OK, N42, you have piqued my interest. Who is Bill Hicks and what's his story??

Didn't realize how long it had been since I was on here! Bill Hicks was a comedian. His first big break was around 1984, I came across him in the mid 90's, and he died in 1994. He was a blunt performer who talked about subjects that are not appropiate for young ears and may upset some sensibilities (drugs, religion, politics - all were fair game to Bill Hicks). Despite appearing on Letterman 11 times over the years he just could not catch on in America - but was loved and celibrated in the UK. He was kind of the Lenny Bruce of our (my) time, but way funnier. He seemed to be just starting to take off when he found out he had cancer. (Some of his show was sampled on Tool's album, and I confess this was how I came across him). He has several CD's out all of which are funny (if you can stomach him), and they don't seem that dated even though they are over 15 years old. He taped an appearance on Letterman in October 1993 that got cut even though it had been sent to censors and approved twice. He was very upset about this and talked about it in his few remaining shows. He died Feb 1994 at age 32.Jan 31 Letterman had Bill's mother Mary on the show and said that the decision to cut the segment had been his and it said more about him as a guy than it did about Bill because Letterman now felt there was nothing wrong with it. Letterman apologized to to Mary and ran the cut segment in honor of the 15th anniversary of Bill's death. It can be found on You Tube and on Bill's website. I freely admit that Bill Hicks is not for everybody - if you come across some of his stuff and are offended, I'm sorry in advance. But if you don't get offended easily, you may find a new favorite comedian. (In a issue of SOD, Jake Silbermann - Noah from ATWT, named Bill Hicks as his favorite comedian which suprised me and made me want to hang out with Jake)