Not every comedian from the south does jokes about NASCAR and monster trucks. Sorry if our more recent comic exports have given you that impression. Some southern comedians actually have something worth saying. Comedians like Bill Hicks.

Bill Hicks was raised in my native Texas. He occasionally wore cowboy boots and a hat on stage. He did not tell jokes about rednecks. Instead he talked about heavier stuff, making fun of the flaws in life and looking for truth in the world around him. Fellow comedian Brett Butler once described him this way: "He wanted to be Christ at his angriest." And of course, as so often seems to be the case of anyone with anything substantive and interesting to say these days, he never achieved more than mediocre success before dying from cancer at the age of 32 in 1994. Meanwhile Dane Cook will almost certainly live to 140, and die in a mansion surrounded by Playboy playmates. It’s a cruel world.

Apparently he achieved enough notoriety however, for Hollywood to latch onto him, Russell Crowe in particular. Crowe recently told the Syndney Morning Herald and told them he’s developing a movie based on Hicks’ life. There’s a script currently being written by Australian Mark Staffer and word is that Crowe himself may end up playing Bill. Oddly enough, there is some small physical resemblance between the two.

Get a taste for what Bill Hicks was all about, via the video below: