out and goes,

"God is consciousness.

"And we are all God

trying to realise our full potential."

Wow.

This guy in the back row goes,

"Yeah, we gonna need to know that?

"Is that gonna be on the quiz?"

# Hey-hey, hey-hey, it's just a sunny day...

From the time he started taking

mushrooms and smoking cigarettes

to that night he first got drunk,

I think it was only a matter of months.

When the Comedy Annex started hopping for

the first time, it was an exciting place to be,

and it was the place to go every night

where there was drugs, alcohol and women.

We were there every night.

Pineapple

and Huggins were hysterical drunks,

so I think he was ready

to learn from us in other ways.

I remember he came up

to David Johndrow and I

and he was like, "I want to try a drink.

"What's a drink people drink?"

I said, "You want to try drinking

for the first time, order a margarita. "

Then he went up to the bar and goes,

"I'll have seven margaritas."

And he downed seven margaritas

and went up on stage.

He never drunk before,

and the bitterness came out for the first time,

it just came pouring out.

He was literally crawling around the stage

with a full house of 200 people watching him.

But he was still funny.

People were still laughing the whole time.

The drinking was a way

that he was able to have this breakthrough

of really going out on the edge and

not being concerned with people's reactions.

Then all of a sudden he could really be bold

and really say what he wanted

and not be concerned.

- How's your ex-girlfriend?

- Oh, my girlfriend! Thanks, pal!

Throw salt on the f***ing wound! Thanks a lot!

Why don't you just come up here

and throw salt on? Here's my heart. Throw salt.

Come on. Dig it in.

Yeah, my girlfriend left me. Five years.

I loved her more than anything

in the f***ing world and she just split on me.

Remember your first love?

Didn't that hurt? Isn't it hard to get over?

But I think it helped my career

when she left me.

Cos I'm a driven man now.

I was driven by a fantasy,

that one day, this girl who I loved more than

anyone in the world and I gave my heart to,

and she spat upon it and spun out the door,

one day this girl's gonna be living

in a trailer park somewhere in Oklahoma.

Swampy trailer ground

and clouds of Aids mosquitoes

swarming around her

and blocking out the light from the sun.

She has like nine

naked little kids with rickets.

They got birds in their hair

and jam on their face

and rats laying babies in their ears at night.

And they bring home dead animals

beside the road to eat.

And she lives with this ex-welder

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