Russell Crowe is Bill Hicks
About five years ago, a British publisher Constable & Robinson told me about a book they were about to publish, called Love All the People. It was the first collection of the routines of the stand-up comic Bill Hicks.
I’d no idea what he was talking about. So I Google the guy (this is pre-YouTube), note that he’s admired by Richard Pryor, John Cleese, and Dennis Miller, figure it would be a damn good idea to publish, and presto, I’m Bill Hicks’s U.S. publisher, faut de mieux.
And each year that goes by, I’m more honored to be his publisher, and sad it can only be posthumous (died at age 32 of pancreatic cancer), and slightly embarrassed at my good fortune, given how clueless I was to start with.
So last week, my Google News Alert tells me Russell Crowe has commissioned a biopic screenplay, and intends to play the man, and
A. I’m rather psyched, and
B. all kindsa new YouTube mash-ups appear. Below is one—super NSFW. But really, watch it. Watch it all if you can. He’s something special.
August 26, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Ma-a-a-n, you’re not kiddin, the guy was supurb! I’ve been watching clips on YouTube. Top-notch. So sorry that he’s already gone. So glad you brought Bill Hicks to my attention.
August 26, 2008 at 9:36 pm
WordPress is a pain with YouTube embeds. You have to go to Users in the Dashboard, click on Your Profile and de-select “Use the visual editor when writing”. *Then* you can embed the YT clip. Unless you did that already and something else has gone astray!
Yes, Bill Hicks rules, I was really shocked when he died. Brits caught him sooner than Americans, curiously, due to an appearance at the Edinburgh festival which was then filmed by Channel 4 and led to other TV work. We could have really used him throughout the Bush 2 years.
August 26, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Hi Richard, fixed that video embed for you. You don’t need to change your profile, just click the HTML tab when editing your post and paste the stuff in there, then you can go back to the Visual tab.
(WordPress actually offers a button to insert flash videos into posts, but it screws up dimensions and forces you to enter height and width manually.)
August 27, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I remember begging for an advance copy of the Bill Hicks book back at a far-off BEA. What I lost in dignity I made up for in enlightenment and it is still one of my favorite Soft Skull publications.
November 14, 2010 at 7:39 am
Thank you :):)
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August 18, 2011 at 11:45 pm
Great post, wonderful blog. Really enjoy it and added into my social bookmarks. Keep up the good work!
October 28, 2011 at 6:04 am
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