Bill Hicks: High Plains Jester

Interview by Jack Boulware

Coming out of the comedy chute in Houston, Texas, Bill Hicks is, along with Sam Kinison, one of the original Texas Outlaw Comics, known for their direct and often savage attacks on hypocrisy, pomposity and anything else that catches their eye. Unlike Kinison, however, Hicks carves a more thoughtful path, mixing politics and personal liberties with a chain-smoking sense of satiric justice that often gets him compared to Lenny Bruce. In addition to numerous television credits including Letterman, Showtime and Fox, his first comedy album "Dangerous" sports a sticker with the quote "Are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books shall sold and what we may buy? - Thomas Jefferson." With a new album out in January, Hicks brings a fresh dose of Texas sanity to an insane world. A soft-spoken gentleman in person, he nevertheless was fuming when The Nose called his hotel room in Houston. An astrologer had called him at 7:20 a.m. and woken him up, wanting to do his chart.

Would you consider yourself more of a commentator, a comedian, or a satirist?

I'd say I'm more a satirist. A comedian, to me, just really wants the audience to laugh. That's the end-all of his goal. To me, I want them to laugh at things they never laughed at before. That's what I always thought was satire. Satire to me is taking things that are holy in a way--sacred cows--and skewing them.

When you were emerging as part of the comedy scene in Texas, the media label came up of Texas Outlaw Comic. What defines a Texas Outlaw Comic?

I was just talking about this the other day...

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