Once upon a time…
Bill Hicks was a comedian. Nah, that’s not right. He was a fucking awesome comedian. Back on October 1, 1993; he did The Late Night show of David Letterman’s.
It was cut.
Needless to say, Bill was furious about it. So much so he wrote a 39 page letter to John Lahr of The New Yorker (found here) about being censored. It was an opportunity to shine. Actually it was his last also.
What most people didn’t know (including Letterman) was that Bill had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on June 16th which had already metastasized to his liver. He received chemo but it was far too late already. He would be dead just 4 months after his deleted Letterman appearance.
I’m not one of those who’d say “Bill Hicks was (a) God”. However, he was really fucking hilarious and really told it like it is. His comedy was a mirror to reality; and it wasn’t always a pretty picture.
Last night (30 Jan 09), Letterman invited Bill’s mom on the show and he finally showed the cut piece. Seeing and hearing Bill’s mom you can see who Bill took after. Letterman, to his credit, was contrite and extremely apologetic. He accepted full responsibility for cutting the piece and realize that
“It says more about me as a guy than it says about Bill because there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.”
So, with that as a backdrop, I’m proud to link you to Bill Hicks on Letterman. I laughed my ass off.

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