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BILLHICKS-BURNING-ISSUES-FLAG

Date: 27 Sep 2021
By: dave hogerty
Comment: Comments are off

Colors …
This is a Voyage into Sound
inst. of change (ELECTRIC GUITAR)
the players
THE INSTRUMENTS OF NOISE.
The Original Color of Sin (BLUE)

Bill Hicks

“Burning Issue”

The Gospel According To Bill Hicks.
1989 — Dangerous (For the Record)
((( American Screamer )))


dave.

Late one night in a small, New York City comedy club, Bill Hicks expressed his honest opinion about a group of U.S. Senators, including Hillary Clinton, who voted to make burning an American Flag a crime. That night, as always, Bill was viciously funny when letting the thirty people in the room know how he felt about BURNING AN AMERICAN FLAG.

“THE GOAT BOY RISES (HERE)
by John Lahr (The New Yorker)
One of the most enduring documents of Bill’s life as a Stand Up comedian was John Lahr’s story, written for The New Yorker (Nov. 1, 1993).

After receiving a 13-page letter Bill had written angrily the day after CBS refused to air his 12th Late Night with David Letterman performance, Lahr, a friend of Bill, decided to write the story.

As a young boy in America, I was always told I could grow up to be anything I wanted to be. I could be a Fireman, a Policeman, a Doctor, and then, for the first time, something called an Astronaut.

— Bill Hicks (“Revelations”)

Of course Stand Up Comedian is a job that wouldn’t have been on any young American boy’s list, not even Bill’s. By the time he was 14, though, Bill’s mind has been made.

He dreamed of the idea of being paid to stand alone in a spotlight, aggressively expressing his razor-sharp opinions to anyone listening.

For 20 years, the stage sustained Bill, and he evolved to become one of stand up comedy’s most significant figures. In thoughtful conversation, Bill is mentioned alongside Lenny Bruce
Dick Gregory
George Carlin
Richard Pryor.

Not only did Bill realize his boyhood American dream, at the time of his death, had earned Universal respect. He was a comedic orator whose social commentary was thoughtful and smart, often pornographic, and always viciously funny.

October 7, 1993 — This (bootleg) recording is Bill Hicks at The Comedy Corner in West Palm Beach, Florida,  the week after CBS refused to air his twelfth (and last) Late Night with David Letterman performance.Still emotional, on what he had called his home stage for the last two years, Bill does the same set CBS had rejected, and after goes into a long, passionate, and revealing description of what he called a 10-year “abusive relationship” with David Letterman.

Bill Hicks “The Goat Boy Rises”
Bill Hicks “UnResurrected”
Bill Hicks vs. War
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BILL HICKS
TRUTH BE TOLD
Bill Hicks (Contents)

The New Yorker

October 7, 1993 — THE MOURNING AFTER
That night at the Comedy Corner in West Palm Beach, 150 filled the club, all anxious to hear Bill … 150 who knew what to expect.

(( 1.))  Jesus Is No Joke.

 

The End is Near
(( 2.)) What’s So Funny about Network Television?

 

Why not a fish left Lincoln Logs in my sock drawer … As long as we’re making shit up?”

It was in Bill’s comedic nature to speak out and mock fascists and the dishonest marketing and advertising industries in which a good liar knows how to cash in. Taking advantage of the “blind faith” Christians who abound, and who crave the lie they want to believe.

As we listened, though, we noticed a change in Bill’s normally pornographic delivery. It was surprising to hear Bill say “stuff,” when we knew he meant “shit,” and in the first ten minutes, a “fuck” hadn’t been heard.

Then Bill explained the unexpected cleaned up delivery. He had repeated, word-for-word, the set he had done the previous Friday on Late Night with David Letterman. But in its puritanical, “protect-the-children,” dumb-it-down-for-Middle-America way, CBS STANDARDS AND PRACTICES determined that Bill’s reference to Christianity was inappropriate for the Late Night audience.

Bill’s 13th, and what wound up his last, performance with David Letterman wasn’t aired that night (October 1, 1993). 

