We like Bill Hicks here at hecklerspray, and we’re pretty sure you do too. One of our intrepid young writers wormed his way into the Harpercollins Launch Party for their brand spanking new Hicks biography, and thought you might like to know what happened …

April 18 2005, and Kevin Booth looks tired. Lifelong-friend of Greatest Comedian Ever Bill Hicks and collaborator/producer of much of the man’s recorded output, he is in London to tirelessly promote new Marlboros-and-all biography ‘Agent Of Evolution.’

The ‘launch party’ – bizarrely taking place about a month after the book’s original release – is one of a long line of engagements, public or otherwise, to spread the word about the volume (co-written with veteran journalist Michael Bertin).

‘I’ve done ten or eleven radio interviews today,’ Kevin remarks to hecklerspray as he scribbles the word ‘Enjoy’ next to his signature in our already well-thumbed copy of Agent. He gives a weary smile, shakes our hand and reaches out for the next waiting volume. We congratulate him on the interview but he doesn’t hear us.

Not that it matters. He’s here in the Cobden Club, West London, slap-bang in a room brimming with Hicks obsessives. Chances are he’ll have a lot more congratulations coming his way.

The interview in question was a stage-based Q & A, a fascinating collection of anecdotes and curiosities about the life of his best friend Bill.

Trivia buffs mentally inscribe fresh notes: stuff about the first Hicks gig his parents attended (followed by an eight-hour drive home in utter shocked silence) and about the comedic tastes of the much-missed Goatboy (Hicks had a lot of time for Lenny Bruce, but thought Andy Kaufman was ‘performance art crap‘).

Before this, a selection of rare Hicks material is broadcast, often-tragic-looking footage of his skeletal final days and difficult, health-declining gigs (Hicks died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 32). Austrailian comedian and shamefully underexposed funnyman Brendan Burns performs a set, clearly relishing the chance to cut loose with material that – on other occasions – might have upset a few conservative sensibilities.

Amidst all the razzmatazz and media darlings, however, one question hovers around perpetually like that bloke from the Kaiser Chiefs in a branch of ‘Ironic Clothing Ltd’:  is the book actually any good?

hecklerspray is pleased to inform you that, yes, it is. What with the disappointment of last year’s Hicks compendium Love All The People (or, to give it it’s alternative title: Someone Transcribes A Bunch Of Audio CDs), it’s good to know that Booth has managed to create something so substantial and well-written.

Agent Of Evolution should go down in history as the definitive word on Bill Hicks for two reasons. Number One – it’s very good indeed. Number Two – everything seems to have been said now. As remarkable a talent as Hicks was, his brief time on this planet has been exhaustively chronicled by many people.

He’s no longer the ‘cult comedian’ that wannabe-cool sixth-formers would have you believe; he’s fast on his way to becoming a mainstream figure, a cultural legend whose noteriety will only grow.

So – as fascinating as Agent Of Evolution is – hecklerspray can only hope that it remains the final word on the man. It’d be really sad for Hicks to become some cash-cow Kurt Cobain figure, every utterance re-released for the fifteenth time under the auspices of slightly-different packaging.

Raise a glass, then, or spark up a Marlboro. Let the body of the man’s work speak for itself. Get hold of Agent as soon as you can – although, out there in hecklerspray world, most of you probably already will have. And remember – life is just a ride.

Unless that life belongs to Vernon Kay, of course. In that case, it’s really just a waste of everyone’s time.

Let Amazon Sell You A Shiny New Copy

[story by C J Davies]