ESSAY | Keeley Schroder’s APRIL CHALLENGE
The Incredulous Bill Hicks
My favorite comedian
While there are many comedians I could have chosen — past and present — I always come back to Bill Hicks. His cynical satire didn’t always make me laugh, but it always made me think, and shouldn’t that also be a goal of a good comedian?
The first time I encountered him was on David Letterman (another favorite comedian). I didn’t know it then, but Bill had to switch up his ‘normal’ routine to get past the network censorship laws. And even then, he was funny, sarcastic, politically cynical, and and incredulous. I think the only things he believed in back then were smoking and drinking.
In 1990, I was fortunate to be at a friend’s house one night who had HBO. She’d invited me over because she loved comedy and said there was a great comedy show coming on called One Night Stand. To this day, I have no idea who else was on the show — I had eyes only for Bill Hicks. I still have his album, Dangerous, that was released that same year.
So what makes Bill Hicks my favorite comedian?
He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. He saw many of the injustices in the world and spoke about them in his own irreverent, cynical way. He wasn’t afraid to make fun of…
