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American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story
 
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American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story (Paperback)

by Cynthia True (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; 1 edition (Feb 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0380803771
  • ISBN-13: 978-0380803774
  • Product Dimensions: 23.3 x 15.6 x 1.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 856,105 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
Worshipful biography of an acute social satirist who succumbed to cancer at the age of 32. William Melvin Hicks was a middle-class Southern Baptist white guy who got into stand-up fresh out of high school. He worked the brick-wall comedy clubs by night, perfecting his persona as a riffing and ranting comic with an attitude. By day, astrology engaged him; he subsisted for a while on a bean-and-rice diet and a mantra. He did his homework and paid his dues. Once a teetotaler, he soon needed the help of AA. The formerly clean kid, learning the metaphysics of wit and studying the karma of comedy, indulged in drinking, smoking, tripping, sex, and other such debauchery. Moral outrage informed his rants, and conventional notions of good taste were inapplicable. The laughs were disrespectful, the jokes lascivious, and the language raunchy. It was funny as hell, according to biographer True, a journalist and former comedy editor at Time Out New York. Hicks gained the attention of others in the biz and a following in Britain. John Lahr wrote a New Yorker profile. Work was available, and the young performer had several gigs on Letterman until his material proved more than TV could take. All the rock 'n' roll ended with the tortured comic's demise in 1994, in the time-honored tradition of Lenny Bruce and Andy Kaufman before him. True neatly describes, in this peculiarly American tale, the inbred atmosphere of the counter-culture comedy world: the travels and the pitches, the clubs and the competitors, the adoring fans and the interfering suits. She offers samples from the sets too, but of course you had to be there for the honest laughs. Rest in peace, Bill Hicks. Clearly, you deserve it. (30 b&w photos) (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

23 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Great comic; interesting life; poor book, 14 Feb 2005
By J. E. Davidson (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story (Paperback)
I am a big fan of Bill Hicks and I was interested to learn more about him. This book did not help. This is a rather dull biography providing a largely chronological account of his all too brief life interspersed with copious extracts from his stage material. It totally fails to capture the spirit of the man.

If this is your only exposure to Bill Hicks then you will never understand why he was so fantastic - go straight to the source - don't bother with this book, buy a Bill Hicks DVD (e.g. Totally Bill Hicks which includes a documentary and a performance) or CD.

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "Let the party begin...", 15 Feb 2002
By A Customer
Well finally! Roll out the bunting and put on the party hats Goat Boy fans because after one incredibly long wait something new about the genius that was/is Bill Hicks is now available for us, the extended family of Hicks fanatics, to go out and buy!

Really, this book has been such a frustrating and looooooong time coming considering Bill's ever increasing (and fully justified) cult status. It's really quite surprising that no one has put pen to paper before now; but a big pat on the back to True for making the effort and doing a pretty good job.

This is actually a pretty straight forward, but extremely interesting biography, and it manages to detail Bill's life as well as it can without any imput from the man himself (obviously). True relys on the stories and accounts from Bill's friends and colleagues, and the anecdotes are delievered with just the kind of affection and admiration you would expect. For those of us who only really caught onto Bill after his death the details about his early years, and how he broke into stand-up will be particularly interesting.

Is the definitive account of Bill? I hope not, there is a lot more out there and hopefully one day it will be available to us all, but this is a essential contribution to the, unfortunately, pretty small canon of work.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed bag, 25 Sep 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story (Paperback)
This book is strange, it could have been written 8 years ago, the text relies heavily on the same tapes all Bill Hicks fans have of his live shows and does not touch on 'life after Bill Hicks'. There is nothing on how he became more famous (argueably) following his passing, nothing on who he left behind and how they felt and very little on his influence. The book is well written, very journalistic, and it does give some insights into his upbringing and how he lived and worked. A little too pro-Hicks, but still a relatively enjoyable read. However, its expensive, so I'd buy a tape or a video of the man himself, you'll get much much more out of it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Bill Hicks is a Genius! This book is just dull!
Being a huge Bill Hicks fan and thinking he is the best stand up comedian ive ever come across, i thought that buying a biographic book about him, could tell me the other side of... Read more
Published 16 months ago by KottonMouth King

5.0 out of 5 stars An insightful read
Having loved Bill Hicks for some time I decided to read this book and was not disappointed. There is a depth to Bill's life that you see from the topics of his comedy but that... Read more
Published on 2 Jun 2006 by Spider Monkey

5.0 out of 5 stars Meet my wife and sister...
If you were lucky enough to see Bill Hicks on one of the few occassions he visited Britain, or if like me, you discovered his comedy on CD after he died, this book will illustrate... Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2005 by daveswansea

5.0 out of 5 stars The Man, The Legend, The Truth.
This is an insight into the world of the master of comedy that'll set your head free from the mind numbing anti-comedic efforts from todays so-called kings of comedy. Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2005

3.0 out of 5 stars Great man, wild life, dull biography...
I remember the first time I saw Bill Hicks on Channel 4 (late 80's, Jools Holland's Happening, I think...). One of the funniest comedians I had ever seen. Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2004 by M. Fisher

4.0 out of 5 stars Great For Making You Understand Were He's Been.
By the end this book made me feel like i knew almost evey footstep Bill took. As a devoted fan of his stand-up and understanding of projections. Read more
Published on 30 Nov 2004 by Terrez J. Price

2.0 out of 5 stars This book isn't terrible, but it is so very, very dull
Bill Hicks put his life into his stand up - but sadly as you read this book you get the feeling that his biographer put a few wet weekends into her research. Read more
Published on 19 Jul 2004

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Introduction to Bill's Life
The book is a good as a general introduction to Bill's life and the development of his career, though it IS perhaps lacking in its grasp of the issues that Bill raised and was... Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2004 by midnight-dreamer

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed emotions...
I've actually just finished reading 'American Scream' and im still unsure of what i felt about it. In one way it was great to read about the stuff you didnt know about Hicks, the... Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2003 by Giordano Bruno

3.0 out of 5 stars Ho Hum
Excuse me while I refrain from singing Ms. True's praises for this book. "American Scream" is a biography of one of the most interesting entertainers of the 80s and 90s, whom died... Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2002 by benjmorgan

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