Bill Hicks - Sane Man

Rating NR Formats DVD Genre stand-up comedy Starring Bill Hicks Publisher Rykodisc External Links Official Site

Once upon a time, back when Debbie Gibson had the #1 record in America and dinosaurs ruled the Earth, I was exposed to legendary social commentator Bill Hicks and his scathing condemnation of our culture. Nothing was sacred to Bill as he attacked everything from our then-current Presidents Reagan and Bush, George Michael, nonsmokers, rockers against drugs, and the aforementioned Debbie Gibson and her little mall-spawned friend Tiffany. Brilliantly funny, brutally vulgar and completely honest, Bill Hicks quickly became one of my favorite people sharing oxygen on this planet. When I heard he'd finally passed away due to cancer (something Mr. Hicks openly admitted he'd expected for some time) I was saddened at humanity's loss for not being able to listen and learn from this remarkable individual any longer. Bill Hicks's popularity never really reached the mainstream success of his peers Sam Kinison, Eddie Murphy or Andrew "Dice" Clay, and even though those comedians were able to touch upon controversial topics, nobody was able to come close to the sheer number of issues and possible solutions to society's ills as Mr. Hicks. Whenever I would discuss Bill's work with, well, just about everyone and anyone, I found there were 2 types of people: those who loved him, or those who'd never even heard of him. And thus it became a mild obsession of mine to introduce people to the precious little work that had been released prior to Mr. Hicks's death.

Fortunately, this has become easier of late as Ryko has been re-issuing numerous unreleased and out-of-print material from the his catalogue. Sane Man is the latest offering in what promises to be a long list of items being rediscovered by the American public. Originally recorded in late 1989, this is listed as "a turning point in Bill's career" (according to the packaging, anyway). Although much of the material is a bit dated (after all, Debbie Gibson hasn't been anywhere near the pop charts in quite some time) many topics are still shockingly relevant. From eerily-familiar problems in the political climate, defining "taste" when it comes to choosing which celebrities to assassinate, asking the news to be more "objective" when dealing with issues like drugs ("I want to hear a positive drug story in the news, wouldn't you? Wouldn't that be great? 'Today, a young man dropped acid and discovered that we are all energy reduced to a slow vibration. Here's Tom with the weather!'" ) and much, much more.

What made Bill's work truly unique are the ideals of utopian society woven throughout the performance. Sure, there are, as he calls them, "dick jokes," but he doesn't drop to that level very often. You can almost tell he really didn't care for doing them much at the point of the concert's filming, for as much as they get a guaranteed laugh, they distract from the true meaning behind his pleas for evolving, "getting the fuck off this planet" and exploring the universe "in peace and harmony." Nice. I can totally relate to that, and not just because I wanted to be a spaceman as a kid - didn't you?

As for the program itself, there are a few minor flaws in the editing, but whether that's from the original edit or if this has been monkeyed with for the DVD release, I don't know. I do know that comedy is all about timing, and the weird, black-and-white images of Bill wandering around, smoking cigarettes, wandering around some more, which occasionally fading in and out of the show detract from the performance itself. Also, the occasional slow-motion accents to the show are distracting at best and annoying at their worst. (For example: there' s a moment where Bill imitates blowing his head off with two fingers representing a shotgun, and at the split second he screams "Bang!" , the slo-mo effect kicks in and drags out a quick punchline into something needlessly oppressive.)

Fortunately, there's enough bonus material to forgive these editing mistakes: outtakes, behind the scenes, and an additional performance from when Bill was a member of the Texas Outlaw comedian group (a group that also included the late Sam Kinison as a member).

All in all, this is a terrific DVD - but I must warn you, this material is NOT for everyone. This ain't no family-friendly Bill Cosby here. This is cynical stuff, loaded with sarcasm, irony, vulgarity, blasphemy, and more. It's howlingly funny and frighteningly honest to the point where Bill can make you laugh at things you wouldn't admit to your mother, but it's also important that you become aware of Bill's message of warning and hope for mankind. We need to wake up, walk out and fix the problems that are hindering our future from being as glorious as it deserves to be, and sometimes we need people like Bill Hicks to come along and jangle our nerves out of the lethargy brought by living day-to-day in this modern age.