Bill Hick's material was STOLEN - Denis Leary: No Cure for Cancer (1993) Discussion

[–] Prezident 19 years ago

Sadly, this is all true.

reply

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

Yeah Bill is a legend and as much as I like O Leary he did blatantly rip Hicks off! go to Http://www.sacredcow.com and you'll see what I'm talking about!

reply

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] fraz-4 19 years ago

No evidence whatsoever....Leary is the absolute king of comedy that punches you in the face. As for his acting..well he's OK but I can never get over watching NCFC and wanting more of that acidic, sarcastic and totally irreverant Leary !!!

I enjoyed Ice Age with my kids but some part of me always expected him to tell Manny that he was doomed to become extinct in some tar pit in LA with all the world watching and that he wouldn't give a *beep* never came - he has softened.

Fraz

reply

[–] james_oblivion 19 years ago

"No evidence whatsoever....Leary is the absolute king of comedy that punches you in the face."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Leary, though funny, will always be a watered-down Bill Hicks.

reply

[–] chat1410 19 years ago

Let me introduce you to a little quote, "I'm gonna get famous. Then when my career starts to flag, I'm gonna go into a three month *beep* bender, OK? Coke, and *beep* pot, and smack, and *beep* booze, and drive over people, and beat up my kids, go into therapy, go into rehab, come outta rehab, be on the cover of People magazine, and go Sorry! I *beep* up! " He did almost that exact thing. He softened up a little, but is still awesome.

reply

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] rar2 19 years ago

Well said. I'm not overly familiar with Hicks, but from what I have read he is clearly similar to Leary. The difference is Leary didn't care for only himself; Hicks didn't even care for himself. Leary has tried to quit smoking and drinking and never hides the fact he's a family man. To argue Hicks really cared for mankind, whilst Leary needed a jump in his career, so he changed, is unfair and seemingly inaccurate.

reply

[–] Ataru78649 19 years ago

"Well said. I'm not overly familiar with Hicks, but from what I have read he is clearly similar to Leary. The difference is Leary didn't care for only himself; Hicks didn't even care for himself. Leary has tried to quit smoking and drinking and never hides the fact he's a family man. To argue Hicks really cared for mankind, whilst Leary needed a jump in his career, so he changed, is unfair and seemingly inaccurate."

Well it really shows you're not very familiar with Hicks... Hicks kicked drinking and drugging succesfully via AA.

reply

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] werehound1 19 years ago

How about this, Denis Leary ripped off Bill Hicks, Bill Hicks ripped off Sam Kinison? I think that about sums it up.

reply

[–] sanstereo 19 years ago

are you *beep* me? bill hicks' and sam kinison's routines are totally different. they both talk about the same subject matter (ie drugs and deep personal philosophy, which now that i think of it sounds more like hicks than kinison), but where hicks, inadverterntly or not, happens to use the same subject matter without stealing verbatim from kinison's routine, leary has got a ton more explaining to do in defense of his use of hicks'.
while i love 'no cure for cancer', in fact, my first time watching it i can safely say i laughed so hard i thought i might collapse a lung. i mean we're talking tears streaming down my face cry/laughing for a full hour. it has a lot of elements that are lot more, er, nihilistic shall we say,but it borrows HEAVILY from hicks' material almost in sync in certain sections. you can argue, subjectively, if leary or hicks is the better comedian, i choose hicks because he was infinitely more thoughtful and mature and had a better personality, but in the end there is ABSOLUTELY NO DISPUTE that leary 'borrowed' material from hicks. there is evidence in both hicks' 30 minute stand up on HBO and in his hour and a half DVD / edited HBO hour special 'revelations' that leary has, in fact, taken a large portion of hicks' hilarious foundation and made a stand up special that's just as entertaining, but just not as original. jesus, just face up to it. it doesn't mean he's worse for the wear or a crap comedian because of it. he just stole some bits, i think all comedians are guilty of it. like tarintino he just got caught. 'reservoir dogs' is still every bit as good as 'city on fire' . . .

reply

[–] barleysinger 12 years ago

Truth is that all the comedy greats stole part of other peoples material. Look at the infighting between Benny and Uncle Milty and even Bob Hope some time - tons of the older comedian crowd (who were the foundation acts in comedy) told jabs about who stole whose material - and right in their public routines. Same with Don Rickles in a few roasts I've seen. And when all these people got together for a roast (or most any free form multi - comedian show) then you KNEW there would be lots of "stole my routine" remarks because so many of them did, and then put their own twist on it. Only a small number of comedians had most of their acts be their own stuff.

