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Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines
 
 
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Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines [Paperback]

Bill Hicks (Author), John Lahr (Foreword)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)


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Paperback, November 2004 --  

Book Description

November 2004
In 1993, network executives abruptly cut the final appearance of comedian Bill Hicks — a scathing tirade of digs on the Pope and the pro-life movement — from an episode of The Late Show with David Letterman. His banning from the show, along with a profile in The New Yorker by veteran writer John Lahr, catapulted Hicks to national prominence. Just months later, at age 32, he died of pancreatic cancer.

Now available for the first time are Hick's most critical and comic observations, gathered from his stand-up routines, diaries, notebooks, letters, and final writings. This collection features his controversial humor and witheringly funny attacks on American culture, from its worship of celebrity and material goods to its involvement in the first Gulf War. Love All the People faithfully traces Hicks's evolution from a funny but conventional stand-up comedian into a fearless and brilliant iconoclast.



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: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Soft Skull Press (November 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1932360654
  • ISBN-13: 978-1932360653
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,289,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

23 Reviews
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4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
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1 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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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.
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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
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.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Good but repetitive, July 5, 2005
By 
H. Hughes "rincemaj" (Brighton, VIC Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Los Angeles has "The Comedy Store." Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
causes sexual thoughts, makes snorting, snarling noise, dick jokes, block cemeteries, lesbian sex scenes, makes squeaking sound, little fetus, three gunshots, ding ding ding ding, pedestrian right, test audience, truck horn, explosion noise, fucking brain
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Bill Hicks, New York, George Bush, Free Press, Comedy Workshop, Los Angeles, Michael Bolton, American Gladiators, Yul Brynner, David Letterman, Robert Morton, Woody Allen, Diet Coke, Mary Connelly, Saddam Hussein, Elite Republican Guard, Jim Fixx, Ted Bundy, United States, Basic Instinct, Debbie Gibson, Jesse Helms, Supreme Court, Taco Bell, George Michael
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