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:7 Books
Games
109 Timesplitters 2
Video/
1 1 0 Spider-Man
Shopping
1 12 Retro interior stores
Food
1 14 Takeaway soup
102 Donna Tartt, Kurt Cobain
Records ' _
1 1 1 Daniel Deronda
a... ~ 106 Rock Mess Monsters
COMEDY RECORDS
BILL HICKS
Flying Saucer Tour vol 1/Love, Laughter and Truth (RkadISCl 0.... O...
t’s just a ride. Bill Hicks’ mantra for life. Like all trips,
though, it had to come to an end, but most would agree that
the age of 32 was way too soon for 90$ America’s hottest comic (and one of its harshest critics) to be taken from us. You can only imagine the fun Hicks would have had with Monica Lewinsky, Enron and Bush Jr.
Eight years on from his death from pancreatic cancer, and the Hicks brigade is arguably bigger and more passionate than in his heyday where his line was so hard that a regular slot on The David Letterman Show was cancelled without explanation. But deep down, Hicks knew. His views on the Gulf War, pornography, drugs and beaches were so anti-Apple Pie that the establishment couldn’t quite handle his rhetoric.
In this latest double bill culled from the awesome reels of tapes Hicks recorded and filed away, his skill as a preacher is confirmed. He may have rejected his religious South upbringing but through it he learned the power of big ideas and how much more potent they could be when delivered with fire and brimstone.
In Flying Saucer Tour vol 1, Hicks’ Pittsburgh crowd proves to be no easy ride; a mixture of them not quite getting it and him being forced to perform in a non-smoking venue merely served to heighten the tension and keep him up on his toes. The result
Travel
1 16 Clubbing in Belgium
FLYING SAUCBR TOUR
is comedy gold. Routines about sex adverts (you’ll never look at a trucker in the same way again), Freud’s mum (you may never look at your own mother the same way again), US military techniques in the Middle East as well as the virulence of his assaults on a lukewarm crowd make for much queasy listening.
Love, Laughter and Truth is equally as sharp but suffers marginally through being edited together from several shows whose sound qualities are distinctly varied. Some of the material here though, is among his finest examples of crowd control: in ‘Speaking of Homosexuality’, the skit veers towards dodgy anti-gay attitudes before eventually leaving the hooting homophobes floundenng.
Not that anyone would ever have accused Bill Hicks of being stridently PC: ‘A Question for the Ladies’ more or less posits the notion that women should put expertise in fellatio at the top of their life’s ambition.
Hicks was a challenge. He may have hated Republicans, the war on drugs, MTV, marketing and fundamentalist Christianity, but he also had a problem with himself. He loathed his swinging moods, resented his background and felt bad about being in a business that ultimately could do little to change the world. But if there’s anyone in living memory who came close to revolutionising stand-up, the boy from Valdosta, Georgia was the one. (Brian Donaldson)
You can only imagine the fun he would have had with Monica Lewinsky, Enron and Bush Jr
1.2 (’1‘) N02 POL)? THE LIST 101