Joe Rogan & Ron White on The Impact of Bill Hicks

Houston, uh, he was a kid, he was sitting in pigs and greenly and pineapple. Did you know pineapple? I worked with pineapple once. You know what he used to do? He would drive all the way across Houston to ignore me. That's what he, he did it. He did it all the time too. And I mean, he'd had no reason to be there. And I, and I know that some of those guys didn't like me because I don't, I don't know why, I don't know why, but they were really, really clique-ish. And I went in there one night and had a horrible set and, uh, and I was following Hicks and, uh, you know, and I had a really green show, but in the right circumstance, you know, in a comedy club, uh, with nothing great happening before you, it kind of worked a little bit, but that night it didn't work at all. And, uh, but, and I was probably getting a little more work than those guys were some of them. And they were like, well, he sucks. Well, the fact of the matter is I did suck because my act would, uh, you know, you don't want to follow Hicks. I say that to make the story better. I wasn't following Hicks, but he was, you know, or Kennison, but they were both there. Oh, okay. And, uh, had done set, but everybody was good. I mean, all these guys were seasoned pros. That was a hot lineup. And, uh, but for, but I never felt, you know, like they, like any of them liked me except for Hicks. And I came to see him, you know, do, do shows. And, uh, I asked him to do, uh, the story about, uh, just a John Davidson and the mask and the, and he goes, uh, he has what he says. He goes, don't stand next to the exits. Just a tip. Cause people just walk out of the show when he watched him do that. He, he, uh, he did that at the Nick's comedy stop in Boston and he cleared the fucking room, man. And it was, it was crazy because at the end of the show, there was me and Greg Fitzsimmons and maybe three or four other comics or five or six people in the crowd. There was like, maybe 20 people left all told laughing our fucking asses. Right. Everybody else is getting up angry. I saw it go both ways. You know, I've seen him beat crowds to death. Uh, I saw that one night at the laptop in Austin and nobody in the room could breathe. And he was in the mood to do it. And, uh, you know, and, you know, and, and I think sometimes he wasn't, sometimes he wasn't or whatever, but he was in the mood and decided that he just fucking stab us all in the face. And, uh, and it was, it was just, it was beautiful. He was exceptional. You know, whether or not people think he was one of the greats, like that's entirely subjectional, right? It's subjective. Rather it's completely up to your own interpretation. But to me, he changed comedy in a lot of ways because he, he made people talk about things that were important. Cause everybody else was talking about nonsense. You're talking about airline food and how come I can't leave a seat back? Right. Standard normal shit. I'm falling back. I can't get up. Exactly right. And he was coming along talking about a positive drug stories, you know, a man on acid realize it all matters. Energy, energy condensed to a slow, rhythmic vibration. Like that whole fucking bit was Tom with the weather. That was amazing. Yeah. No, no, it was. And he was influential. I mean, I know I think I can say this about Bill Hicks and I am an expert at standup comedy, I would have a triple doctorate in, uh, if you gave those kinds of things for the work I've the amount of time I've put into it. And, uh, and, uh, and you as a peer would have the exact same thing. So for me to listen to someone's opinion about standup comedy, they have to have a lot of cred to me before I really give a shit what they think. Okay. So here's what you should think. The only thing that every comic from my generation agrees on is he was better than us and that's the only thing that they agree on. And, and, and they, and I can't find anybody that has a big argument that he wasn't. Now was he the best that ever lived? No, but did he influence me more than anybody else and you probably more than anybody else because you're certainly that way also, right? Some of them, somebody built that bridge and you, now you feel free to talk about anything, you know, none of your act is ever hack, you know, there were a lot of hacks, but I think pigs freed people not to be a hack, you know? Yeah. He, uh, he cured people that he made it shameful, you know, talking about hack, but there was also, you cured him of stealing material. I don't know if I did. I think it's still going on.