Help me find this Bill Hicks video.

December 11, 2003 3:45 AM

Any Bill Hicks fans here? For months i've been trying to track down a video of Bill Hicks' infamous 12th standup appearance on the David Letterman show in 1993, that was axed at the last minute and never shown. Does anyone know if it is available anywhere?
posted by derbs to Media & Arts (16 answers total)

Not sure where the video itself is available, but you might be interested in Trio's Outlaw Comic: The Censoring of Bill Hicks: "The program includes a nightclub performance by Hicks which features the same material he used in his infamous 12th and final Letterman appearance, which was completely edited from the show due to its controversial content."
posted by ericost at 5:31 AM on December 11, 2003

This is not an answer so much as a comment, and may be therefore against emerging AxMe etiquette, but much as I love some of Hicks' material, he really did suck quite badly, quite often, from the Lenny Bruce perspective or from the, you know, funny perspective.

No offense to his fans, but many of the 'shows' I've heard (and I've listened to quite a few) weren't really that great, or that smart, or, to be honest, that funny, other than occasional flashes of brilliance (in my opinion of course), and I'm interested to hear a reasoned discussion of why he's attained, posthumously or before, such a rep...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:42 AM on December 11, 2003

Which is not to say that he didn't have some brilliant bits : he did.

Just not that many.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:43 AM on December 11, 2003

Stavros: agreed. I never understood the Church of Hicks.

derbs: You've asked around here?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:04 AM on December 11, 2003

I think I saw that way late one night on 'reality expander' on cable access in Austin. Contact sacredcow. They'd know if such footage exists. There's also another cable access show called 'the show with no name' that often plays rare clips from everywhere. You might want to drop a line to charlie(at)showwithnoname.com to see if he knows of it.
posted by birdherder at 6:21 AM on December 11, 2003

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions, I think i'll email SacredCow with a query. I had a look at the billhicks.com message board and decided to avoid it :)

Anyway I guess you either love Hicks or you hate him. He did some crap, sure, but this (Amazon link) is quite possibly the funniest thing i've ever seen.
posted by derbs at 7:07 AM on December 11, 2003

what I'm wondering is, if you guys don't think Hicks is funny, which modern-era comedian actually passes your "yeah, he's funny" test?

Seinfeld?

*shudder*

posted by matteo at 8:10 AM on December 11, 2003

Eddie Izzard.
Smart without being political. Eccentric but not obnoxious. Hardly ever insults anyone (except himself).
posted by anastasiav at 8:31 AM on December 11, 2003

I'd like to listen to some of this guy's stuff. Anyone know of available audio on the net?
posted by JollyWanker at 11:20 AM on December 11, 2003

That footage isn't available. The only known copy was given to Bill's mom, and she won't release it. His parents never much approved of his choice of material. However, that 12 minutes was not the only time he performed that material, so the content is available, just not that performance. Unfortunately, without pulling out all my Hicks crap, I couldn't tell you which CD/live performance includes it...but the Trio show linked above includes it as well.

Jolly, go to the Sacred Cow link above. The guy who runs it was Bill's best friend for most of their lives. He's got a whole bunch of audio and video.
posted by dejah420 at 2:23 PM on December 11, 2003

Q: "I'm looking for a printer that will work with a Mac."
A: "Macs suck."

Come on, stav.
posted by scarabic at 4:24 PM on December 11, 2003 [1 favorite]

Well, I did start with an apology.

And Hicks didn't suck, he just sucked sometimes. Which is more often than I've observed most Highly Venerated Performers suck. So I was curious, that's all.

Still, sorry. Didn't mean to knock over anyone's cow.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:39 AM on December 12, 2003

Response by poster: Thanks for the info dejah420 (if you're still reading!)
posted by derbs at 4:13 AM on December 12, 2003

stavro, you didn't give him a qualified praise, you gave him a qualified disrespect. Which he doesn't deserve. If your complaint is that he wasn't brilliant ALL the time, then I'd hate to hear your take on... well any artist. Which surprises me because I'm usually excited to see your opinions on things. But I know you can't hit it 100% of the time. Perhaps you prove your own point. Still, I'd like to hear what you think some of his moments of brilliance were. Really.
posted by squirrel at 5:44 PM on December 15, 2003

This might jog your memory.
posted by squirrel at 6:37 PM on December 15, 2003

I'd like to listen to some of this guy's stuff. Anyone know of available audio on the net?

Bill Hicks Bootleg Archive.
posted by ceiriog at 6:10 AM on December 16, 2003