Bill Hicks, Relentless

If you like the kind of comedian whose stock material allows you to switch off your brain, Bill Hicks is not the comedian for you. If you want to hear one of the most insightful, acerbic and downright hilarious comedians of his generation, Relentless is the perfect place to start. This 'breakthrough' show at the Montreal Comedy Festival in 1991 showcases Hicks at his darkest, lobbing comedic grenades about war, drugs, sex and religion. Hicks' popularity is far greater now than when he lived (he died of cancer in 1994, aged 32) which points to the idea that the topics about which he spoke still resonate and the way he communicated his ideas showed prescience and a mastery of skill. This is one of the undoubted greats at his finest.