Bill Hicks [Hardcover]

Kevin Booth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 21, 2005

Written by Bill Hicks' lifelong friend, producer and co-creator Kevin Booth, this book offers the inside story on a unique talent. Hicks was only along for the ride for a tragically short time, yet left an indelible mark on comedy enthusiasts and free-thinkers everywhere. Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution offers a rare fly-on-the-wall insight into the life of one of Britain's most loved US comedians. Adored in the UK for his unique style of savage, hilarious comedy, the one person who knew him inside and out tells of a man whose life was just as impassioned and off-the-wall as his comedy. Even back at High School, in Houston, Texas, Kevin was Bill's co-conspirator, as they sneaked out of Bill's strict Baptist home at night, and headed for the Comedy Workshop, where at the age of fourteen, Bill was going down a storm. They virtually shared every experience -- from magic mushrooms to girls, but it was their music and their vision of comedy, which bound them so closely together. Kevin produced, engineered and performed on, many of Bill's recordings, and it is largely due to him, that so much of Bill's comedy is readily available on CD and video. Michael Bertin, a hugely talented author from Austin, Texas, is co-writing Kevin's fly-on-the-wall biography of Bill Hicks. Matt Stone, co-creator of South Park, has written the introduced.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'I thought he was the most intelligent, most liberating social and political comic I had ever, ever heard.' -- John Cleese "Bill was right up there with Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor. He was easily the best comic of my generation." -- Brett Butler "I am one of the many fans of Bill Hicks. I listen to him year after year. He was hilarious, brilliant, brave and right about everything. " -- Henry Rollins

About the Author

Born in Connecticut in 1961, Kevin Booth grew up in Austin, Texas as Bill Hicks's long-term friend and the co-creator of many of his shows.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Entertainment; First Edition edition (March 21, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007198299
• ISBN-13: 978-0007198290
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #602,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 32 Years On Planet Earth, May 28, 2005

By 

Kent D. Bentkowski "Kentroversy" (Buffalo, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bill Hicks (Hardcover)

At long last, the definitive biography of the late American comedian and political philosopher Bill Hicks has been published. Written by his lifelong friend Kevin Booth, Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution is an inside look at the fast times and early death of a comedic genius. When I spoke with Kevin for the interview that appeared in Maybe Quarterly # 02 (Spring Equinox 2005), he told me that he wrote the book by dictating "Bill stories" into a microcassette recorder as he took his pet wolves for their daily afternoon walk. This was a long process of remembering earlier days that had become clouded by both the partying and legend that now surrounds Bill Hicks, and Kevin mentioned that the process of writing this book took approximately five years.

As I opened the book for the first time, I was immediately impressed by the twenty-four pages of exclusive color photographs. Taken from Kevin's own photo albums, these photos show the softer, private side of Bill Hicks. A few of these photos captured some of the infamous moments of Bill's life. For example, can you imagine the atmosphere when Bill partied with Sam Kinison, another of the Texas Outlaw Comics? The inclusion of the color photo section shows how well-respected Bill Hicks continues to be in the United Kingdom. As a matter of fact, Kevin states on his own website that when this book is published in the USA sometime in 2006 (most likely in paperback), he expects that the USA edition will not include the photos in their original color format.

As for the book itself, Kevin, having admitted that he is not a writer, worked with Austin, Texas USA entertainment writer Michael Bertin, who co-authored the book. However, Kevin has done something that Cynthia True could not achieve with her tepid biography American Scream, and that is to take the reader far into the private and personal life of Bill Hicks. Kevin was, after all, his lifelong friend, co-writer, and business partner. Together, Kevin and Bill co-founded Sacred Cow Productions, which continues on to this very day in Bill's memory. Today, the Sacred Cow website is the premiere Internet comedy website, which features the comedy of Joe Rogan and Doug Stanhope, as well as the truth-telling of broadcaster-documentary filmmaker Alex Jones of Infowars.com and Prisonplanet.com. Sacred Cow also contains numerous early audio and video performances of Bill Hicks, and for this reason alone, the website should be investigated and bookmarked by all of Bill's fans.

Kevin has been a tireless promoter of the memory and legacy of Bill Hicks, and he was wise to save all of his great inside stories for his own book. This was one of the failings of American Scream, which seemed to me a rote, perfunctory biography, with little in terms of true revelations concerning the life of Bill Hicks. For example, there is the legendary true-story of Bill and Kevin's Harmonic Convergence experience of the summer of 1987. This was the UFO experience about which Bill often spoke in his stage act. While Cynthia True reported this episode through hearsay alone, in Agent of Evolution, Kevin takes us directly to the Booth family ranch for what he himself described as "the most important event of Bill's life." I won't ruin the books' many surprises, but suffice to say that Kevin brings this event into proper perspective, where he describes total telepathic communication between Bill and himself, while they were both aboard a UFO. One might even imagine that this event was itself precipitated by the five-gram heroic dose of psychedelic mushrooms they both had taken earlier that same afternoon.

And so it goes for nearly 450 pages of interesting and amusing anecdotes, legendary encounters with various geniuses of comedy, and the loving tribute by a man who desperately misses his lifelong friend and spiritual brother. The reader is taken on a trip in the metaphoric backseat of the Hicks rocket-ride to fame and infamy, and all of the humanity and romanticism of Bill Hicks the humanist is represented in a faithful and loving manner. Kevin also provides insight into the demons that haunted Bill Hicks, and the angels that guided his career and life.

The best part of the entire book is where Kevin refuses to limit Bill to a two-dimensional cardboard cutout, where his life and early death could have been represented as a tragedy. Kevin also refuses to amplify the David Letterman censored Bill Hicks canard, and just as he told me personally during our interview, the Letterman incident was a minor issue that was blown all out of proportion merely because of Hicks untimely death. As Kevin said, "if he were alive today, we'd be laughing about this minor incident."