IF you want original material then go up into the beginnings of serious political comedy. Recall the late 50s to the early 70s? Those comics too risks including jail time, at a time when swearing or being political got you in trouble. They took serious risks & used comedy as a vehicle to say what things that were off limits to say (but a lot of people were thinking). They bucked censorship laws, laws on "societal standards" that really outlawed free political speech, and were watched by the feds just for telling jokes!

U.S. Comedians in that era faced things most western comics don't worry about now days. The last few comics I heard about being arrested were in the Middle East for insulting Allah and in Italy for insulting the pope.

Most people today do not remember Lenny Bruce. the Smothers Brothers or Mort Sahl. Bruce was obscene, but like a real human is naturally obscene and irreverent. He spoke openly against the government in an era where you could not do that. He didn't even censor himself like the Smothers Brothers did at times (they had limits and *still* got censored on content). Bruce (on the other hand) was followed around all the time by local cops before his gigs to try and arrest him and stop the show for ANY REASON, and then at all his gigs every joke was a possible arrest. He was also followed by the FBI as a subversive (and by various 'alphabet soup' spooks) all the time in general. He lost his career after being arrested for obscenity, tied, convicted and sentenced to Reiker's Island (for hard criminals). No more gigs anywhere. After being followed and losing his career, it bent his mind. He went down he rabbit hole and died from drug use.

What happened to Mort Sahl was similar. Faced with the killing of JFK. he could not cope with the idea of his own government being the most likely cause and obsessed on it. People decided he was nuts when was just right & living at aq scary time.

reply

[–] memento_mori131 18 years ago

I'll tell you something. Hicks could have been extremely successful. He got some press in England, and became a cult hero there and attracted thousands of people. Then he toured America, where 20 people would show up in dimly-lit clubs who didn't even know his name. Hicks was smart: if he cared more about himself then what he was doing, he could have had his own show, he would be a hero to American liberals everywhere, and might have even died a millionare. The man had talent. But no, he had to stick to this *beep* about enlightening mankind.
Tell me, does that sound like the course of action for a comedian in it for the money, and the money only?

reply

[–] Renegade_Chris 18 years ago

Yeah ... I know exactly what you mean ...

I heard of this guy, a couple of thousand years ago. He would live in relative poverty just to go from place to place talking to groups of people about this nature of humanity and how we needed to change to survive in a changing world ...

Sure, he had some hangers on, a dozen of them I think, but in the end they crucified him.

Literally ... Crucified ... Him

If He had been smart, he'd have done some magic tricks for Pilate (thats all He needed to do), then He could have done a Roman Empire tour, raked in the Gold and had slaves to sort out any sordid whim ... Instead ... apart from one book there is not much evidence of him left anymore ...

I apologise to any Christians in the audience ... I am not sorry of I offended you, I'm just sorry that you're Christians :P

I feel that to say that Hicks was being dumb because he kept hold of his principals (it's in the dictionary ... look it up) rather than take that marketing dollar and do everything against his nature just for the comfort of money is kinda missing the point of Hicks' comedy.

And althoigh Leary did 'Borrow Heavily' from Hicks' style, they are in fact different comedians. Leary is a New York Ranter ... it's not about deep philosopjical thoughts ... it's about doing all the thinks that make us feel good but will eventually kill us. Leary likes Beer, and Cigs, and Red Meat and is just ranting against all those people that tell us it's bad for us. There is no real depth to it ... it's just a 'F-You' to the Health and Safety Nazis. Hicks was all about the depths of the human soul, and how we allowed our elected officials to take away our liberties to think and breathe and evolve.

The style is similar, and sometimes it crossed over (and Leary did Borrow Hicks' style) but in fact the subject matter was way different)

Imagine Hicks talking about eating a 32oz T-Bone Steak ... would never have happened. Imagine Leary talking about deep philosophical human meaning ... nope, wouldnt happen.

reply

[–] johnnywalker2001 18 years ago

Tom, you're an idiot. You felt a moral obligation based on a few minutes worth of thought and little to no investigation.

