Myriad

The other night I had a dream.

The dream took place entirely from my point of view.

The focus of the dream, the main character, was none other than the late great Bill Hicks.

The dream itself wasn't anything spectacular. Nor did Bill do anything wild, or crazy, or memorable. He was just kinda in it. It was some sort of party/function and there were kids in some kind of costumes dancing and singing and banging drums and shit. Just a party. And Bill Hicks was there. I don't remember what he said, or why we were there, All I remember is that I had a dream and Bill Hicks was in it.

I guess the reason I had it is because this past Sunday I spent the entire day reading a biography about Bill called American Scream. It's not the one written by his pal Kevin Booth, but it was still a great read.

I read Bill's story, some of which I knew, some of which I didn't know shit about. I almost cried when it got to the part at the end where he was dying. I guess I would've cried if I wasn't such a coward. Maybe I did cry and I'm just to embarrassed to admit it.

You see the thing is, a few weeks back I had another dream. This dream involved another comedian. One Doug Stanhope. It was after Doug's trip to the desert with a group of his friends and colleagues. I had read the stories that those good people posted on Doug's message board and the pictures as well.

This dream was, well, a little different. First of all, the entire dream was in sepiatone. The dream itself consisted of mainly Doug and some pals driving down some desert highway on the way to the party. There was Doug, Hinty and Andy in a convertible and another car that had Renee and Baby Arm Joe and Mat Becker (I think).

Basically the dream was just them driving and fucking around in traffic then they stopped at a diner. Then for some reason they stopped at a broken down, old, rusty tanker sitting in the desert. While there they rolled around in the sand, had some laughs. Good, clean desert fun.

Now all this got me thinking. Why the fuck am I dreaming about these two comedians. True, I had just absorbed a great deal of information about both of these guys prior to each dream. But? Is that sufficient?

Some would say yes. I would say, "I don't think so". I don't doubt that the information absorption was a factor but I think that there may be more to it than that.

You see the thing is, both of these guys are comedians. Doug Stanhope is a funny fuck. His humour is clever and filthy and he pulls no punches. Bill Hicks is a funny fuck also. Bill is quite possibly the greatest comedian of all time, definitely one of the best. I guess it all depends on who you ask.

What I'm trying to get at is that these two "comedians" changed the way I think. Or at the very least put me on the road to change. Although maybe "social commentators" is a better description. Regardless. I'm a different person after having discovered their work.

It seems strange that two comics were the catalyst for my own personal, intellectual sea change. It doesn't seem that such change would come from such a quarter. But then again where else would it come from? A priest?

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should keep your eyes open and your ears to the ground. You never know where your own personal 'enlightenment' may come from. I hesitate to use that word but fuck it. I'm not a thesaurus.

If you've never heard Doug or Bill, do so. If your easily offended, deal with it. It's a big bad world out there and you can't keep your head buried and pretend it's all rainbows and daffodils.

Now don't get me wrong. It's not like I worship at the feet of these guys. They influence my thinking. After discovering them, they way I thought about things changed. Not necessarily what I thought about, just the way I went about it. I guess I started 'reading between the lines'. Fuck I hate that phrase.

All I'm saying is, everyone changes. Part of my change involved two guys who are funny as fuck. That's all I'm saying.