This recording was made by Jim Morin (Miami Herald Editorial Cartoonist) with a primitive, hand-held cassette tape recorder, sitting in the middle on our table.

It was no surprise when Bill opened the set with a scathingly pointed criticism of the way our fucked up society celebrates Easter, but it was a surprise when he used the word “stuff,” rather than “shit,” and he was obviously omitting the word “fuck,” in all the expected places.

And then, with always good timing, he explained himself, and went into a (funny and sincere) description of his decade-long, dysfunctional relationship he had with David Letterman and Network Television.

The Palm Beach Story
BRUCE HELANDER
THE GUIDE
North End with pool in front (beyond the hedge)
Root Trail (Coca Cola Wall, “Atlantic Avenue,” Dana Gould)
Clematis Street Loft (Renaissance)
West Palm Beach (CEMETERY)
“The Salesman” b/ Duane Hansen

Teddy’s Sexy Romp
Au Bar
Gambling Ring at the Kenya Club (alcoholic Firestone grandson)
White Owls at 525 (bar)
The Klan March on Worth Ave.
HELLO MOLLY! (The Mercedes that crashed the Palm Beach party)
Roxanne Pulitzer
How much is that nude in the window?
MAR-A-LAGO (Donald Trump as King Kong)
Ted Kennedy
Brazilian Court Bellboys kill David Kennedy
Clematis Street Revival
Jon Stoll’s Restaurant Bar
Frank Sinatra in a pulled-down Yankees cap
My Lunch with Bob Dylan (Tom Ryan)
Bruce’s loft over Datura Side alley
Dale Chihuly
Paul Fisher (Irena)
Larry Corning
Downtown Buildings the family owns
Claudia
Camilla
Passing the sketch book
Roxy’s (Ken and Pat)

“Bermuda Triangle”
Fleetwood Mac
1974 — Heroes Are Hard To Find
((( Storms Rising )))

 

“Jay Leno Calling”

 

The New Yorker (November 1, 1993)

“THE GOAT BOY RISES“
by John Lahr (The New Yorker)

One of the most enduring documents of Bill was John Lahr’s profile for The New Yorker, after receiving a 13-page letter Bill had written the day CBS refused to air his 13th Late Night with David Letterman performance. Adding to the experience, listen to the bootleg (Jim Morin) recording of Bill’s first set after, the following Thursday at the Comedy Corner in West Palm Beach, Bill’s second home.

The week after his set was pulled from the Letterman Show, Bill was still seething as he took the stage at the Comedy Corner in West Palm Beach. For the past two years Bill had considered the Corner his home club, and where he felt most comfortable onstage. It was an audience filled with friends and others who he considered family. The few who knew, at the time of these recordings, that Bill was terminally ill, could see that Bill was more revealing, brutal, vicious, funny, and HONEST than ever.

JAY LENO ASKING WHY?
Jay Leno called Colleen to ask why Bill was attacking him relentlessly from the nightclub stages of the day. Leno, like most, was unaware that Bill was terminally ill, and didn’t understand why his message was more angry than ever. Without revealing his condition, Colleen answered diplomatically.

“What did you expect, Jay,” she said. “You’re selling Doritos.”

Jay knew Bill enough to understand what Colleen was saying, and knew why he was an obvious target of Bill’s Always-Critical Truth.

 

“Seek The Truth”
Little Axe
Skip McDonald — An American Bluesman In London.
((( God’s Blues )))

 

dave.

Double Standards And Practices
Bill Hicks vs. CBS
— A bootleg (audio) recording of the first performance Bill’s did after the Letterman cancellation. It was recorded at the Comedy Corner in West Palm Beach, in front of Bill’s home audience, in the town where Bill was diagnosed, and received treatment for the last two years of his life.
Bill Hicks “UnResurrected”
— His criticizing organized religion and corporate advertising
always kept Bill out of the mainstream. A (Religion And State) compilation, unearthed and produced for the World’s first Covid-Infected Easter.
Bill Hicks vs. War
— Bill was virtually alone, the one with the courage to speaking out against
America’s first War in Iraq, the War, at the time in 1991, had the support of more than 80 percent of the American people.