There is a WEALTH of evidence that Denis Leary stole Bill Hick's act, in fact it's well known within the comedy industry. I'm not joking when I say that Denis Leary was a MILD-MANNERED, XMAS SWEATER WEARING, BORING COMEDIAN... until he saw Bill Hicks. Then he donned a leather jacket and decided to pretend he was some hardman who didn't care about anything... and ultimately that's why I don't appreciate his humour. He's a faker, and his whole fake attitude stunk anyway.

Bill Hicks was completely genuine. What he spoke about he BELIEVED. He didn't go around complaining that the French spoke in a weird accent... what kind of social commentary is that?! Bill Hicks was all about social commentary, satire and learning. He considered his job to be a preacher, and to try and enlighten his audience about things they may not have thought about. It's no coincidence that his best of CD is called "Philosophy". Of course, he still included dick jokes too!

Getting back to DL: I'm not joking when I say it is WELL KNOWN within the industry how Denis Leary ripped off Bill Hicks. Of course, no-one is going to come out and accuse him now, what's the point, he's moved on and Bill is dead. Not to mention that the person doing the accusing (assuming they were famous) would look petty and spiteful (like Gore would have done if he'd challenged the elections - he just dropped it).

Leary STOLE not just Hick's material, but his stage persona, at least that was the feeling in the industry way back when.

Denis Leary stole the whole Jim Fixx thing, the trachytomy jokes, the smoking jokes, the whole 'I'm also available for children's parties' thing, lots of stuff. But it was more than just the dialogue, it was the attitude, too.

reply

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] johnnywalker2001 18 years ago

Skipped everything I wrote, did ya? Shame.

He said that joke in a broadcast version of NCFC that I still have on tape somewhere. He starts prancing around the stage doing French impressions (leads on from the "qwa-sohn!" section) getting more and more agitated, until he eventually stops sits down and says "I'm also available for children's parties".

But whether or not he said that line is hardly important, is it? It doesn't change anything else I've said about him.

Here's the entirity of what I've got to say on the subject (from the thread you've apparently missed).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is a WEALTH of evidence that Denis Leary stole Bill Hick's act, in fact it's well known within the comedy industry. I'm not joking when I say that Denis Leary was a MILD-MANNERED, XMAS SWEATER WEARING, BORING COMEDIAN... until he saw Bill Hicks. Then he donned a leather jacket and decided to pretend he was some hardman who didn't care about anything...

It wasn't until the early ninties that Leary emerged with his "hard man" stage act, about 10 years after Bill Hicks had started doing it.

Leary STOLE not just Hick's material, but his whole stage persona. His whole act.

If you don't believe me look here at this stock photo from before 'No Cure For Cancer':
http://www.michaelromanos.com/pictures/stock_photos/denis_leary.jpg

Looks real edgy, doesn't he?

Most of the Hicks material that Leary uses was *released* in 1989, 1991 and 1992. Hicks was touring this stuff *relentlessly* for years long before they were released (he started doing stand-up at fifteen!), whereas Leary claims he *started writing* the material for "No Cure For Cancer" in 1990, after his child was born in the UK. We know for a fact that Leary had seen Bill's act (the two had met touring). So yes, Bill *definitely*, by Leary's own admission, did this stuff first.

Here's what Bill Hicks had to say on the subject:
"I have a scoop for you. I stole [Denis Leary's] act. I camouflaged it with punchlines, and to really throw people off, I did it before he did."

Denis Leary stole the whole Jim Fixx thing, the trachytomy jokes, the smoking jokes, lots of stuff. But it was more than just the dialogue, it was the attitude, too.

People are always asking "what was stolen"?? So here are some bits from 'No Cure For Cancer' that will seem oddly familiar to Bill Hicks fans (not forgetting the whole persona too)...

THIS IS JUST WHAT I SPOTTED SKIMMING THROUGH A SCRIPT OF THE SHOW... I'M SURE THERE'S MORE!

"We live in a country, where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest, Yoko Ono was standing right next to him and not one *beep* bullet! Explain that to me! Explain that to me, God! Explain it to me, God! I want it! God! Jesus! Now we've got twenty-five more years. Yeah, I'm real *beep* happy now, God. I'm wearing a huge happy hat, Jesus Christ! I mean Stevie Ray Vaughan is dead, and we can't get Jon Bon Jovi in a helicopter. Come on, folks. "Get on that helicopter John. Shut the *beep* up and get on that helicopter! There's a hair dresser in there. Yeah, go ahead in there, yeah yeah.""

Remember: This was NOT Denis Leary's act before NCFC. He was Mr. Mild before NCFC. But all of a sudden he's doing this poor Bill Hicks impression.

