AMERICAN SCREAM: the Bill Hicks Story
By Cynthia True
BILLY
By Pamela Stephenson
Similar men, wildly different lives. And very different biographies.
Paradoxically, both books paint rather similar portraits of their subjects. True's biography is based on months of extensive research and interviews with Hicks' family and friends. It works so well because of its detachment and apparent objectivity. However, it is Pamela
Stephenson's utter subjectivity (naturally, since she's married to the beardy fella on the cover), and her intimate, first-hand knowledge of the man, that makes her book so compelling.
William Melvin Hicks and William Connolly have more in common than one might think. Both men were driven by powerful inner demons, throughout their childhood and into adulthood. But while Billy Connolly was able to transcend and conquer his trauma, brought on by a neglectful and abusive family, Bill Hicks never quite got away from his.
Hicks' demons took other forms: his upbringing was relatively normal, after all. Instead, Bill Hicks was tormented by the mediocrity cultivated by American popular culture. By the ignorance embraced by small minds in small towns. And by the timidity of the American media, that kept him from breaking out of the comedy circuit and into the Big Time, like so many of his contemporaries (cf. Dennis Leary, who does not come off well in this book).
There's a core of the tragic running through American Scream - unsurprising, considering Hicks' desperately premature death. References to Bill being aware of a "presence" in his left side only serve to reinforce this. In fact, the middle third of the book became so dark and depressing that I had to put it down for a week: the invisible ticking clock on each page got to be too much, frankly.
On the other hand, Billy Connolly seemed to go from strength to strength. He left behind his hard, unsympathetic school (Stephenson diagnoses her husband as having Attention Deficit Disorder; something that hadn't even been named when Billy Connolly was at school), which did him no favours - except to toughen up his knuckles.
He found first camaraderie, as a welder on the banks of the Clyde (my Da, who used to drive buses around Glasgow, probably carried Billy back from the pub on more than one occasion), then fame, as a folk singer who talked a lot between songs. who became a comedian who strummed a banjo occasionally.
How Connolly deals with his fame is something which Stephenson appears to relish discussing, almost as much as the man himself. Billy Connolly seems as comfortable with showbiz glitterati as he does with his old welding chums.
In contrast, Bill Hicks felt either betrayed or ignored by an entertainment business too afraid of offending their advertiser. Hicks was on the verge of bursting on to British television, having been warmly received as a stand-up. As with so much in American Scream, one is left with the question: "What If?"
Both men had a tendency towards self-destruction which proved hard to overcome. Both men had a drinking problem, which they conquered with no small effort. And while Billy Connolly was embraced by everyone he met, Bill Hicks often descended into dark moods, lashing out at his own audience. Cynthia True describes these episodes in such detail that it's hard not to feel sorry for Hicks.
Or his audience.
Pamela Stephenson reveals herself to be a great stabilising influence in Billy Connolly's life. While she does this in the most humble and self-effacing way, she does have the slightly annoying habit of falling into technical jargon (well, she is a clinical psychologist!), and feeling the need to explain every single term. She occasionally talks about Billy Connolly like he was a
patient or a case study,
But I suspect all wives feel like that, sometimes...
Both books include lots of samples of old routines and gags. In fact, both books had me laughing like a nutcase in places. While Bill Hicks was a shark on stage, constantly moving, controlling his output (except on those occasions when he lost his temper with the audience, the world, or both), Billy Connolly is the verbal equivalent of explosive diahorrea. While each man was/is a preacher, Connolly is more of a manic street preacher.
To borrow a name.
Pamela Stephenson captures that side of her husband to a tee.
The overriding message of Billy is that, sometimes, things do work out. You can build a good life for yourself, vanquish your inner demons, and come out on top.
The overriding message of American Scream is that Bill Hicks had barely begun to beat back his demons, before his death. However, while he was taken way too soon, Hicks definitely left his mark on the world - and more importantly, on the people around him.
Taken together, these biographies are a revelation. An insight into the lives and minds of two of the funniest men of the last forty years. More than that, however: they are the life stories of two men who have lived more than most: men who grabbed life by the nuts and squeezed as much out of it as they could.
There's a lesson for us all, there.
Review text (C) Matthew Craig
Originally published in the pop culture magazine Robot Fist