 

“Euology”
Tool — The band was both a fan and friend of Bill, and eulogized him, two years after his death, on its 1996 Ænima album.
((( audio )))

 

“Season Of The Witch”
Donovan
1968 —
((audio))

 

 

“Symbolic Crime”
Dangerous — Bill’s First Document
((( 1989 )))

 

Soap (1977)
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1977)
All That Glitters (1977) Cousin Loretta “Valducci”
It’s Garry Shandling’s Show  (1986)
Punchline (1988)
The Late Shift (1994)

Comedy Corner Notes
Hunter Thompson
Meet the Pulitzers (Peter & Roxanne)
Roxanne Pulitzer — (on Trumpet)
Abbie Hoffman —
Graham Chapman —
Timothy Leary —
@ The Comedy Corner
Henny Youngman (& Jimi Hendrix),
Jerry Seinfeld (before the sit-com),
Jay Leno (before the Tonight Show),
Sam Kinison (never rehabilitated),
Rita Rudner (Born to be Mild)
Kinison with twins St. Petersburg Bayfront Center Rita at the new, Tampa Comedy Corner, Picture and  stand ups. Aging rock star visits Midwestern family as the prize of an MTV-like promotion.
Judy Tenuta & Emo Phillips,
Dom Irrera,
Paula Poundstone,
Ellen Degeneres (before Time magazine),
Rosie O’Donnell vs. Palm Beach Daughters of The Revolution
Marsha Warfield (Night Court),
Thea Vidale,
Rich Jeni,
Tom Kenny (Sponge Bob and Mix Tape)
Amazing Jonathan (before Vegas),
Colin Quinn,
Stephen Wright,

Colleen McGar,
Martha
Tom Ryan,
Todd Barry,
Dan Whitney (before The Cable Guy),
Carrot Top,
TOM RYAN: MY DINNER WITH BOB (DYLAN).
Richard Lustig
Actor’s Rep
Connie Atkins
Hugh …
Donna Donza
Gayle Howden
Tom Giafrida
Mercedes Rudkin
Dennis Dunn
Dan McDonald
Chris Hunter
Jeff Hoyt
Todd Vitum
Douglass Heather
Rebecca Pirto

BILL HICKS (1988)
BILL HICKS (PRESURRECTION DAY)
BILL HICKS  (Truth Matters)
BILL HICKS (American Screamer)
BILL HICKS (The Gospel)

Palm Beach Moving Pictures (1984-1989)
Hello Mollie (Wilmot) Guess who’s coming to dinner.
Jon Stoll (Comedy Corner)
Bruce Helander — Palm Beach Pied Piper 
Dale Chihuly —  
Richard Merkin — St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

1990 — Time’s Up

 

david johndrow (CBS)
Late Night (CBS)

The Last Word
Oct. 1, 1993
2009 — David Letterman’s apology to Bill Hicks’ mother, all of America, and Bill himself, for having agreed, sixteen years earlier (October 1, 1993), with CBS Standards And Practices’ decision not air Bill’s twelfth (and what was his last) Late Night performance. was inviting Bill’s mother onto the program, and show her and the 2009 Late Night audience, Bill’s (until then) unseen appearance he had made sixteen years earlier

The Last Word
— The (Unaired) Letterman set, that a CBS advertiser, a right-to-life, Christian group, and CBS advertiser, refused to have its message from God run alongside Bill, and his Christian Material.

 

#1  The first documentary after Bill’s death was produced by his high school mate, Kevin Booth, and features samples of his stage performances, and interviews with family, friends, and appreciative fans, including Jay Leno (who got him on late night television) and David Letterman, who Bill describes his relationship with as dysfunctional.

#2 (below) is a recording of Bill explaining it all, the week after his final (13th) Late Night (David Letterman) performance was cut from that night’s airing. 

