Hi, and welcome to my website about the late American comedian, Bill Hicks. Although this is a fansite, I have
also written a little about Bill's influences, such as Chomsky, Jung, the "we are all one consciousness" part of Bill's
act, and spirituality. If any of this interests you, why not post a message on my forum!
Namaste, Saz
"Well folks, this is a sentimental evening for me -- this is my final live performance. The last I'll ever do ever. No biggie, no hard feelings, no sour grapes whatsoever. I've been doing this every day for sixteen years and I enjoyed every second of it. Every plane flight every delay every canceled flight every lost lost luggage living in hotel rooms every broken relationship playing the comedy pouch in Possum Ridge Arkansas every fuckin' year it's been great -- don't get me wrong. I'm just very tired, very tired of doing comedy, very tired of seeing your vacant faces staring back at me wanting me to fill your empty lives with humor you couldn't possibly think of yourselves."
Influences: Note - I don't cover comedy influences here, but for those I recommend Paul Outhwaite's book, One Consciousness.
Watching the news can be depressing. The same spin by the governments, the same bias from the media. Watching Bill perform is cathartic, someone standing up and saying things which need to be said. He screams and shouts things you want to scream and shout about, he rips through the haze of rhetoric that keeps the masses herded and unthinking. In his act, he goes to places most comedians would not dare visit, whilst acknowledging the potentially damaging effect on his career: "Where's Bill going? Comedy death!"
I only heard of Bill a couple of years ago, yet his observations have left a deep impact on me. The point of Bill's humour was not cheap shocks. He really cared about the things he talked about, and the fact was that he made current affairs searingly funny. To visit the official Bill Hicks site, click here!
Hicks would always charge right into the most delicate and taboo areas of our society. Covering topics ranging from pro-lifers to religion, Bill was not prepared to settle for any hypocrisy, or take any bullshit. On the subject of music, nothing annoyed him more than bland, manufactured pop-music, and when talking about MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice (remember them?!), he was very, very funny.
Another influence in Bill's life was the psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung. It seemed that Bill genuinely believed that humans are still evolving. The next stage in our evolution, he believed, was a spiritual one. "folks, it's time to evolve ideas. we.. you know, evolution did not end with us growing thumbs. you do know that, right? it didn't end there. we're at the point now where we... we're going to have to evolve ideas. the reason the world is so fucked up is because we're undergoing evolution, and the reason our institutions, our traditional religions are all crumbling is because they're no longer relevant." His belief, "we are all one consciousness, experiencing itself subjectively", is quite a profound idea. (If you want to explore this idea further, I recommend the book, The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot). Hicks believed that we can help the evolutionary process by way of raising the level of the collective unconscious (Jung's term for the level of the human psyche that contains content inherited from others (manifested through cultural myth)). "The collective unconscious contains the whole spiritual heritage of mankind's evolution, born anew in the brain structure of every individual."[The Structure of the Psyche," Collected Works 8, par. 342.] (Interestingly, the idea of the "whole within the part", also ties back to "The Holographic Universe". Read it - it's good!
If you are interested in matters of a spiritual nature, (and don't want to try Bill's hallucinogenic mushroom route!) I would recommend The Prophet's Way by Thom Hartmann, and also the Conversations With God series, by Neale Donald Walsch. These books have left a deep impact on me. If you believe in only one religion, and have an idea of God as a vengeful entity, then be warned, you may struggle with some of the ideas presented in these books. If, however, you believe that you don't need to belong to any 'religious club', in order to find God, then you might find the above books of interest. They do not try to 'convert' anyone, but instead explore more open-minded possibilities.
To me, watching Hicks serves as a reminder that we can never become politically lazy or complacent. Hicks was saying, "look what the people in power can get away with if we let them". One obvious reference to place here is Hitler's Germany. One way in which to prevent that from happening again is if we constantly challenge what we are told. I think much of Hicks' anger stemmed from the seeming levels of apathy displayed in the face of really dodgy evidence (Kennedy). All of what Hicks wanted to achieve is never more relevent than today, with wars being waged again on what appears to be quite flimsy 'evidence'.
Right, after this little ramble, time for some more fun stuff!
**Warning: some of the quotes below may be offensive to some!**
"A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. Do you think when Jesus comes back, he's really going to want to see a fucking cross? Ow! Maybe that's why he hasn't shown up yet...it's like going up to Jackie Onassis wearing a rifle pendant...just thinking of John..."
"Frightening people man. Bush tried to buy votes towards the end of the election. Goes around, you know, selling weapons to everyone, getting that military industrial complex vote happening for him. Sold 160 fighter jets to Korea and then 240 tanks to Kuwait and then goes around making speeches why he should be Commander-in-Chief because, "We still live in a dangerous world."...Thanks to you, you fucker!"
"Unbelievable. And you know what's wild, people's, attitudes in the States about it. Talking about Kennedy, people come up to me: "Bill, quit talking about Kennedy, man. Let it go. It's a long time ago - just forget about it."And I'm like alright, then don't bring up Jesus to me! As long as we're talking shelf life here. "Bill, you know Jesus died for you." Yeah, well it was a long time ago. Forget about it!"
"Get this, I actually asked one of these guys, OK, Dinosaurs fossils - how does that fit into you scheme of life? Let me sit down and strap in. He said, "Dinosaur fossils? God put those there to test our faith." I think God put you here to test my faith, Dude. You believe that? "uh huh." Does that trouble anyone here? The idea that God.. might be.. fuckin' with our heads? I have trouble sleeping with that knowledge. Some prankster God running around: "Hu hu ho. We will see who believes in me now, ha ha." [mimes God burying fossils] "I am God, I am a prankster." "I am killing Me."
Quit putting a godamm dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet!
"Ooh, the anger dollar. Huge. Huge in times of recession. Giant market, Bill's very bright to do that." God, I'm just caught in a fucking web! "Ooh the trapped dollar, big dollar, huge dollar. Good market - look at our research. We see that many people feel trapped. If we play to that and then separate them into the trapped dollar..." How do you live like that? And I bet you sleep like fucking babies at night, don't you?"
And Bill, lamenting how you never see a positive drug story on the news..."Today, a young man on acid realised that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration and that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and you are the imagination of yourself. Here's Tom with the weather...!"
"We have 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 just has to be real." Just a ride. But we always kill those 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 anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A 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 that we spend on weapons and defences each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace. Thank you very much, you've been great."
Bill Hicks (December 16, 1961 -- February 26, 1994)