"I don't get it. You know, I just don't get it. I missed the *beep* point some place. The boat left and I wasn't on the boat. Explain it to me. Heavy Metal bands on trial because kids commit suicide? What's that about? Judas Priest on trial because "my kid bought the record, and listened to the lyrics, ....." Well that's great! That sets a legal precedent.

Let me make sure I'm crystal clear on this issue, ok? Heavy Metal fans are buying Heavy Metal records, taking the records home, listening to the records and then blowing their heads off with shotguns? Where's the problem!? That's an unemployment solution right there, folks! It's called natural selection. It's the bottom of the food chain, ok? I say we put more messages on the records. "Kill the band, kill your parents, then yourself, ok!? Make sure you get your whole head in front of the shotgun. Thank you for calling! Thank you for calling!""

Again more persona stuff: A large part of Hick's act has been about the mediocrity of "pop" bands of the time...

"And I also don't go for this other thing now, with MTV being so big where you get a band that gets a hit video, and all of the sudden they think that they're like icons and they can tell us how to feel about environmental issues and how to vote and stuff. You know what I'm talking about? Like R.E.M. "Shiny Happy People" "Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey! Pull that bus over to the side of the pretentiousness turnpike, alright!? I want everybody off the bus. I want the shiny people over here, and the happy people over here, ok! I represent angry gun-toting meat-eating *beep* people, alright!" Sit down and shut the *beep* up Michael! Don Henley's gonna tell me how to vote. I don't *beep* think so, ok? I got two words for Don Henley, Joe *beep* Walsh, ok!? Thanks for calling, Don! How long's your pony tail now? Ok!

All these rock stars should've been killed, man. Every single God damned one of them. Right after Jon Lenin died, we should've gotten the Partridge Family bus and driven around and killed them all one by one, you know?"

This is almost word-for-word Bill Hicks:

"I was reading an interview with Keith Richards in a magazine and in the interview Keith Richards intimated that kids should not do drugs. Keith Richards! Says that kids should not do drugs! Keith, we can't do any more drugs because you already *beep* did them all, alright! There's none left! We have to wait 'till you die and smoke your ashes! Jesus Christ! Talk about the pot and the *beep* kettle."

More persona stuff (Bill was funnier):

"I love to smoke. I smoke seven thousand packs a day, ok. And I am never *beep* quitting! I don't care how many laws they make." [loads more stuff about smokers vs non-smokers... again a large part of Bill's act]

Word for word, pretty much:

"Because you're always telling us, "You know, ever cigarette takes six minutes off your life. If you quit now you can live an extra ten years. If you quit now, you can live an extra twenty years." Hey, I got two words for you, ok. Jim Fix. Remember Jim Fix? The big famous jogging guy? Jogged fifteen miles a day. Did a jogging book. Did a jogging video. Dropped out of a heart attack when? When he was *beep* jogging, that's when! What do you wanna bet it was two smokers who found the body the next morning and went, "Hey! That's Jim Fix, isn't it?" "Wow, what a *beep* tragedy. Come on, lets go buy some buds.""

Extremely similar:

"what do you hear coming from that nonsmoking section? Those little pussy-coughs: "Ahem. . . Ahem. . . AHEM. . . ACHH!. . . ACHH!. . . AHHCHCHCH!. . . THE SMELL OF YOUR CIGARETTE IS KILLING ME!" Oh? It's the smell of my cigarette -- it's not the smell of urine in New York -- it's my cigarette?"

This isn't Bill Hicks related, but it makes me laugh: Does ANYONE seriously believe that Denis Leary has EVER even taken hard drugs, let alone been addicted to ANYTHING? I'm not saying that he should have been, but it's just so phoney:

[after a big rant about how he wants to get throat cancer from smoking so much and how he wants to eat raw red meat because he's a real man etc]
"Because everybody in this room knows everybody who's quitting. You all have that friend who's quitting it. You know what I mean? The guys quitting it, "I quit smoking. I quit drugs. I quit drinking. I quit meat, and I feel great. I get up in the morning and have a nice big bowl of oat bran. I go to the bathroom for three and a half hours. I have another bowl of oat bran. I go back in the bathroom for six more hours. All I do is eat and *beep* I'm gonna live forever! My colon is the strongest muscle in my body right now. I could pass Elvis through my colon right now.""

He IS this guy!

