American: The Bill Hicks Story Page #8

---

which is the freedom to burn the f***ing flag."

And as my friend Jimmy Pineapple would say,

case f***ing closed.

We filmed two sets that night.

His parents were there for the first set.

And now that he had gone sober,

I think they were just more proud of him

and I don't think Bill

was really censoring himself that much.

He'd kind of gone beyond that.

Bill's demeanour was different.

His eyes were brighter.

My thought was,

"Thank goodness that that's behind us."

I never said anything like that to Bill.

I just accepted him like he was.

- Watch this, Uncle Bill!

- Wow.

We did have this place south of Austin

called Wimberley,

and when he'd come to Austin,

Bill went down there with us.

You know, I think that he just really

got into the rhythm of this place,

which was a total getaway.

The cracker man.

All right. It's a duck frenzy.

Yeah!

Coming from the hecticness

of what he did, what all of us did,

that was a great little place

to spend a week, you know,

before he went back out and hit it again.

I really don't think

the full Bill kicked in until he went sober.

I really don't.

I think a lot of people were still

coming to see the shock jock comedian,

and now Bill was slipping in

some loftier ideas to lead people with.

You know, just because this is a comedy club

doesn't mean that we can't do

something more with this.

My clothes have got to be clean, Dad.

- We're gonna have to do them again.

- Well, that's right.

When I saw him in Chicago in 1989,

we hadn't seen each other for three years.

His life was completely on track

and he was beaming about it.

It's been a very exciting week for me

because I'm working with Dwight, who...

He and I started off doing comedy together

when we were 13 years old in Houston, Texas.

It's good to be in Chicago.

What a great town, man!

Went to Linkin Park Zoo.

How many people have been there?

A couple? Yeah?

Well, if you haven't been there,

I'll save you a little time.

I'll do a quick visual impression for you guys.

First time ever seen.

This is every animal in Linkin Park zoo.

Here we go. Save you some time. Ladies and

gentlemen, every animal in the Linkin Park Zoo.

What a f***ing rip-off.

We had

this unique relationship that...

I brought out things in him

that normally would not be brought out,

and he did the same thing.

What do you feel? What's inside you?

What makes you tick?

What fires you up? What pisses you off?

It's nice to have someone

in your life that's like that.

He brought that out of you.

He expected it out of you.

This is called logic. It won't hurt you, it'll

set you free. But we'll get to that later.

I think a lot of comics have confused

being a great comic with being like Bill Hicks.

Well, no, being a great comic has to do with

your inner voice matching your outer voice.

That's what Bill did.

His personality on stage was just

an animated extension of who he was.

Hey, get this, man. I was in Las Vegas, right?

I'm going to get an elevator at the hotel. I'm

smoking. There's a lady next to me coughing.

"Heh-hem! Heh-heh-heh-hem!"

Shut the f***...

I look out the window of the hotel and I see

the sunset, and it's green and purple,

and it's 3pm,

and then a mushroom cloud

forms in the desert,

and the hotel starts shaking

and every elevator stops working.

I was a little bit curious.

So I turn to this lady who lived in Las Vegas

and I say, "What was that?"

And she goes, "Oh! That's the army.

We don't know what they're doing out there.

"Ha-ha-ha!"

And you're worried about my cigarette smoke?

I would get a f***ing priority list happening.

And then I talked to people who lived in Vegas

and they go, "Well, they're 100 miles away."

Yeah, well, my little deodorant aerosol can is

I'll use Cheez Whiz aerosol, anything I want.

Shut up. Quit setting off nuclear bombs, OK,

it being our planet and all, don't you think?

What gives them the right to set off bombs?

Ha-ha! I love y'all.

He knew that he was

just formulated to be a comic

who was supposed to shake things up.

It's all about money, not freedom, y'all, OK?

Ha-ha. Nothing to do with f***ing freedom.

You think you're free?

Try going somewhere

without any f***ing money, OK?

When you laugh at 'em,

it makes you think about things

you hadn't thought about before.

It's about f***ing money, not about freedom.

Don't ever think that it is. Thank you. Sorry.

I am a child of God sent here

to bring salvation to the earth,

and you're welcome.

When people walked out of

his shows, they may not have admitted it,

but they just were changed a little bit.

He knew that he'd have problems

because he would be going to places that

his fan base, his audience, may not follow it.

As Bill evolved as a comedian,

the comedy clubs were probably de-evolving.

Please quit yelling, man.

It's not funny, it's stupid, it's repetitive

and why the f*** would you yell?

I'm serious.

OK, what does that mean now?

Now what does it mean?

I understand where it comes from. So do you.

Now what does it all mean?

What is the culmination of yelling that?

- Jimmy Shorts!

- He's not here. He's not gonna be here.

Now what? Now where are we? We're here at

you interrupting me again, you f***ing idiot.

Yes, we're here at the same point again

where you, the f***ing peon masses,

can once again ruin anyone

who tries to do anything

because you don't know

how to do it on your own!

That's where we're f***ing at once again,

the useless waste of f***ing flesh

that has ruined everything good

in this goddamn world!

People started to notice Bill

at this point.

You know,

a lot of the places I travelled to

to be able to experience that with him.

We were brothers, we were pretty close,

and that's what we did,

you know, going to Las Vegas for the first time

and being there on opening night

by request by Rodney Dangerfield.

You know, and it was cool being backstage

at the filming of an HBO

One Night Stand special.

From the Vic Theatre in Chicago,

please welcome Bill Hicksl

Good evening, brothers and sisters,

friends and neighbours,

vibrations in the mind of the one true God

whose name is love.

How many smokers do we have here tonight?

That's a lot of energy for you f***ers.

That's good. Usually you get...

Thank you, guys, thank you.

Next time I need you, just hawk up

a chunk of lung for me, all right?

Rear back, launch a phlegm gem

towards the stage.

But listen to this.

How many non-smokers do we have here?

Bunch of whining little maggots.

You obnoxious,

self-righteous...

slugs.

Don't take that wrong.

I'd quit smoking

if I didn't think I'd become one of you.

But you got to understand something.

I don't do anything else. I don't drink.

Now, a lot of you non-smokers are drinking,

OK? I'm a non-drinker and I smoke.

Now, to me, we're trading off vices.

That seems fair to me.

Yeah. Little f***. "No, it's not. No, it's not.

"Why should our lives be threatened by your

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes