Bill Hicks - My Hero

Many years ago a flatmate of mine introduced me to an American comedian named Bill Hicks. We sat together and watched a DVD called Revelations. Within minutes I was fixated. Despite how dated the jokes were (mainly relating to George Bush Sr and the first Gulf war.) However, it all seemed so current what with another George Bush in the White House and a second Gulf war in progress.



Over the coming weeks I searched the Internet and book stores for as much information as I could find on this man, I was saddened to find that we lost this great mind to cancer several years before I had even heard of him - something that made Bill Hicks own words at the end of this stand up sketch even more poignant to me.


“The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it’s very brightly coloured and it’s very loud and it’s fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, “hey – don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride…” …It’s just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.” — The Late Bill Hicks, Comedian