Review: Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution

I write my review of Kevin Booth's "Agent of Evolution" from a unique perspective. In 2000 through 2001, I worked with Kevin to put together this biography of late comedian Bill Hicks. I recorded well over 50 hours of interviews with Kevin, spent time in Austin and Houston hanging out as well as visiting all of Bill's old haunts including El Azteca.

I spent time at the ranch were Kevin and Bill had their legendary alien encounter and even visited the dedication of a rebuilt church at the site of the Waco-Koresh disaster, where Bill and Kevin videotaped during the original Waco siege. Kevin and I backtracked to his old high school and interviewed some of Bill's teachers. And Kevin shared stories and showed me photos and videos of him and Bill together some of which have yet to see the light of day - and probably never will.

During this time I heard much of the AOE story firsthand. I got to know Kevin Booth on a professional and personal level and understand the complexities of his relationship with Bill Hicks. Much of what Kevin shared with me is in AOE, essentially verbatim as I heard it.

Through no fault of Kevin's, after a year's worth of progress, I realized that I was no longer in the frame of mind to work on the book. In short, the project's demands exceeded the resources I was able to devote. Kevin made a wise choice by recruiting writer Michael Bertin, who admittedly did a much better job writing this book than I could have at the time.

The book is not perfect – no biography could ever hope to be. But the book is perhaps the most spot-on and detailed portrait of Bill Hicks to date. And many of these stories are Kevin's recollections and egocentric. That is to be expected. AOE is not only the story of Bill Hicks' career and who he was as a person. AOE is also the story of two friends that despite traveling two very different paths, worked together to create movies, videos, funny skits, music and comedy records.

In the seven years that I've been a fan of Bill Hicks' work and known Kevin Booth and followed his work with Sacred Cow, one thing is clear. Kevin is perhaps the one constant in keeping the spirit of Hicks alive. Not only with this book and the "Sane Man" video, but also with his collaborations with other comedians (Joe Rogan, Doug Stanhope) and personalities (Alex Jones) as well as continuing to make movies including the upcoming film on the drug war.

It's the spirit of creating art, making fun little projects and getting off your ass and doing things that fueled Kevin and Bill's relationship. And even though Bill Hicks is dead, Kevin has kept right on going making movies and music and now this book. He's willing to share everything he's got and for that, I applaud him.

AOE is a warts-and-all book, meaning Kevin Booth lets his guard down completely in recounting stories and events in his and Bill Hick’s lives. And some of these events are not pretty and not something to be proud of. But they are, according to Kevin, true stories. And I have no reason to doubt this.