Bill had always been a favorite of Letterman and his show, appearing a total of 12 times. The shows were always taped in front of a live studio audience in the afternoon then aired on TV later that same night. On this, his 12th and final appearance, Bill taped his performance as usual.
But, when the show aired that night Bill's segment had been completely removed from the broadcast, deemed too controversial for the audience.
Over 15 years later on January 30, 2009 Letterman had Bill's mother on the show where they would discuss Bill and his life, Letterman's decision to pull Bill's performance that night in October 1993(and an apology to Mary on the mishandling of the event at the time) and then he would finally air that segment in its entirety.
We've posted the full show here in case you want to see some of the nice discussions between David Letterman and Bill's mother, Mary.
However, If you only want to see the infamous performance that was entirely cut from the show you can jump to this link 28:23.
Excerpt from The Goatboy Rises, by John Lahr in New Yorker Magazine from November 1, 1993 gives a succinct accounting of that event:
On October 1st, the comedian Bill Hicks, after doing his twelfth gig on the David Letterman show, became the first comedy act to be censored at CBS’s Ed Sullivan Theatre, where Letterman is now in residence, and where Elvis Presley was famously censored in 1956. Presley was not allowed to be shown from the waist down. Hicks was not allowed to be shown at all. It’s not what’s in Hicks’ pants but what’s in his head that scared the CBS panjandrums. Hicks, a tall thirty-one-year-old Texan with a pudgy face aged beyond its years from hard living on the road, is no motormouth vulgarian but an exhilarating comic thinker in a renegade class all his own.
Hopefully you will enjoy this little bit of Late Night TV history!
Please consider a contribution to the Bill Hicks Foundation for Wildlife Rehabilitation at billhicks.org
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