Again Bill had a large commentary, albeit a hell of a lot more coherent, about the US watching War on TV.

"You eat enough *beep* meat, you wanna kill somebody. That's the way it works. That was the ultimate American dream. During that Persian Gulf War, I was sitting in my living room, naked, with a can of Budweiser and a three inch stake watching the war, live, on TV. I had a six foot erection with a giant cheese burger on the end of it. I ate so much meat during the war that by the time the war was over three weeks later, I was like, "No no no. We need to keep fighting. Make a couple of stops on our way home from the Persian Gulf. First stop! Vietnam! Surprise the *beep* out of those people, huh?" "You make a movie?" "Not this time, pal!""

Almost word-for-word (a little bit different though):

"I'm sick of my generation getting called the TV generation. "Well all you guys do is watch TV." What did you expect!? We watched Lee Harvey Oswald get shot live on TV one Sunday morning, we were afraid to change the *beep* channel for the next thirty years. "This show sucks." "Yeah, but somebody might get shot during the commercial. Now hang on!""

Almost word-for-word again:

"That's what's wrong with this country. We always shoot the wrong guys. We shoot JFK, we shoot RFK, and it comes to Teddy, we go, "Ahh, leave him alone. He'll *beep* it up himself, no problem. You know?""

I think Dane Cook has taken this one (well done DL!):

"If I worked at the post office as a supervisor, I wouldn't lay anybody off for the next twenty-five *beep* years. I'd just walk around going, "Hanrahan, what're you doing?" "Nothing." "Well, keep it up, you're doing a great job! Jesus. I'll tell ya.""

This is just a sample from skimming through the script. As you can see it's more than just one joke here and there, it's really his whole persona, and quite frankly the subjects he covers and the way he deals with them are straight from Bill Hicks... especially when you know he wasn't always the "hardman" comedian!

reply

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] JazB 18 years ago

For a stand-up comedian you're not very good at witty comebacks, are you? Lol!

reply

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] JazB 18 years ago

You're an idiot.

reply

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] johnnywalker2001 18 years ago

Lol! Seriously Tom, can't we forget that one little insult. I was annoyed with you, but I'd much rather hear your comments on what I've posted. I think it does fairly prove what people have been talking about all these years. Somewhere along the lines people got confused with the actual jokes and the whole persona thing. It was never just about "stealing jokes", it was about his stealing Bill Hick's stage act: The angry comedian who hates souless music, the stupidity of the media blowing things out of proportion, loves to smoke, appears pro drugs, talks about JFK, makes a lot of social commentary about TV, war and American culture... etc etc.

The fact is that a lot of people who like Bill Hicks or who like Denis Leary still make the connection between the similarity of the two. They don't do it in an accusing way, they just note, "hey if you like him, you'll probably like this other guy too, they're very similar!".

When you take into account that Denis Leary was this average joe schmoe who suddenly became "angry comedian man" after seeing Bill Hicks, you can see why everyone in the industry, including Bill Hicks, was upset with the obvious way in which Leary had stolen his whole act.

That's not to say that Leary is not funny. He's good at doing what he does, but it's just sad that he basically stole an act and became super rich and famous from it.

You were probably right in getting that credit removed, it wasn't really an accurate portrayal of what really happened. In fact I wasn't even aware of what had really happened until I did some research into it, and then it all kind of made a lot more sense.

The industry joke about this whole debacle goes something like this:
Q: Why's Denis Leary a near house-hold name, successful and rich star while Bill Hicks is a complete unknown to most people?
A: Because there's no cure for cancer.

When you take into account what I've said about the act stealing business (rather than LINE stealing), you can see why comedians used to tell each other this joke.

reply

[–] tthorson7054 18 years ago

Who's Bill Hick?

So what if one or the other "stole" the other's works, what's important now is that Denis Leary is successful, and the other is an unknown!

reply

[–] KoenmaYYH 18 years ago

As many have pointed out already, originality is hard to come by. And I thought I heard someone mention that Leary "intentionally" took Hick's bits, kind of as homage to him (Hicks died of cancer, hence the title "No Cure For Cancer").

