The stolen material....

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 STAGE PERSONA.

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!