 


CBS

VIDEO: 48 HOURS WITH BILL HICKS

A Day In The Life Of Bill Hicks

1991 — Ride with Bill and CBS, as he prepares for a Late Night with David Letterman appearance.

After the release of his second album, Relentless, Bill was featured on CBS’ 48 HOURS, the network’s weekly news/feature program. Bill’s segment represented life on the road as a stand up comedian. Bill was among the best of hundreds of stand ups who played the comedy club at every small city’s downtown.

For CBS the “small” city was New York, and this night Bill’s riding in a limousine with a David Letterman producer, from club to club across Manhattan, preparing for his scheduled Late Night with David Letterman appearance. He’d take the stage in the clubs where they stopped, and tryout the 7-minutes he’d have on the show.

At the time, Bill was universally praised as one of the most thoughtful comedians of all time. Brutally Honest, Savagely Funny, and ALWAYS TRUE.

ALSO: Included is that night’s set, that Bill had been preparing. It was his 12th appearance with Letterman, and one of the funniest, featuring his now legendary BRINGING SHOTGUNS TO UFO SIGHTINGS.

The Palm Beach Story

For Bill, the Comedy Corner became his “home” club, after seeing a doctor and received his diagnosis in West Palm Beach. At the time (late ’80s) there was much controversy on Fantasy Island than met the immediate eye …

HELLO MOLLY!
Losing its battle with an East Coast Florida storm, the rusty Venezuelan freighter ran aground on Fantasy Island.

 

Later, When I Was Hanging From The Tree.

1989 — When asked if he’d stand for a portrait of him lighting a cigarette with a burning American Flag, Bill immediately said “YES.”  And without hesitation, he then added, in his always push it one step further attitude, “But I’d rather you take a picture of me pulling a knotted flag out of my ass,” referring to the political fit being thrown over Robert Mapplethorpe‘s homoerotic self-portrait being exhibited in the usually staid Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. The controversial photograph, with its suggestively positioned leather bullwhip, was part of Mapplethorpe’s exhibition, The Perfect Moment.

The Corcoran and its director (Christina Orr-Cahall) was accused of promoting pornography, like burning a flag, by the same easily offended politicians whose answer is to throw out the First Amendment for those who disagree.

Passionate social commentary was always the foundation of what Bill had to say on any stage. Mapplethorpe’s “controversial” photography was the High-Society scandal of the day, maybe bigger than in Palm Beach, Bill’s home, where four years earlier, socialite Roxanne Pulitzer was caught sleeping with her husband Peter’s collection of brass instruments … An act depicted “artistically” on the cover and inside pages of a most popular “pornographic” magazine. To this day, the Roxanne Pulitzer cover remains one of Playboy magazine’s most popular.

“The Story Of Willie”
King Missile (Downtown NYC)
((( apocalyptic view )))

 

For the Record
An honest to God record of Bill’s time on Earth.

1989 — Sane Man (1989)
Recorded in his first home club (The Laff Stop) in Houston, Texas, Sane Man is at his uninhibited best. 

1990 — Dangerous
Bill’s first official live recording (CD), made in a small NYC nightclub at 2AM, to a more than half-empty room, the time Bill was always funniest.

1991— One Night Stand
Bill’s 30-minute performance at Chicago’s Vic Theater, was part of HBO’s “One Night Stand” series of stand up performances by the hot shit comedians of the day. As usual, Bill shows why he was always one of the hottest.

1992 — Relentless (YouTube)
— In the minds of many fans, friends, and believers, Bill’s second album was his best.
— The Relentless (video) performance was recorded at the Centaur Theatre, the night after the annual Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

1992 — Revelations
Video of a November performance at the Dominion Theatre, London, England.

1993 —  Arizona Bay
Filled with his distaste for Los Angeles and the Television Industry, Bill’s third album, featured soft (sometimes sweet) guitar interludes between live, stand up performances.

1993 — Rant In E Minor
With only his family and closest friends knowing of his illness few understood why Bill’s opinions were becoming even more revealingly honest than ever. His performances were razor sharp, and often uncomfortably real and raw.