Электронная книга: Kevin Booth «Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution»

Kevin Booth

Infobox Person
name = Kevin Booth
birth_date = October 2nd, 1961

Kevin Booth is an American film and video director, producer, and musician. He is best known for his work with comedian Bill Hicks, who was the subject of his book "Agent of Evolution," published by Harper Collins UK. Bill and Kevin knew each other since their time together at Stratford High School. Booth founded Sacred Cow Productions [1] in 1986, and has since explored such controversial subjects as the Waco Siege and the New World Order. The company's most recent release is , which explores the failings of America's War on Drugs.

Early life

At age six 2/18 while living in Los Angeles, Kevin started his first band Freak Out 'N' Four. He was heavily influenced by his older brother Curt who suffered from schizophrenia.
Kevin’s family moved to Houston in the early 1970’s during Houston’s economic boom. In 1975, he met Bill Hicks and Dwight Slade at Stratford High School. The trio formed Stress, an early punk rock band. After High School, Kevin started Year Zero, with classmates Brent Ballard and Robert Reilly.

Production career

Kevin started out in the music business in the late 80's, when his band Year Zero signed a major contract with Chrysalis Records. The band toured for several years with the single "Hourglass" playing in regular rotation on MTV. While living in Texas, Kevin went on to produce several records, music videos, and short films. Today, many people know Kevin from his work with the late, great comedian William Melvin Hicks.

In 1982, Kevin started the ACE Production Company (Absolute Creative Entertainment) with Bill, which would become Sacred Cow Productions later in the decade. When Year Zero broke up in 1989, Kevin continued working with drummer Pat Brown and formed Marble Head Johnson, fronted by Bill Hicks and accompanied by Kevin’s brother Curt Booth on key-boards. On July 17th, 1989, Kevin and Bill set out to produce Bill’s first feature-length stand-up concert film "Sane Man". Kevin, Bill and friends also acted in and produced the cult classic: Karate Rock Opera “Ninja Bachelor Party” that took almost ten years to complete. Kevin produced Bill’s second CD “Relentless” and performed music with Bill on “Arizona Bay”. After Bill Hicks' untimely death from pancreatic cancer in 1994, Kevin Booth produced “Rant in E Minor,” which was to be Bill’s angriest and final work.

In the late 90's, Kevin developed his film making in a more political direction and produced several films with filmmaker and conspiracy guru, Alex Jones (InfoWars). Kevin and Alex traveled to the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, where the two were threatened with arrest multiple times and created the film “Martial Law” with cameraman Ted O’Brian. During this time, Kevin kept his foot in the comedy pond by producing feature length stand up comedy DVD’s of Joe Rogan (Fear Factor & News Radio), and comedian Doug Stanhope. In May 2004, Kevin traveled to Britain to promote his first book "Agent of Evolution" about his life with Bill Hicks, published by Harper Collins U.K.

Following Bill's death and the loss of several family members to alcohol, cigarettes and pharmaceuticals, Kevin decided to produce a feature length documentary exploring America's failed Drug War. The discovery that the government classifies Marijuana as being more dangerous than Crack or Crystal Meth was the start of a four year mission to sort the facts from fiction and pick apart the paradoxes of America's longest running war. This led to unexpected associations with characters like Bloods founder T. Rodgers and Freeway Ricky Ross, the man blamed for starting the Crack epidemic with cocaine supplied by the CIA.

The film "American Drug War - The Last White Hope" has won three consecutive awards for “Best Feature Length Documentary." In late spring of 2007, Kevin signed with Page Ostrow of Ostrow & Company who secured “American Drug War” a deal with the Showtime cable network (CBS). In November of 2007, "American Drug War" was honored at the 2007 [Artivist] Awards Ceremony as the Best Feature Film in the International Human Rights category!American Drug War is Kevin's debut as a narrator and the first of a series of films that will build on his ability to untangle the myths and present serious subjects with a dry wit and eye for the absurd.

Today Kevin and his wife Trae live in the hills of Los Angeles, where they hang out at the dog park with wolf eating dogs and continue running Sacred Cow Productions.

External links

* [http://www.kevinbooth.com KevinBooth.com] - Official site
* [http://www.sacredcow.com SacredCow.com] - Official site
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* [http://www.americandrugwar.com American Drug War] - Film site

Источник: Kevin Booth