“Bill Hicks: Slight Return” Director interview Pt 2

LaughRiot.co.uk had the pleasure of speaking to Richard Hurst, director and co-writer of “Bill Hicks: Slight Return” before it began its last two weeks ever in the UK.

We covered Bill’s political material, the reaction from Bill’s friends and family, and the future for the show.  Catch Part 1 here.

LR: Some people compared Mark Thomas to Bill Hicks, do you see that as accurate?

RH: Yeah, though I think Mark’s stuff is much more campaigning in a way that Bill wasn’t. When we first started writing it one of the things that I was really interested in was the chance to address American politics, which I have always been interested in, partly because of Bill in the first place. I thought great we can get involved in all the stuff with Bush and the wars, etc.

Obviously one of the first things we did was listen to as much of Bill’s stuff as we could get hold of, released stuff, unreleased bootlegs, anything and everything. And actually there is not very much where Bill was politically specific, in a way that Mark Thomas is. People compared Bill to Michael Moore as well, but I don’t quite see it. I think Mark Thomas’ stuff is brilliant but it is not the same sort of area. I think that Bill was more general and took a more general look at people and values instead of getting involved in the nitty gritty of arms dealing for example.

LR: Although of course he did call himself Chomsky with dick jokes.

RH: Haha, yeah, absolutely. He was hugely inspired by Chomsky and there are bits where he specifically spoke about Reagan and Bush Sr being essentially war criminals with Iran Contra and so on. But I think he had more of an overview. I think his approach wass different from the way that Mark Thomas approaches stuff.

LR: You’ve been doing the show since 2004, have any of Bill’s friends and family seen it?

RH: His good friend Kevin Booth has seen it on video and has been very complimentary about it. Also Dwight Slade has seen bits of it on video and I think he said “Chas has got Bill down”, which was very kind of him. People who have seen it have been very kind about it. We sent a DVD to Mary Hicks, his mother, and she hasn’t said she has seen it, but she hasn’t said she hates it and it must stop, either.

LR: Many of the stories about Bill include the reactions he provoked from the audience. Has that happened during the show?

RH: When we first started it it didn’t occur to either of us that people would react in the way that some people have. We didn’t realise how much we were setting ourselves up in the beginning, with people going “Oh my God you are doing Bill, that’s very brave”. Other comedians saying it was a big risk to take.

I’d already directed a play about Peter Cook, who is just as good a comedian but somehow it is much less sensitive doing a play about Peter Cook than doing one about Bill Hicks. And I had seen it in that same bracket but because this takes the form of a stand-up show some people see it as a tribute comedian, like you have a tribute band, which was never our intention and they get a bit edgy about it.

And because lots of people said how dangerous and brave it was, which I don’t think it particularly is, we were kind of expecting loads of people to throw fruit and walk out, etc. That has happened I think, in 200/300 shows, twice. One person has gone “You’re not Bill Hicks”, and walked out. And then one person took offense at some of the stuff about 9/11 because a relative of theirs was near the World Trade Center when it happened. And survived. So I don’t know what they were complaining about really.

I wasn’t there for that show, but Chas said she stormed out going “Oh you don’t know about it you weren’t there my friend was there” and Chas was like “well they survived,, why are you so upset?” I think there always people who get the mistaken idea that some subjects are taboo for comedy, but I don’t think there are. I think there are some attitudes which are unpleasant but I think you should be able to talk about anything. There are just some things which are harder to talk about than others.

LR: What are the subjects being covered in the show now?

I suppose about half has been similar all the way through, while half changes. The stuff that’s new for this run is mostly stuff about the ecological movement, about Al Gore, about the 2008 election and the run-up to that with Obama and Hillary Clinton and all that. And then all the stuff that we’ve talked about, like the music material which we have kept updating.

LR: Do you have any plans to take the show across the pond?

We are planning to take it to the States but we are not very far along in taking it there, it all happens very, very slowly. But the record company Invasion who originally signed Bill Hicks were very keen on it and said we have to take it over. They are still hoping to find a way, exactly what that way is is still rather unclear.

Our plan is stop doing it, at least in the UK. I think that you can have too much of a good thing and we are both working on different projects on top of it. And from Chas’s point of view he doesn’t want this to become his career defining show. You don’t want, in 10 years time, to be “the Bill Hicks guy”, which is fair enough.

Our thanks to Richard for taking the time to talk to us.