Editing Bill Hicks (section)

==Early life==
Hicks was born in [[Valdosta, Georgia]], the son of James Melvin "Jim" Hicks (1923–2006) and Mary (Reese) Hicks. He had an older sister, Lynn, and an older brother, Steve. The family lived in [[Alabama]], [[Florida]], and [[New Jersey]] before settling in [[Houston]], Texas, when Hicks was seven years old.<ref name="Bill Hicks 2004">''Bill Hicks: Love All the People'' (Robinson Publishing, 2005), {{ISBN|978-1-84529-111-2}}, '''page #s?'''</ref> He was drawn to comedy at an early age, emulating [[Woody Allen]] and [[Richard Pryor]], and wrote routines with his friend Dwight Slade. While attending [[Stratford High School (Houston)|Stratford High School]],<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHDu0p1vNy0&t=3m33s Bill Hicks, recent high school graduate, performing in Houston, Texas.] (uploaded to YouTube on Jun 21, 2020)<br>(Hicks tells the audience that he went to Stratford High School, and recognizes a girl in the audience who went there, too, with whom he had worked at [[Wendy's]].)</ref> he began performing comedy (mostly derivations of Woody Allen material) for his classmates.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bill Hicks (Personal Life, Career)|url=http://www.bestcomedyonline.net/comedian-biographies/bill-hicks-personal-life-career?iframe=true&width=95%&height=95%|website=Bestcomedyonline|access-date=July 16, 2013}}{{Dead link|date=December 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> At home, he wrote his own one-liners and slid them under the bedroom door of Steve, who he thought was a genius, for critical analysis. Steve told him, "Keep it up. You're really good at this."<ref>True, C. ''American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story''. London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 2002. {{ISBN|0380803771}}. p. 12.</ref>

Early on, Hicks began to mock his family's [[Southern Baptist Convention|Southern Baptist]] religious beliefs. He joked to the ''[[Houston Post]]'' in 1987, "We were [[Yuppie]] Baptists. We worried about things like, 'If you scratch your neighbor's [[Subaru]], should you leave a note?'"<ref>True (2002), pp. 10–11.</ref> Biographer Cynthia True described a typical argument with his father:

{{cquote|The elder Hicks would say, "I believe that the Bible is the literal word of God." And Bill would counter, "No, it's not, Dad." "Well, I believe that it is." "Well," Bill replied, "you know, some people believe that they're Napoleon. That's fine. Beliefs are neat. Cherish them, but don't share them like they're the truth."<ref>True (2002), p. 44.</ref>}}

He was close with his family his whole life, though, and he did not reject spiritual ideology itself; throughout his life, he sought various alternative methods of experiencing it. Kevin Slade, elder brother of Dwight, introduced him to [[Transcendental Meditation technique|Transcendental Meditation]] and other forms of spirituality. Over one [[Thanksgiving]] weekend, he took Hicks and Dwight to a Transcendental Meditation residence course in [[Galveston]].<ref>{{cite book | last = True | first= Cynthia |year =2002 | title = American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story | publisher = [[HarperCollins|Harper Paperbacks]] |isbn = 0380803771 | page = [https://archive.org/details/americanscreambi00true/page/25 <!-- quote=bill hicks transcendental meditation. --> 25]}}</ref> Worried about his rebellious behavior, his parents took him to a [[psychoanalyst]] at age 17. According to Hicks, the analyst took him aside after the first group session and told him, "You can continue coming if you want to, but it's them, not you."<ref name="Bill Hicks 2004" />