Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4579 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-07-03
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 116 minutes

Special Features
4:3
DVD 5
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital Stereo English
Dolby Digital Stereo

Synopsis

The Bill Hicks - Totally DVD release consists of "Revelations", the outrageous comedian's last live performance, and "It's Just A Ride", a tribute to Hicks that features interviews with comic personalities such as Eddie Izzard, Sean Hughes, Jay Leno and David Letterman.

Customer Reviews

Cut through the propaganda - experience Bill Hicks.
The 45 minute documentary is a very interesting, if too brief, examination of who Bill was, and what his work was about, with contributions from his friends, parents and other comedians. His website (Sacred Cow Productions for those who are interested) will give people much more info. The performance in London, at about an hour and ten minutes, is one of the very best, perhaps THE best, that I've seen. The humour is dark, challenging, intelligent, informed and hilarious, but he always manages to maintain values of truth, justice, integrity and freedom in everything he discusses, be it pornography, the Gulf War, fundamentalist Christianity, drug use, or even as his alter ego Goat Boy! I can't recommend this too highly for those with a taste for dark, very clever humour, and also for those with an open mind.

Comedy genius
The worst thing about watching a Hicks video or listening to a Hicks CD is the moment it ends and you realise that this man is no longer around... it's a sad emptiness made all the more profound by the scarcity of any material for those of us he left behind.

Bill Hicks was a genius... the funniest man ever to step up on the stage, and a ferociously caring individual who struck out at the hypocrisy and mediocrity that threatens to consume us all. This performance is one of his finest... the documentary is somewhat dull... it's just not possible to capture the essence of Bill any better than he did himself on stage. The show that follows it however is dazzling and hilarious and thought-provoking and moving, all at once. The material is delivered with a confidence and assurance that speak to a man who learned his craft with the other greats of his day, and surpassed them all.

Although the references to current political events are somewhat dated, there is a truth and relevance in the central tenats that remains valid even today, almost ten years after his death. His fight was never at people or events, but at trends and philosophies.

Bill Hicks is the comedian's comedian... someone who surpassed the laughter and took his audience with him to visit a place where the complacent media have refused to do... the truth.

He will be missed.

Poorly produced DVD
Revelations is probably Bill Hick's best show on recording, so with the documentary this should be the greatest Bill Hicks DVD out there - but it isn't.

Revelations is seriously let down because the first 10 minutes or so of this issue have been badly edited, so rather than Bill coming on stage and the comedy keeps rolling, instead what we get is Bill on stage - cut to 30 secs later - cut to 30 secs later, etc. We never get to see Bill's feelings on leaving LA "Bye, Bill, we'll be good!" and the choppy editing is annoying.

But worst is that for some unfathomable reason, whoever edited Revelations on this DVD release also decided to fade in images from the background during Bill's performance. So we get to see a burning US flag suddenly fill the picture, and at another point, the head of a baby with accompanying child noises. It's distracting, annoying, and entirely pointless.

If you really want a recording of Revelations to view, don't buy this release - instead get a standalone which hasn't been butchered the way this one has.