Slight Return: The Resurrection of Bill Hicks

Hearing that two English comedians have resurrected a comedy god from the dead should raise an eyebrow. Discovering that the god in question is the late Bill Hicks will definitely generate palpitations.

Whether those palpitations are of excitement or dread depends on your point of view: excitement if you continue to listen to Arizona Bay on repeat and yearn for more, or dread if you righteously defend him as an irreplaceable product of his time.

I’m firmly in the second camp, so it was with some trepidation that I attended Bill Hicks: Slight Return at the Arts Theatre this evening with a new London friend, V and her friend, C. Written by Richard Hurst and Chas Early, Slight Return is a bold attempt at answering the often asked question: What would Bill make of the world today?

The answer is an hour or so of contemporary material that you would swear Bill had written himself.

Hicks, in Early’s body, enters the stage before an intense beam of white light, delivered as an angel to us: a gift from Heaven. It doesn’t take long to feel that comfortable sense of indignation we all shared with Hicks when he entered the public conscious twenty or so years ago.

The show is more than just a tribute: Early takes the mantle of Hicks and performs as him on stage: this is not an impression of Hicks or a bad mimicry; it’s a physical manifestation. Early is astonishing, capturing perfectly Hicks’ incensed, ranting stage presence: the voice is uncannily accurate, the squinting, manic laughs and audience nods are beat perfect and the wild walks, dances, and physical comedy that Hicks used to such great effect are spot on.

Hurst and Early know Hicks’ work intimately. They have clearly studied in great depth every nuance of Hicks’ performances and have successfully transposed Hicks’ indignation of the 90’s into the twenty first century. American Idol, the smoking ban, climate change, George Bush v2.0, the Iraq War, Nine Eleven, guns, and of course a subject close to Bill’s heart, porn, are all discussed with suitable ire and fury (or in the case of internet porn, love and respect.) You begin to believe that Bill is really up there on that dark stage.

The only quibble I have with the performance is the unwelcome return of Goat Boy. This horny devil was a depraved persona Bill used in some of his shows to expose the sexual deviant in all of us – or at least in Bill. Goat Boy works in very small doses: I was never a fan of it in Bill’s own work and the segment in Slight Return is equally out-of-place.

Setting that aside, Slight Return is a fascinating tribute to one of the worlds greatest political comedians and I sincerely hope they repeat the run again in the future so that the next generation can almost get to see Hicks first hand. There are more performances though: it’s showing on Sept 28th and 29th and Oct 3rd – 6th.

Finishing his set with a battle cry to the world: “Do more drugs and see the world more clearly”, I left feeling that the real Bill Hicks would have been very proud of Early & Hurst. More please.