Chris Bond: Arts View

It’s an apposite remark and one that seems to fit well when talking about Bill Hicks.

The US comedian died 20 years ago this week from pancreatic cancer at the age of just 32 and in the intervening years his reputation has soared.

He’s often described as the “comedian’s comedian” (whatever that means) and is repeatedly name checked by just about every up-and-coming comic as a source of inspiration.

As with other pop culture icons who died prematurely, such as James Dean or Jimi Hendrix, a myth has grown up around Hicks which as Mark Thomas, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Front Rowprogramme, said was “more powerful for some than the actuality.”

Death can sometimes make easy heroes so does Hicks warrant the adulation he’s received since he died? He was certainly one of the most daring comedians not only of his generation, but of any generation.

He prowled the stage, often clad in black, railing against corporate America and waging a one-man war against corruption, consumerism and mediocrity.

For a lot of comedians there are some topics that are strictly off limits – but not for Hicks. Courageous and confrontational, he wasn’t afraid of talking about drugs or abortion.

Not many people can, or would, make a joke out 
of the JFK assassination, but Hicks did. For him it tied into the old adage that tragedy plus time equals comedy.

He did skits about smoking: “I’m a heavy smoker, I go through about two lighters a day” and religion: “A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. Do you think when Jesus comes back he’s gonna want to see a f****** cross?”

But he didn’t set out to simply shock people, there was always a point, or a joke, at the end of his rants and, unlike Lenny Bruce who almost believed he was a preacher, Hicks knew his job, ultimately, was to entertain.

He could be erudite and profane in the same sentence but beneath all this was an underlying vision of how life could and should be like.

Much has happened in the world in the two decades since his passing and he would no doubt have had plenty to say about the internet, celebrity culture, Wikileaks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Which makes his silence all the more deafening.

But despite the sadness still felt by many at his 
untimely passing this is tempered by the fact that he 
left behind an impressive body of work – one we can listen to whenever we need to hear someone say the things that we daren’t, or simply need reminding that life is far too important to be taken seriously.