The Essential Collection (2CD+2DVD) [CD+DVD, Box set]

Artists who die prematurely & who have enduring fame (e.g. Bruce Lee & James Dean) tend to be followed by a spate of amazing material that seals their legacy. This is very much true of Bill Hicks as his posthumourous material IS what made him famous (with the sobriquet 'the funniest dead guy in the world').

Regrettably these releases can dilute the legacy & each subsequent release has less & less of the good, new stuff to go on. This has happened a little with Bill Hicks, as is evident by the CD release: Shock & Awe (which is the same material as Salvation, though admittedly it wasn't an official release).

So, is this a great collection or more of the same?
Well, it's a mixture. Essentially the further you progress through the collection, the better it gets, as the CD's are poor, but the MP3's are priceless.

***

From the beginning then - the CD's. Both CD's lack any form of structure & are a lazy mixture of the best material from all his other CD's. Those who've heard Philosophy: The Best Of Bill Hicks will recognise most of the material, and all that seems to have been done here is to blend unreleased tracks that are mostly worse versions of already released routines (e.g. 'Elvis', 'Beelzebozo' & 'Drugs have done good things').
There are 5 truly unreleased tracks (of 50 on both CD's), but these are either very short (e.g. 'Audience member/ Dental Assistant') or familiar (e.g. Handguns UK vs USA).
To be fair, there is some content from the excellent Love, Laughter and Truth, but a lot of potential good stuff (e.g. 'Australia' & 'Family Trip') is absent.

Scraping the barrel? With the CD's, sadly Yes.

Watching the DVD's makes you feel you haven't wasted your money.
On the first, there are 5 early routines (1982-1986) showing whole shows of copious unfamiliar material, and later routines in embryonic form. The best routine (IMHO) is the 3rd one (Indianapolis), where Bill is dressed like Ted Grundy from The Archers (with Farmer's flatcap on) & appears eerily mellow in his delivery (I wonder why...!)
Also on this DVD is a routine of Bill compering an 'Outlaws' gig & then an interview with him about the 'Outlaw Comics' of Houston (including an interesting Jackanory-song about them).
Lastly, there is a gallery of photos & 'Outlaws' posters.

And this is just one DVD!

DVD 2 has the entire B-movie Ninja Bachelor Party (as noted by my esteemed fellow reviewer 'Mr. C. De Mello'). Like the Outlaws section, this includes notes on each bit of the DVD, with Kevin Booth writing about 'Ninja Bachelor Party' & his elder brother (Steve Hicks) writing about the Austin performances.
Ninja Bachelor Party is good, consisting of a grainy filmed pastiche of Kung Fu cliche (i.e. Bullied-kid-learns-karate-&-beats-bully).
Bill himself takes the role of the Guru / Bruce Lee figure (Dr Death), which must have proven an interesting Alter-ego!
Second on DVD 2, there are 4 more bootleg performances (with more notes), but this time they are all from Austin, Texas & towards the end of his career (1991-1993).
The first thing you may notice about these is that Bill is far better as a comedian in these performances than in the early ones - his confidence is immense, he seems more at ease & he seems really on top of his material, with not a second of it wasted.
The other thing is that there is new material (e.g. a long routine about Elvis' assistant who brought his 'cigars & water' and a truly hilarious extended piece about 'Pro-Life Pictionary').
Although some of the material repeats stuff on the CD's and the shows overlap, it is worth persevering to see previously unreleased video versions of much of his best material (e.g. 'Hooligans', 'Pussywhipped Satan' & a whole load of material from Rant in E-Minor & Arizona Bay)

Both DVD's don't disappoint in the sheer volume & quality of material.

But the best part (which will be totally unfamiliar to all but the most zealously die-hard fans) is the MP3 album 'Lo-Fi Troubadour'.
Not only does this album contain NO material that has been previously released (except 'Moon is Smiling' (my thanks to fellow reviewer G. Smith)), it also introduces you to a totally new side of Bill: the soulful musician.

Big-time fans might be familiar with Bill's guitar playing (on 'Arizona Bay' & 'Rant in E-Minor' & may even recall the song 'Chicks dig Jerks' (off Relentless (CD)). These, however will ill-prepare you for the awe-inspiring beauty of songs like 'She's a Woman' or the trippy (soon to be classic) Moon Is Smiling.
Most moving of all was track 10 ('I Never Really Cried for You'), which seems to be about Bill's ex Girlfriend & first love (subject of his routine 'I'm not Bitter') & the sheer pain wrought in the song is palpable.
So touching & poignant were the songs that I felt like the guy out of that 'taste that bring you back' advert. It was like the songs took you back to 1990 & you were there in the studio with him!
I thoroughly recommend tracks 2, 6, 8, 9 & 10, all of which display an untapped ability in an already famed comedian & are up there with Jeff Buckley's work.

***

Overall then, I would recommend this collection, but only for the DVD's & MP3's. There are some liner notes & a small poster with it but, aside from Clive Anderson's memorable comments about Bill's thirst for comedic knowledge, they are fairly standard.
Do buy this collection, especially if you are new to Bill, but also buy 'Philosophy' & 'Totally' (if you haven't already) & prepare to be amazed by the World's greatest comedian, but also one of it's least saluted musicians...

P.S. Oh, and for the fanboys: if you haven't seen it, you really should watch American - The Bill Hicks Story [DVD] [2009] - a truly underrated film.

I just wanted to correct one point in T. Patmore's otherwise excellent review: Lo-Fi Troubadour is not entirely unreleased, as the Magic Lemur states. 'Moon Is Smiling' has been officially available as a download since December 2008.

The Essential is a great set, aside from the title. For the truly essential Hicks, buy Totally Bill Hicks and Relentless on DVD. That said, you can never have too much Bill in your life.

It is hard to believe it is 19 or so years since Bill Hicks died and since the recent death of George Carlin there is no comedian around these days who want's to touch the serious subjects that they did. I really miss Bill Hicks, just think of all the funny routines he would be writing now about 911 and all these mediocre politicians . Bill was completely aware of everything that was happening in the world and tried to tell us about it through comedy, a lot of us got it but not everyone did and he suffered a few hard knocks along the way because of this. This product ''Bill Hicks The Essential Collection'' is a fine product but personally I buy everything I can by the great man so I can while away the time while I am waiting for the new Bill to come along but in my experience people like Bill Hicks, George Carlin, JFK, Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, only pass this way one time and you never see their like again,Sad but True.