Bill Hicks—brilliant, funny, dead—has a massive box set out through Ryko right now called Essential, collecting two CDs of stand-up recordings as well as two DVDs full of live footage, interviews, and TV appearances. But perhaps the most essential part of The Essential Collection is that gives a proper revival to Ninja Bachelor Party, a martial-arts spoof that Hicks made with regular cohorts Kevin Booth and David Johndrow over the course of 10 years in Austin and Houston, Texas. For nearly two decades now, Ninja Bachelor Party has existed solely as a 1991 VHS release—and speaking as someone who used to man the counter at an Austin video store, motherfuckers were always stealing it, to the point where we were forced to stock increasingly grainy second- and third-generation dubs. But it's now been digitally preserved, and even better you can check out some of it right now, right below these words. Enjoy.
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