American: The Bill Hicks Story Page #3

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I was like, "OK, I guess I'm game for this,

if you guys are gonna navigate the way. "

He goes,

"Did you see the paper today?"

He goes, "A comedy workshop has opened up

and they have open mic. "

"Open mic stand-up?" "Yes."

Oh, my God. Finally.

So we drove to downtown.

On our way back we passed this place

called the Comedy Workshop in Montrose.

Bill and Dwight were like,

"That's that place we've been reading about."

We couldn't believe it,

that something like this

had happened in our own backyard.

And we realised that now we had

a real chance. We could actually be comics.

Most entertainers have to deal with the fact,

"I've got to get to LA or Hollywood,

"I got to take acting lessons,

I got to get head shots. "

What's our problem?

We can't go out on school nights.

I remember my father sitting me down

and going, "Look, you're not going down

to a nightclub in Houston, Texas. "

Man.

We were strict.

We wanted to know where they were.

And we wanted to know

when they were going to get home.

And if they didn't give us the answer

we wanted, we told them what we wanted.

Bill and I talked about it

and he said, "We have to do it",

and I was like, "Absolutely."

The question was, "How are you gonna

get down there on a school night?"

When you're in Bill's bedroom looking out,

if you hop that fence, you are

in the parking lot of the Catholic church.

You could open the window,

but there also was a storm window,

and he became just very efficient at getting

that thing open and getting out that window.

You had to be quiet cos the roof

was right above where their kitchen was.

The evil Catholic boy

with his 14-year-old driver's licence

was sitting there

in the Catholic getaway wagon

ready to take the Baptist boy

down to the Comedy Store.

We'd never been in a nightclub,

but when we walked in it was like, "Whoal

The whole thing is set up for comedy. "

And there was chairs

and they were all pointed at the stage

and this was what it was all about.

We did the first few jokes

and it started working.

I think everybody

was very receptive to it

because they were like these little kids

trying to be a part of this adult world.

When Bill first started,

you could see Woody Allen.

He actually had the Woody Allen mannerisms

a bit. But that's not a bad thing.

If you keep doing it and

you don't grow out of it, that's a bad thing,

but you can tell when a comic first starts

who his influence may be.

Bill and I got off stage

and we were flying. We had done well.

It was beyond...

You know, the exhilaration was just...

It was just, here we go, we're real comics.

And then the sh*t hit the fan.

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