COMEDIANS DRESS UP AS COMEDIANS AT THE KESSLER THIS HALLOWEEN

Artwork by Aaron Aryanpur

The Kessler will bring Phyllis Diller, Bill Hicks and Andy Kaufman back to the stage this Halloween by having their souls inhabit the bodies of comedians Saffron Herndon, Clint Werth and Dan Danzy for their "Homage Nation" comedy show.

Stand-up comedians may be alone on a stage in a physical sense, but spiritually speaking, they are never by themselves.

They are constantly swarmed by the spirits of the comedians who inspired them. Sometimes it's an unknown name who convinced a club owner to give them five minutes in the spotlight. For most it's a famous great who broke new boundaries with his material or style and pushed them to elevate their material from simple jokes to a well-crafted set.

Comedian Clint Werth cites comedy legend Bill Hicks as one such name.

"He was the first stand-up comedian I really got into," Werth says. "I grew up not that far from where he did, in super-conservative College Station, where I was pretty sure I was crazy. But then a friend of the family who was going to Texas A&M gave me some Bill Hicks tapes and some Dungeons and Dragons books when I was 12 years old, I guess because he realized I was a weirdo. Anyway, it was the first time I ever heard someone say the things I had always been thinking. It was a bummer to find out that he had died less than a year before I discovered him."

The Kessler has a special show on Halloween night designed to let the spirits of these and other legendary comedians come back from the dead and play on a stage again through the living bodies of some of Dallas' best comedians. The Kessler's "Homage Nation" show at 8 p.m. Saturday will feature performances by Werth, Katy Evans, Saffron Herndon, Silas Coursón, Alex Axon, Billy McFarland and Dan Danzy paying homage to comedy greats such as Hicks, Minnie Pearl, Phyllis Diller George Carlin, Janeane Garofalo, Mitch Hedberg and Andy Kaufman, respectively. Comedian Josh Johnson will host the show as himself, presumably so there's no unnecessary confusion.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE - Dallas Observer

Paste Magazine: 10 Jokes that Prove Bill Hicks was the Best Comic of His Time

Out tomorrow, Bill Hicks: The Complete Collection features every album and special the comedian ever released, along with more than ten hours of previously unreleased material and a photo book, spread out across 12 CDs and 6 DVDs. There’s no denying Hicks’s talent now, but it took American audiences a while to catch on in the early 1990s. Hicks defied classification because he was an entirely different sort of comic. He elevated stand-up comedy with his long think-piece jokes that pushed away from uproarious punch lines and instead approached life’s more frustrating developments with a philosophical air tinged with humor.

Hicks wasn’t afraid to call bullshit on many a problem arising in the political, cultural or social arenas. Talking about the injustice of John Lennon’s murder when Barry Manilow lived on suffocating the world with his sound, Hicks said, “If you’re going to kill someone, have some fucking taste.” It’s a stance that would be hard to imagine any comic taking today, least of which because the media fallout would be so intense. He was more than an irreverent comic, though; he was himself a deep thinker attuned to the inane and insane. If he pushed buttons, he did so in order to awaken people to the world around them.

In many ways, Hicks’s comedy had a prescient quality. Talking about everything from the news cycles on CNN Headline News to mounting anti-intellectualism, he covered topics that still ring pertinent today. The names in his jokes may have changed, but the issues haven’t. One can easily imagine him attacking Miley Cyrus instead of Debbie Gibson, Donald Trump instead of George Bush.

Here are ten jokes that prove Bill Hicks was the best stand-up comic of his time, and an eerily farsighted one, too. They don’t make comics like him anymore.

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Unboxing the Bill Hicks box set

We unbox Bill Hicks The Complete Collection box set.

On 9/11, Comedy Dynamics will release the complete collected works of the iconic comedian Bill Hicks. Including 12 CDs and 8 DVDs including over 10 hours of previously released material.

BILL HICKS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION Out 9/11

Comedy Dynamics will release Bill Hicks: The Complete Collection box set with 12 CDs, 6 DVDs, and a photo book on September 11, 2015.

Bill Hicks' legacy has been compiled into one comprehensive box set to capture every commercially released album and special as well as over ten hours of unreleased performances pulled from Bill's own collection of shows he recorded over his many years of touring, and a photo book and a photo book with many rare and never before seen photos. Once again Bill's work will step into the spotlight and be enjoyed by and influence another generation of comics and fans.

Hicks tackled a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, consumerism, the media, and popular culture in a dark and controversial way. During the 1990s, he toured the United States and the U.K. extensively and made a number of high-profile television appearances. On February 26, 1994 at the age of 32, he died of pancreatic cancer in Little Rock, Arkansas. In subsequent years, his work gained a large amount of acclaim and he developed a strong following among a broad range of audiences around the world. He was named fourth greatest comedian of all time by London's Channel 4 and 19th by Comedy Central.

Comedy Dynamics is the largest independent comedy production and distribution company in North America that specializes in a range of established and emerging comedic talent.


PRE-ORDER LINK: http://amzn.to/1Mql5xx

SOURCE - BroadwayWorld.com

Bill Hicks features in Comedy Humble Bundle

Pay $10 and get all this great comedy including a plethora of Bill material.

HUMBLE BUNDLE

Previously Unreleased Bill Hicks Album to Accompany Reissued Catalog

Late comedian's audio and video works to become available online this spring, while a DVD box set is planned for the fall

By Kory Grow March 12, 2015

Late comedian's audio and video works to become available online this spring, while a DVD box set is planned for the fall

The entire audio and video works of controversial late comedian Bill Hicks, whose darkly acerbic wit and socially conscious observations helped define Generation X comedy in the Nineties, will be reissued beginning next month. In partnership with his estate, the production company Comedy Dynamics will make all of Hicks' albums and video releases available to digital and VOD retailers on April 28th. Concurrently with the re-release of Hicks' albums, SiriusXM will play his catalog on its Raw Dog channel.

A DVD box set of his video works will come out on August 18th, and an album of previously unreleased Hicks audio is slated for October 27th.

In addition to the reissues and new releases, a Hicks special is set to air in movie theaters for one night. Comedy Dynamics Presents: Bill Hicks, which comprises footage from his Relentless DVD (filmed at the Montreal International Comedy Festival in 1991) and never-before-seen footage, will play in select theaters on April 27th. Tickets go on sale March 27th via Fathom Events.

"After many months of hard work and dedication, we couldn't be more humbled to assume control of the Bill Hicks catalog," Comedy Dynamics President of Production Brian Volk-Weiss said in a statement. "Bill Hicks is one of the most important stand-up comedians to have walked this planet. The duty to expose him to a new generation of comedy fans is a true honor, we'll do him proud."

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Bill Hicks' Entire Catalog To Be Re-released By Comedy Dynamics

On April 28, Comedy Dynamics is partnering with Bill Hicks’ estate to re-release Hicks’ entire audio discography—Arizona Bay, Dangerous, Flying Saucer Tour Vol. 1, 12/16/1961, Love, Laughter and Truth, The Adventure, Philosophy, Rant in E-Minor, Relentless, Revelations and Salvations. Additionally, previously unreleased audio material will be compiled into a new album, available on Oct. 27.

The same day, they will be releasing Hicks’ entire video catalog—It’s Just a Ride,One Night Stand, Totally Bill Hicks, Relentless, Revelations and Sane Man—through their VOD streaming platform, and in a DVD box set on Aug. 18. SiriusXM will also host a listening party of all the audio material on its Raw Dog Comedy Hits channel in conjunction with the April 28 releases.

READ MORE - www.pastemagazine.com