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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Arizona Bay

Bill Hicks

Rykodisc · Album · 1997 · 66 min

Waiting for a massive earthquake to wash Los Angeles away.

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The hook of Arizona Bay is a specific apocalyptic hope: that a major earthquake will drop Los Angeles into the Pacific Ocean and leave behind a tranquil desert coastline. Bill Hicks treats the stage as a pulpit. He uses the hour to vent his mounting frustrations, targeting marketing executives, the government, and literal dinosaurs in the Bible. He tears down geopolitical conflicts and domestic riots, frequently yelling at the audience to wake up to the hypocrisy around them.

The audio was recorded at the Laff Stop in Austin, Texas, between late 1992 and mid-1993. Behind the scenes, Hicks was undergoing weekly chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, a terminal diagnosis he kept from the public. The stand-up tracks are interwoven with original guitar music produced alongside his friend Kevin Booth. Released posthumously in 1997, three years after Hicks’ death at age 32, the project documents his takes on the Gulf War and the media. It finishes with his vision of a seismic reset that washes the country’s superficiality out to sea.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Arizona Bay / Los Angeles Falling into the Ocean

    Hicks fantasizes that an earthquake submerges Los Angeles into the Pacific Ocean, ridding the world of superficiality and leaving behind a serene body of water called Arizona Bay.

  2. Marketing & Advertising

    An infamous, unsparing rant commanding anyone working in advertising or marketing to immediately commit suicide.

  3. Step on the Gas (L.A. Riots) / Officer Nigger Hater

    Satirizes systemic police brutality and civil unrest following the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

  4. Dinosaurs in the Bible

    Mocks fundamentalist creationist dogma regarding the literal interpretation of the Bible and fossil records.

How it plays

Tone
Dark, satirical, vitriolic, and profane yet profound.
On stage
Dark satirist, ferocious social critic, and cosmic truth-seeker delivering unsparing, vitriolic diatribes.
Pace
Ferocious and devastating delivery interspersed with musical interludes.
About
Destruction of Los Angeles, Marketing and advertising, Religion and creationism, Politics and presidency, Police brutality and the L.A. Riots, Smoking and tobacco bans

What the critics said

Considered a devastating, brilliant, and ferocious masterpiece of stand-up satire, though critics and fans were divided on Hicks's post-production guitar music, with some reviewers finding it intrusive and distracting from the stand-up.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: en.m.wikipedia.org, allmusic.com, wikimili.com, musicbrainz.org, peacenews.info, theguardian.com, chortle.co.uk, dangerousminds.net, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Recorded in Austin in late 1992 as Hicks began experiencing early physical symptoms of what would be diagnosed as terminal pancreatic cancer. Hicks spent his final months adding his own recorded guitar and music mixes to the comedy tracks, describing the album as his 'Dark Side of the Moon'.

Details

Released
Taped
1992, Laff Stop, Austin
Runtime
66 min
Where
Rykodisc (album)
Honors
AllMusic 5/5 stars
Topics
Before
Revelations (1993)
After
Flying Saucer Tour Vol. 1 (2002)

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