Some of the more interesting sections of the book provided details about Bill and Kevin's comedic Dark Side of the Moon, the incendiary and brilliant Arizona Bay. For those readers who are unfamiliar with the concept, Arizona Bay will be the resultant West Coast, once California, but more specifically, Los Angeles, finally falls into the ocean. Arizona Bay represented the creative symbiosis between Bill and Kevin, comedy and music, and ultimately, truth and lies. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Hollywood propaganda originates from this very state of California? Listening to Arizona Bay, it is easy to imagine the contempt that Bill had for the illusory Hollywood star-making machinery, and this book fills in the aspects about which I had always wondered.

Still another project of Bill and Kevin's involved the Branch Davidian siege at Waco in 1993. Bill drove while Kevin rolled film, and the result was the little-known but worthwhile video, On The Seventh Day in Waco. As Kevin wrote on the video package; "On March 8, 1993, Bill flew to Austin and rented a car. I packed all my camera stuff and we drove 2 hours north to Waco. We hoped to film David Koresh and his compound, 7 days after the bloody siege. Stopped by DPS [Department of Public Safety] officers, we quickly found a way around them." The resultant video shows several interesting, yet ultimately disturbing, facts that were kept off the establishment news. And, of course, Bill put all of this into perspective, in his own unique comedic voice; "Some are calling it a cult, others a slumber party that just really got out of hand . . ."

Anyone who treasures the memory of Bill Hicks should pick up a copy of this book, as it was prepared in the most loving and respectful manner possible. The reader and Bill Hicks fan will learn more about what made Bill tick as an artist, whether it was music or comedy, or both. While it is sad that Bill is no longer here with us, I personally take solace in the idea that he is still busy at work, albeit on the other side, as for Bill Hicks in death, just as it was in life, his spiritual work is never done.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The World Is An Emptier Place For His Absence, February 20, 2006

By 

Lyle Caine "theloneliestmonk" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bill Hicks (Hardcover)

I found `Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution' to be an extremely frustrating read. On one hand it is extremely informative and reveals a great deal about Bill's life and his personality. On the other hand I found myself anxious to get through this book and on to the other two Bill Hicks books I purchased because it was such a meandering disjointed undertaking.

My main grievance is with the primary contributor Kevin Booth who, in spite of being one of Bill's closest friends; sounds resentful and sarcastic in his characterization of Bill throughout the entire book. I know they were very close friends and he must have loved and cared about Bill, but you wouldn't know it from reading this book. Throughout the book he tends to focus almost exclusively on the negative aspects of Bill's personality. For example he spends a great deal of time focusing on Bill's preoccupation with getting laid, and the fact that he was less adept at it than his friends were. After so much coverage devoted to this singular aspect of Bill's childhood, I began to understand that it is Kevin Booth who is the one who has a preoccupation with getting laid. He chooses to focus on one of Bill's most volatile and controversial performances without once making mention of Bill's most provocative performances, which were the rule, not the exception. At times I found myself saying, almost out loud, "Dude! Did you even like him?"

It is not until almost the final chapter that you get any indication at all that he had any love for Bill, only to find him reverting immediately back to his standard defensive posture in the final chapter. (For those of you who have seen the documentary `It's Just A Ride' on the `Bill Hicks Live' DVD Kevin Booth is the one with the mullet.)

What saves this book is the contribution from others who were close to Bill, like the women in his life and the comedians whom he befriended. These people were very touching in their characterizations of Bill, and they were very articulate in their recognition of his obvious genius.

The only other exception being David Letterman's producer, Robert Morton, who presents a Christmas list of excuses for why the Letterman show banned Bill's final performance; this guy is the epitome of what Bill rails against in his "If you are in marketing or advertising, kill yourself" routine, or his disgust with the "Bureaucratic Capitalist Whore cowards that run television." He is a complete and absolute phony without a sincere bone in his body. It is obvious that his explanation doesn't have even a shred of honesty to be found. Whatever the reason was for Letterman's decision to censor Bill's performance, it appears it now joins the Kennedy assassination as a conspiratorial cover-up.

If you also have an interest in learning as much as possible about the brilliant, controversial and prophetic Bill Hicks I don't want to discourage you from reading this book. I merely feel compelled to inform you of what you can expect if you are considering it. In other words, I recommend reading this book with the knowledge that both the excellent biography `American Scream' by Cynthia True and `Love All The People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines' are better first choices.

I will say this: Everything I have read about Bill Hicks has only increased my respect and admiration for him as a human being and an unwavering caustic voice of integrity. The world is an emptier place for his absence.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AGENT OF EVOLUTION, May 5, 2005

By 

Dave G - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bill Hicks (Hardcover)

'Agent of Evolution', after years of waiting, is the Hicks portrait you've been hoping for from the people who knew him best. Bill's life-long cohort and mushroom-buddy Kevin Booth gives an unflinching, almost painfully honest and intimately detailed account of the obssessionally driven man who - in the eleven years since his tragic death - has risen from trendy stand-up comedian status to a position of near-mystical reverance as the world's most eloquent (and funny) spokesmen of anti-authoritarianism and the visionary. Best of all, Booth lets us in on the foibles of the man rather than espousing myth. Depravity, addiction and arsehole traits are all present and accounted for, and it's nice to see Bill was as much of an overpowering and obnoxious pain in the neck as his stage persona suggests. It's more personal and intimate than the Cynthia True biog. A few might say it's more than they wanted to know, but this too is in keeping with Hicks' stage persona: you always got the whole human being, warts and all. Censored and smothered by corporate America during his life, Hicks' legacy continues to spread, and remain spookily timeless.