American: The Bill Hicks Story is released in cinemas this week. Entertaining, informative and fucking hilarious Nick Helm talks us through the most exciting project Bill Hicks has been involved in since his death.

In all honesty I was never really into Bill Hicks that much. I was always more of a Lee Evans fan. My appreciation for him has certainly grown over the years, but it began so low that its increase barely registered.

Over the years I’ve read books about him and watched his old cable specials, I even bought a couple of his DVD’s, and although I have grown to appreciate him and respect what he achieved in his short life as a comedian, I wouldn’t say I was ever enthusiastic to the point of being a fan.
I think the primary blame for my lack of interest was an old school friend I had that absolutely bloody loved drugs. He used to make me watch Bill Hicks routines to back up his arguments in their favour. Not only did it put me off Bill Hicks, but it put me off my friend and many of his interests.
It wasn’t until a few years ago when I was starting out as a stand up myself that I rediscovered him. I was working in an office and I managed to find many of his gigs on bootleg and I listened to them on constant rotation on my iPod to get me through the daily grind of tedious data entry. It was then that I began to really form an appreciation for him as a performer as I heard his routines honed from gig to gig until they became the routines that have become his calling card from the afterlife.

Recently I was lucky enough to see a press screening of the new documentary American: The Bill Hicks Story by film-makers Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas.

The film consists of a series of revealing talking head interviews conducted with the Hicks’ family and contemporaries, charting his career, his battles with substance abuse and censorship and ultimately his untimely death.

In avoiding conjecture and hearsay, Harlock and Thomas have created an intimate and moving portrayal of one of the most influential comedians of the late 20th Century. It’s easy to say that this documentary, along with a proposed Hollywood Biopic starring Russell Crowe, signals a resurgence of interest in Hicks’ work, but the reality is that since his death he has only grown in popularity, his presence being felt on both sides of the Atlantic from Doug Stanhope to the current London Open Mic Circuit acts - proving his influence is still very much alive and strong.

The film uses an animation process that takes thousands of pre-existing photos, and new ones, and combines them using CGI to create a moving scrapbook of Hicks’ life and career. As we hear about Hicks’ life from then points of view of those that knew him best, the process makes sure that even though Hicks was unavailable to comment on the story of his own life, he is still very much the focus of the piece and although the films visual style takes a while to settle down at first, it soon merges with the spoken word gelling the film together as a whole.

The real treats within the film are the archive footage of his early performances, meticulously pieced together from hundreds of hours of video tape loaned out by the Hicks Estate. The footage shows rare clips from the very beginning of Hicks’ career, before his political leanings took centre stage, and reveal that had Hicks wanted to go down the path of crowd pleasing observational comedian he would have done it with ease and great skill.
Although later famous for his abrasive attitude and frustrated anger at 1990’s American society, it is possible to let the eclipse the fact that Hicks was also incredibly funny.

It’s easy to forget when watching him on video at home or on Youtube that this stuff works much better in the intimate setting of a comedy club. However like the early concert films of Richard Prior or Eddie Murphy or the forthcoming release of Louis CK’s new film ‘Hilarious’, seeing Hicks’ material on the big screen with a live audience filled with fans of the man and the genre, brings the material to life again.

It’s absolutely essential that this film be seen in a cinema with an audience. Stand Up has been downgraded over the years to something that can be caught on late night cable TV or diluted to an inoffensive string of glaringly obvious observations. Which is perhaps the biggest testament to the film. In seeing Hicks in context, with an audience, it shows him to be still undeniably relevant to today’s audiences.
If you already know Hicks’ work then this film is a must, painting a sympathetic and detailed history of a true American artist and revealing the human being beneath the routines. If you are unfamiliar with the man, which according to the film makers is about three quarters of all their audiences, it’s an essential film as it serves as, if not the definitive telling of the Bill Hicks legend, certainly a close contender.

AMERICAN: THE BILL HICKS STORY is out in cinemas Friday May 14th