Future daze

 
We love you, Bill Hicks

Over on PopMatters, my imitation of Nigel Tuffnel and an imitation of Bill Hicks and maybe one day an imitation of his imitation of Elvis and Charley Hodge.

For those who might not be familiar with Bill, he did some pretty devastating comedy on the first Bush/Republican regime and Gulf War, as well as the war on drugs, the state of the music industry, television and evolution generally. Bill was a genius of anger who died prematurely of cancer; and if you've ever seen a video performance or heard his CDs, it's clear he was something rare amongst comedians: a total comedian — one whose every gesture and expression drips with biting humour and passionate, committed drive. His routines on abortion and Rush Limbaugh, for instance, recorded with the insane persuasion of the righteous and dying, are over-the-top thrashings of received opinion and perception. His concern was always for the truth on the one hand and the media-driven status quo of our abused reality on the other. Hence, he was never too popular in mainstream America, though he was a quintessentially American freethinker.