REVISITING CAUSTIC HICKS

No stand-up comedian best-of list is complete without Bill Hicks, the caustic, insightful American comedian who died of cancer in 1994.

But it’s surprising how few people know who Hicks was and how influential he has been on comics since.

However that may be about to change, because Oscarnominated film-maker Richard Linklater has signed on to develop, write and direct a film based on Hicks’ life and legacy. Linklater was a big fan of the comic while he was alive, and the two share a similar Southern Baptist upbringing.

The director has said that one of his deep regrets is that the two never got to collaborate and this will be a way for him to honour Hicks.

Linklater said: “There’s not quite any others like him – they don’t speak in the same voice. “You’d think people would take that torch and go with it, but it’s a rare combination of that kind of intelligence, mysticism, political, you know… his politics, his angle, it’s pretty unique.

“I go through my life all the time… everything that’s going on in our culture, I always think, what would Bill Hicks be doing? You just miss him.”

There has been talk of a Hicks film for years; Russell Crowe was attached to one project in the past, but nothing has ever happened.

It’s unclear whether this movie will be Linklater’s next project, but the director’s plan to make a movie about the Space Race in the summer of 1969 seems to have fallen through, so it’s certainly possible.

If you’ve never seen Hicks, have a look around this weekend. There are a couple of specials on Amazon Prime Video. I’d love to link to an example of his stuff here, but web addresses just don’t work in newspapers.

You can tap the URL until you’re blue in the phalanx, but the page still won’t load.

Nor can I just paste in a block of text from one of his riffs on life, marketing or politics.

The best I can do is this one liner (although he wasn’t much of a one-line guy): “I never got along with my dad. Kids used to come up to me and say, ‘My dad can beat up your dad.’ I’d say ‘Yeah? When?’”