Whatever the scenario, I couldn't give less of a d**n. Denis Leary is my hero.

reply

[–] jack_124_x 18 years ago

To all the Denis Leary fans, have any of you listen to ANY of Bill Hicks work?

reply

[–] cluracan77 18 years ago

It seems unfair to compare the two comedians, as Hicks was so much more than a comedian. He cared about the fate and evolution of the human race and tried to bring about change through intelligent debate. The raping of his material was just another in a long line of injustices perpetrated against this visionary performer. Leary's string of television commercials and plageurism confirms him as a whore and, to paraphrase Hicks, ensures that he is stricken from any artistic register forever. He certainly must enjoy the taste of Satan.

reply

[–] wayofthecass 18 years ago

To all the Denis Leary fans, have any of you listen to ANY of Bill Hicks work?

I like Leary's stuff. I think Hicks is great too. What is the problem? Why do people need to take sides? Leary is *beep* funny and so is Hicks. Hicks is a bit preachy at times whilst Leary is more tongue in cheek. NCFC had me pissing myself when I first heard it. And that was way after I heard Hicks material.

reply

[–] diesel8822 18 years ago

"To all the Denis Leary fans, have any of you listen to ANY of Bill Hicks work?

I like Leary's stuff. I think Hicks is great too. What is the problem? Why do people need to take sides? Leary is *beep* funny and so is Hicks. Hicks is a bit preachy at times whilst Leary is more tongue in cheek. NCFC had me pissing myself when I first heard it. And that was way after I heard Hicks material."

More like tongue on Satan's balls.

reply

[–] smearbrick 17 years ago

So apparently then, if Leary ripped off Hicks by talking about the same subject matter that Hicks did, couldn't the same be said about Bill Engvall and Jeff Foxworthy? How about Jeff Foxworthy and Larry The Cable Guy? How about Richard Prior and Eddie Murphy? What about George Carlin (the angry version)? Did he rip off Bill Hicks?

reply

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] eisirt 11 years ago

And I thought I heard someone mention that Leary "intentionally" took Hick's bits, kind of as homage to him (Hicks died of cancer, hence the title "No Cure For Cancer").

Of course, he did it two years before Bill died, but who is counting.

But the whole word-for-word crap is bull... I love both Bill and Denis.... throw in some Billy and George and I am a happy camper.

If you want to get on the stealing act-cart, blame Eddie Murphy for stealing Richard Pryors act, because the both make jokes about black vs white.

reply

[–] cian_jm 10 years ago

Every other black comedian makes jokes about black vs white. It's a pretty broad subject with lots of good material. Pryor and Murphy were buddies, clearly Pryor didn't consider his material to be stolen.

reply

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] HeedZ 17 years ago

Heh, I dicovered Leary before I heard Hicks, enjoyed him much, very much.

But anyone who denies that he is a plain copy of Hicks has to be retarded...

You don't have to quote anyone to the word to be a copycat, almost the whole act (No cure for cancer) is based on Hicks jokes.

Just listen to their recordings, look at the dates of the recordings and think one more time...

reply

[–] [email protected] 17 years ago

I just stumbled upon this thread yesterday, apparently 2 months after the last response. I hope I can shed some light on this situation. I'm a comic from Boston and very good friends with Leary's old roommate and several well established Boston comics who knew & worked with him "back in the day."

First of all, "I'm available for children's parties" is what they call in the business a "stock" line. That was not Hicks or Leary's line. That was around long before either of them were on the comedy scene. You'll have to go back to the Catskills comics of the 50's to find the originator of that line (unknown as ALL comics back then shared material) -- I seriously have to question why alleged "comedians" who responded on this thread who wouldn't know that. Stock lines are something you learn in your first 6 months. (I think I just answered my on question...)

FACT: Denis Leary is an absolutely brilliant PERFORMER who really did "borrow" a lot of material on NCFC. You guys on this thread keep hammering the Bill Hicks angle -- Bill was only 1 of many of comics that Leary was influenced from -- more persona than material. The guy who provided the sweat, sweater boy Leary nailed it on the head.

As the story goes... Leary was working in England in the early 90's when his wife went into premature labor and was hospitalized for months. Being the good guy that he really is, he stayed with her the whole time. But also being young and broke he still needed to work. So he continued doing stand-up all around London. Seperated by the Atlantic Ocean, he didn't see the harm in "borrowing" some bits from comics back home in Boston. As luck would have it, MTV came over to film the series 'London Underground' and they needed a host. They knew Leary from 'Remote Control' so the timing was perfect. If you go back and look at these shows, you'll see Leary using a ton of material from NCFC. Anyway, MTV fell in love with him and put him in all those commercials directed by Ted Demme, which increased his visibility. Then, he got backing to do NCFC (also directed by Demme) and they wanted him to do the material they'd seen him do over in England, most of which wasn't his. But he went ahead and did it anyway and the rest as they say, is history.

