Bill Hicks ... Denis Leary

Cactus Col

Not a huge fan of either comedian (particularily not Hicks ... but that's neither here nor there) ... but what I was curious about was that there seems to be a lot of bad feeling from Hicks fans towards Denis Leary ... with many saying that he literally stole Hicks' material.

so was just wondering if this was actually true .. that leary told the exact same jokes as Hicks,

or

did Leary just make similar jokes about the same things? (in the same way that westlife songs are similar to boyzone songs)

quarryman

was listening to Fanning yesterday and his stuff was mentioned. Seemed to be recommended. Might try pick up a copy of his stuff. I'm not mad on Denis Leary though.

Cactus Col

Should check it out ... I'm not a fan .. but his millions of fans can't be completly wrong.

red_ice

he tries to be funny, when hes not - and he tries the same smoking jokes as bill.... and fails miserably

kaimera

afaik, Leary has incorporated some [if not loads] of Hicks' material into his acts.

ChRoMe

I'm a massive fan of bill hicks (so this post will not contain any bias at all

It is widely thought that Denis Leary stole large amounts of material from hick's shows. When i say stole dont get me wrong it wasnt word for word stuff but the same funny observations on subjects (the most famous being smoking?). Some would say it is unfair to say that leary copied the jokes becuase he took on the same subjects with the same view. But from listening to a lot of material from both of them (and the knowledge that Hicks was pre leary so to speak) it really comes across as he stole a lot of basic ideas.

A lot of people dont really get hicks because they expect to sit down and get punch line after punch ala Billy connolly or someone similar. The truth of it is that Hicks saw himself as a type of preacher before being a comedian. If you listen to his shows the majority of the material is actually social commentary (well i guess most comedy is).He accepted this and half way through some shows when its getting pretty heavy he would turn to the crowd and something along the lines of "dont worry folks dick jokes are on the way after this i promise".

ChRoMe

RE*AC*TOR

The beauty of Hicks was how he merged the two, politics / social commentary and comedy. You'd laugh your hole of while watching / listening, but afterwards, you'd stop and think.
Leary has his moments, but he's not in the same league, no one is really in the same league as Hicks though.

the_syco

Hicks is dead 10 years, and still has a following. That alone shows how good he was. Denis Leary proberly saw Hicks as a kid, and is now copying all the best jokes :mad:

Mr E

If Hicks was still alive, Leary would only be 4 years older. Its plagiarism, pure and simple. The standout example for me is the Jim Fixx routine (jogger who died of heart failure while jogging).

Learys own material (e.g. coffee flavoured coffee, his kids etc.) doesn't even come close to Hick's genius.

quarryman

relentless
revelation
one night stand

which of these is worth getting?

Mr E

One Night Stand is a rip off (its only about 20 minutes long).
Either of the other two are excellent (one is a CD and one is a video), both are at least an hour long as far as I can remember.

moggie

go to the sugar club on oct 23rd
and compare both that way!!!

Emmet Quinn performs both
you be the judge

tickets €14

and go with relentless for the bush stuff in iraq (1991)
its very very apt for 2004!!!

Jaeger

Hicks was a true master, leary is a less than able student.


I have the Revelation dvd at home, it's quite good, I'm hungry for more tho :-)

ChRoMeY1

Does anyone else not think that bloke in sugar club is a bit um... wrong? I mean I think hicks is great and when I saw the poster advertising I dunno it didnt seem right. I understand that the guy has to be a major fan and be pretty good at doing hick's routine but it just seems kinda cheap.

Personally I'd rather watch the dvd or listen to the cd at home of the real thing rather than some bloke reciting someone else's jokes and (sometimes very) personal views. What I'm trying to say is I dont think anything other than the real deal would do the memory of the man justice. Just curious if other die hard hicks fan's felt the same way or thought it was ok to do it.

ChRoMe