by Russ Austin

Created on: April 01, 2010

The original version of the piece below the asteriks is from my 1996/1997 writing sessions.  At that time, we were only a few years removed from what happened to Bill Hicks on CBS' "The Late Show with David Letterman" on October 1, 1993.  Whatever people may think about the incident now it was, and arguably still is, an important part of Bill's life.

The piece below the asteriks goes over, in quite a bit of detail, what happened on Letterman's show that fateful night.  I let others, including Bill Hicks, tell the story.  My job, as I saw it in the 90's and as I see it now, was and is to take their puzzle pieces (words) and present a puzzle (story).  There's other biographical information in there, as well. 

I'll comment further at the end of this piece.

Enjoy!
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A Silent Night in New York

"I left in Love, in laughter, and in truth, and wherever Truth, Love, and Laughter abide, I am there in spirit." - Bill Hicks, December 16, 1961 - February 26, 1994
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"Comedy in the states has become totally gutted," Bill pointed out in November of 1992, right before the "Revelations" performance that was filmed live at the Dominion Theatre in London and shown on HBO.  "It's commercialized.  They don't have people on TV who have points of view, because that defies the status quo, and we can't have that in the totalitarian mind-control government that runs the f*n' airwaves.  I can't get a shot there.  I get David Letterman a lot.  I love Letterman, but every time I go on, we have tiffs over material.  They love me, but his people have this fictitious mainstream audience they think they play to.  It's untrue.  It doesn't exist.  I like doing the show, but it's almost like working a puzzle: How can I be me in the context of doing this material?  The best thing I can do is make connections.  I connect everything.  It's hard to do it in six minutes."

"On October 1st, the comedian Bill Hicks, after doing his twelfth gig on the David Letterman show, became the first comedy act to be censored at CBS's Ed Sullivan Theater, where Letterman is now in residence, and where Elvis Presley was famously censored in 1956," writes John Lahr in a brilliant article called "The Goat Boy Rises" that appeared in the November 1, 1993 issue of the New Yorker.

TV is often a method that is used to control and distract people as much as it is to entertain them.  Bill, acting as the media with an exaggerated

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