AUSTIN, Texas — Bill Hicks, also known as “the comedian’s comedian” or maybe every marketer’s worst nightmare, took the stage here Friday night without really being there.

The Houston-born comedian died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 after gaining a fair amount of acceptance in his native country and finding the sobriety that fueled his most biting satire.

Like the Pixies, he gained his strongest following in the United Kingdom, home to director-producers Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas, whose film American: The Bill Hicks Story premiered in North America at SXSW to an enthusiastic audience including Hicks’ brother and mother.

Those whose brains have been infected by the late, great stand-up’s logical, satirical and spiritual brand of comedy may wonder why the world needs a Bill Hicks movie in 2010, given that there’s no new footage of the man and fans have already seen his routines.





Harlock and Thomas dodge that problem with fresh interviews and early scenes from Hicks’ life that pair audio reconstructed from still photos set in motion in three dimensions, beginning with his childhood friendship with his first comedy partner and lifelong friend Dwight Slade.

The effect is reminiscent of the Dock Ellis LSD no-hitter video and others that reconstruct scenes using still photographs, animation and audio from an interview. Is there a name for these things yet? Soundumentary? Interviewdeo?

Hicks’ jokes still sound fresh and drew big laughs all these years later, but fans have already seen many of them (the “positive LSD news story” and the marketers routine both make appearances in the movie).

But the animations, interviews and sprinklings of new onstage footage make American: The Bill Hicks Story worthwhile to the initiated and uninitiated alike. There’s Hicks toddling around in diapers; there he is in a football uniform, as Slade, also on the team, describes his playing style (indefatigable). And there he is again, taking the stage as a 15-year-old, performing to a comedy club full of adults.

Hicks later became frustrated with his native audience, comparing it upon his return from England as reacting like “a dog that has just been shown a card trick.” Maybe so, but the trick still inspires awe, and Harlock and Thomas’ “soundumentary,” “interviewdeo,” or whatever it’s called does justice to the magician.

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