



With a razor-sharp mind and a butcher’s knack for finding the soft underbelly of American society, stand-up comic Bill Hicks sliced through pop culture with a white-hot intensity rarely seen. And then he died.

Now the late outlaw comic’s story is being told in American: The Bill Hicks Story, a documentary that combines Hicks’ righteous performances with vivid animation and interviews with his friends and admirers.

Hicks’ bold and belligerent takes on drugs, politics, religion and philosophy remain relevant more than a decade after his death in 1994 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 32. His hard-hitting rants can be heard on 1990’s Dangerous and 1992’s Relentless as well as posthumous releases Arizona Bay and Rant in E-Minor.

Get an exclusive first look at the American: The Bill Hicks Story trailer above. The movie makes its North American premiere Friday at the South by Southwest Film Festival and Conference.

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