A very little known FACT: Leary's former roommate that I mentioned earlier caught wind of the NCFC show and went to watch his buddy on his 'big break'. He stood there in the wings slackjawwed as Leary did a set of the "greatest hits" from the Boston scene sprinkled with Hick's persona and a few of his premises. When the show ended, Leary could barely look at his friend -- he just bowed his head, apologized and said he'd make it up to him. No I'm sure at his point, some of you die-hard Leary fans probably feel that my credibilty depends on name dropping. Sorry, but it ain't gonna happen. Many of these guys are still working in the business today -- some very closely with Denis who has, in FACT made good on his word and put some of them in his movies, tv shows and in the 'thank you' section in the NCFC book.

This is no "conspiracy theory" folks. On a side note: as far as I know NO ONE has ever accused him of lifting a single bit since NCFC. So, what you have is a young comic who lifted a ton of material from people, got famous, then did whatever he could to make up for it. It doesn't make stealing right but at least he did his best to make ammends unlike "others" who are doing this very thing today. (You comedy buffs know EXACTLY who I'm talking about!)

Hope this clears things up. Regardless, Leary is still one of the funniest and best performers around -- and you can't dent that! Amen.

reply

[–] jasonguit 17 years ago

Brilliant post mystery comic! Very interesting.

To quote a Faith No More song, "And when you die, you'll become something worse
than dead. You'll become a legend"

No matter how brilliant a person is, they are still just a person. If you needed Bill Hicks to make you think a bit more about things, you were probably hopeless to begin with.

reply

[–] kallizmartin 17 years ago

Leary's second comedy show "Lock n' Load" came out in 1997. No Cure for Cancer came out in 1992. Bill Hicks was still alive at this time.

The subject material changed greatly from NCFC to LnL. Is this because Bill Hicks had died in between the two shows, and Leary had no idea where to steal his comedy next, when his source had passed away? I think so. Seems plausible.

The two used to be good friends, but their friendship ended abruptly when Hicks noticed Leary had ripped him off.

Hicks was, IS, and will always be the undisputed King of Comedy. Much Love.

reply

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] thelastfaceyouwillsee 13 years ago

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Leary directly stole Hicks' material but he certainly seems to have modelled his act on his and 'borrowed' the themes of Hicks' material. As much as I happen to enjoy the No Cure show it is a pale imitation of what Hicks had been doing.

...now I do it just to watch their f----n' expression change.

reply

[–] raveninred 11 years ago

Please; I'm sorry - Bill Hicks is dead. Literally, in case you didn't know. And Leary is not, and has moved on from delivering his material in a way that no one had seen or encountered before (which is why MTV used him for commercials, et al), so he definitely had a charisma, a character, a delivery, a look, a relatability, and a talent that Hicks, I'm really sorry to say, didn't have.

And in case you didn't know, comedians steal from each other all the time, or ask to use each other's jokes; how do you know Hicks and Leary weren't friends and Leary said, "Hey man, that stuff is fxckin' funny, and I'm doin' a concert on TV and I wanna use that stuff" (As I imagine in his coked-out voice in his pre-sober days)...Or he could've discussed it with Bill *way* before Bill died.

Either way, I'm kinda guessin' that ole Bill didn't mind that "his" jokes were getting a laugh even after he had "exited the stage".

But I still think Denis is funnier and a better comedian than Hicks, but for the sake of argument, I made the statement above. Hicks has passed, stop trying to carry his "outraged" torch for him. If he had an axe to grind, I am sure if there was anyone who could give someone the shoulder from the great beyond, Hicks would do just FINE on his OWN and not need you to whine about Leary, who has gone on to show himself a very cool guy who supports tremendous charities, has quit all his vices, is an Emmy-award winning actor, writer and director, is still married to the same woman after all these years, supports firefighters (not just because of his show but because of the 9/11 tragedy), plays hockey in charity tournaments, and generally is an all-around-nice-guy.

Hicks - R.I.P., ya basterd *fist to the sky* But leave the "it's all stolen man" *in whiny, I-can't-get-over-it-that-Hicks-is-dead-voice* . It's YEARS, man. YEARS.

Move on. Leary's not even doing stand-up anymore. Well, neither is Hicks but...

reply