Spectrum Centre, Inverness, 29 June 2006

Chas Early as Bill Hicks.

A DARK POET took to the stage last Thursday night at the Spectrum Centre. Bill Hicks lived again, and for a few short minutes taunted the world with an intellectual swagger few have equalled.

Arguably one of the finest stand up comedians ever, Hicks lost a short battle with cancer in 1994 and the space he left in the spotlight has never been filled. For a short time Hicks held in his hands the Holy Grail of Stand Up. He had the two things all stand ups dream of possessing – he had a message and he was really, really funny. That doesn’t happen very often.

Chas Early’s one-man play seeks not just to recreate a Bill Hicks performance but also to take his message one stage further. I interviewed Chas shortly before his Inverness performance and asked him what he thought Hicks would have said about the play.

“I think Hicks would have kicked my arse. Mainly for not being me, for not doing something as myself. But I do think he would have been pleased that someone is trying to take his work forward and carry on his message.”

Chas co-wrote the piece with Richard Hurst, who has also had a directing role in this continually evolving work.

“One of the challenges in this work was that the writing had to be right. Without that, no matter how close I got to Hicks on stage physically, the show would have failed.

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Despite its inevitable shortcomings the show played to a packed house in the Spectrum centre, it was hugely entertaining, and Chas gave a great performance as Hicks

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When we worked on the play together, Richard was very good at putting the structure in place and I think I was able to say well that works and that doesn’t. We tried to take Hicks’ work and ask what he would have said if he had been looking at the world today.”

Hicks is part of a long lineage. His type of comedy has its roots in the Fool of Medieval England. Like the Fool in King Lear, who can challenge the King with his jibes, Hicks was able to whisper uncomfortable truths into the ear of America and sometimes scream them in an uncompromising comedy that drew him as many enemies as friends.

Hicks took over the torch from Lenny Bruce and gained his inspiration from comedians like Richard Pryor and Woody Allen. Oddly, Hicks found his greatest success in the UK, winning the critic’s award in the Fringe. Here the offensive side of his material was given full TV exposure and he was spared the censorship of a hypocritical and exploitative American media.

In taking on a Bill Hicks performance Chas Early is facing to a challenge few would relish. As he walks on stage through smoke to Jimi Hednrix’s ‘Voodoo Child’, wearing angel’s wings in a white suit – a deliberate contrast with the live Hicks’ habitual black – he is trying to fill some very large shoes.

Hicks’ performances were characterised by a tremendous power and passion that any actor would find hard to match. Chas is clearly a master of mimicry as he echoes the comedian’s ticks, poutings and mannerisms on stage.

His performance of Hicks’ famous Goat Boy persona was uncannily accurate, and his development of Hicks’ material well written and true to Hicks’ perspective on life. For me the high point of the performance was when Chas, as Hicks, began talking about 9/11.

It was then, in territory so dangerous for any comedian to touch, that Early came closest to emulating Hicks. Hicks was never afraid to deal with any subject and it was that risk taking in uncharted waters that held audiences in tension and made the release of laughter that much more profound.

If you went along expecting to see Hicks reborn you would, perhaps, have been disappointed. Chas does not have the comic timing that Hicks took fifteen years to perfect. What gave Hicks’ writing its vitality was that you could see within it a reflection of Hicks’ own internal struggle, a battle between the dark forces of Goat Boy and the deeply spiritual and compassionate side of Hicks’ personality.

In trying to take Hicks’ writing a stage further. Chas is assuming an almost impossible task. As Hicks’ himself said in a satire on fundamentalist Christians, “Do you know there are people who are re-writing the Bible? It’s true, they are saying, I think what God meant to say… Wow! I’ve never been that confident.”

For some people, members of the huge cult that now focuses around Hicks, that is a little like what Chas is trying to do. Despite its inevitable shortcomings the show played to a packed house in the Spectrum centre, it was hugely entertaining, and Chas gave a great performance as Hicks. I doubt anyone left disappointed and seeing Chas is the closest it’s possible to get to seeing Hicks live.

If you would like to hear one hour of Bill Hicks in live performance follow this link to Bill Hicks, The Lost Hour http://frequency23.org/component/option,com_zoom/Itemid,104/catid,4/PageNo,2/

© John Burns, 2006