Customer Reviews

Bill Hicks

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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.

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.

'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.

For the die-hard Hicks fans, this book is probably the most intimate look you will get. Kevin Booth airs it all out and by the end you're convinced he held nothing back, at least the 450 pages would lead you to believe so.

The accounts are broken up, there is a main narrative and then reflections by Booth and many other of Bill's close friends. That keeps the book going, although some of the accounts overlap and become repetitive, I'm sure they just wanted to include everybody who knew Bill well. You get a lot of great stories that show his different sides, each friend has a unique view.

You can't write a book like this and not get very personal. Some of the stuff makes you ask yourself what you would reveal about your own best friend, but in keeping with honesty, Booth is candid about Bill's abuses and dark moments. You also get lots of great bits about their mushroom trips and UFO fascination. So the good, bad and ugly bits all kinda balance out.

All in all, it's mostly fun reading and also very serious. There are a lot of things to learn from Bill Hicks and this book helps you understand some of what went into the making of the man.

The moral of the story? It's just a ride.

This book was written with the participation of Kevin Booth, a longtime friend of Hicks, so it does comes with a certain stamp of authenticity. And AGENT OF EVOLUTION is certainly no hagiography; we see Hicks, the greatest standup comedian who ever trod the boards, at his best and worst. The structure of the book, composed from a variety of viewpoints, Hicks' friends and lovers sharing their stories and remembrances, renders the volume choppy and disjointed. Episodes are told and then retold, each witness putting their own particular spin on events. Really, the best Hicks autobiography is the one he composed, night after night, in his vitriolic, incendiary act. If you want to know about the REAL Bill Hicks, buy one of his CDs or rent one of his DVDs. You will quickly see why other comedians revered the man and fans are still enamored, even though the man himself departed this world almost 15 years ago.

Having loved Bill Hicks for some time, and after reading other biographies of him, as well as his own scripts, I decided to read this book and was not disappointed. There is a depth to Bill's life that you see from the topics of his comedy but that gets lost in his more controversial jokes. This book shows you the other side to Bill and you realise his humour comes from an intelligent (which we already knew), almost spiritual place. It is fascinating to see how he developed his comedy and how he experimented and grew in his life. Told from the point of view of his best friend and peers, you feel that this is a very open and intimate portrayal. This is a great read about a great man. I wish he was here to comment on America and the world now!

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I have always been fascinated by Bill Hicks, ever since I first discovered his work back in 2002. His words have an intense effect on me, and it became a habit of mine to find every single recorded show of his. What's interesting is that I found myself hearing some of the same jokes, but it still sounds fresh, it still seems like I'm hearing the joke for the first time. His message of uplifting the collective 'consciousness' (as Bill would have preferred to say it) intrigues me and uplifts me. This book is an extremely well-written personal account of Bill's life by those close to him. It details his earlier years in school, to his L.A. years doing stand-up, his Houston years of stand-up, and more. Sometimes the book seems is though it is not entirely sequential, because the book shifts between the different people who knew him. The more you read the book, the more you discover that Bill was a man who had extraordinary ambitions and a powerful drive. He was also an incredibly hard worker - He worked nearly 200-300 nights per year in the later parts of his life. After finishing the book, I couldn't help but feel inspired. If you really, REALLY want to know Bill Hicks, this is the book for you.

Anything with Bill Hicks is something I'd check out. I was only a kid when he died, and I didn't learn about him until a few years ago. He, along with George Carlin, Greg Giraldo, and Doug Stanhope are among my favorite comedians / philosophers of recent times.

So, about the DVD, I really enjoyed it! I haven't watched the 2nd bonus disc yet, but the movie was very cool. If you like Bill Hicks, I think you'll like this movie. That's really all there is to say! If you enjoy Bill Hicks, then check out this movie / DVD-set!

The film gave an excellent history of Bill Hicks, and also included footage I've never heard / seen before =)


(Whoops, I thought I was reviewing the movie.)

Terribly written, all over the place, and included TMI about things that really didn't need to be revealed to get a good biography on Bill Hicks (like hearing intimate details of sexual encounters, etc). I really wasn't looking for a smut book with pornographic minutia on Hicks. I wonder if they'd be able to get away with revealing some of this stuff while he was alive. You call yourself friends of Bill? It was much better hearing bill reveal those details through his genius act. All that being said, there was also a lot of great information about Bill included. Definitely could have been written better though.

Kevin Booth does a wonderful job of compiling his own unvarnished warts-and-all remembrances with those of many friends, first hand narratives of this brilliant man, revealing his many sides and relationships. Quite the achievement for someone who is not a professional biographer, but simply a friend with his own scathingly honest torments and mixed feelings. A must for the Hicks completist.