Love All the People: The Essential Bill Hicks [Paperback]

Bill Hicks (Author), John Lahr (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2008

Love All the People, a collection of controversial comedian Bill Hicks’ stand-up routines, notebooks, journals, and letters, traces his evolution from brilliant conventional stand-up to something far more interesting and dangerous: a comic speaking without fear. The result is a radical philosopher masquerading as a comedian, plumbing the American psyche with challenging (and side-splitting) conclusions. Hicks, who died of cancer in 1993, didn’t go the easy way with his humor. He attacked the lies that justified the carnage of the Gulf War, the preposterous power of the mainstream media to confuse and corrupt, and the demeaning cynicism of the marketing culture. In Love All the People, that renegade comic artistry that made Bill Hicks an iconoclastic social commentator is recorded, celebrated, and revealed as true genius in this expanded edition that includes additional routines and other writings.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Savage, brilliant, funny, tremendously intelligent' John Cleese 'He was hilarious, brilliant, brave and right about everything.' Henry Rollins 'Being a genius is a heavy burden, and he's the only one I'm ever likely to meet' Sean Hughes 'He was what only a great comedian can be for any age: an enemy of boundaries, a disturber of the peace, a bringer of insight and of joy, a comic distillation of his own rampaging spirit'. - John Lahr, from the foreword. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Bill Hicks died on February 26th, 1994. This is the first collection of all his stand-up routines, diaries and notebooks, letters and final writings. Here we can trace the evolution of Hicks' work from brilliant conventional stand-up into something far more interesting and dangerous: an open invitation to a life lived without fear. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press; Revised edition (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593762011
• ISBN-13: 978-1593762018
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bill Deserves Better, January 19, 2005

By 

Randy Remote (Laytonville, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines (Paperback)

I just finished this book. My main problem with it is this: about half the book is made up of transcripts of Bill's comedy routines. The same ones you have on CD. And without Bill's expert comic delivery, they just don't translate that well on the printed page. On the other hand, the letters and interviews offer a more intimate look at a sensitive, serious man. It would have been better to cut out the transcripts, and give us more of Bill's writings and unreleased stuff. On a technical note, the book apparently was never proofread; it is rife with misprints and errors. And many of the entries are not clearly identified. For instance, we learn that Bill wrote for The Nation, but are these the political articles that are included? It's not clear. Dispite being poorly executed, if you are looking for more insights into the mind of Bill Hicks, you will want this book. If you merely want to enjoy his comedy genius, get the new DVD instead.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 5 Stars for Material, 3 Stars for Presentation, November 13, 2004

By 

David St. Hubbins "full time dreamer" (Holyoke, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines (Paperback)

First of all, let's get this straight: Bill Hicks was brilliant. He held the truth up to our eyes and showed how it could be infuriating and hysterical at the same time. There will never be another like him.

Having said that, I was a little disappointed by this collection. Several chapters are out-and-out transcriptions of his CDs, and not the best transcriptions at that. Some flaws are headshakingly bad - in one instance, Hicks's question to a patron with a cell phone, "Why the phone?", comes out "Why the thumb?" Because these performances are transcribed in their entirety, there's also a good deal of repetition here - the "Are they drunk or are they stoned?" bit gets done three times. I would have preferred something like The Essential Lenny Bruce, where the bits were cherry-picked and brought together in chapters with a common theme.

This book is one that all fans of comedy in general and Bill Hicks in particular should have - it includes John Lahr's famous New Yorker piece, Hicks's thirty-page letter to Lahr detailing his final David Letterman experience, reproductions of letters to Letterman and Jay Leno, and several insightful interviews. I just wish it didn't look like the work of a semicompetent stenographer.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but repetitive, July 5, 2005

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H. Hughes "rincemaj" (Brighton, VIC Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines (Paperback)

There is no doubt that Bill Hicks was a true comic genius. The writings of his contained in this book help to further illustrate this.

Unfortunately, however, the bulk of the book is made up of transcripts of his comedy appearances (mainly from those recorded for CD). Whilst obviously not as good as seeing the man himself deliver the lines, reading them is enjoyable. Reading the same bit 5 times is less so. There is a tremendous amount of repetition in the routines, left in by the author in order to preserve the integrity of the monologues.

As a result, the book is best read in small doses, so as to dissipate the effect. Trying to read it in large chunks means reading the same material again and again in short succession.