Bill Hicks was a controversial American stand-up comedian, satirist, and social critic. Hicks is often compared to Lenny Bruce and Sam Kinison. Comedian Richard Pryor figured largely as an inspiration and stand-up idol for Hicks, as did Woody Allen who also served strongly as a very early influence for a pre-teen Hicks. Like Lenny Bruce, Hicks challenged formal and informal forces of censorship, and suggested a disconnect between the values and operations of modern life, particularly in the United States, a country toward which his humor frequently adopted a tone ranging from cynicism to scathing critique. In 2003 the British newspaper The Guardian ran a story on Hicks, reporting that "Indeed far from fading away, as most comics tend to do, he was "becoming a bigger star with each passing year. Hicks's catalog of released materials continues to grow, as Sane Man was re-issued on DVD in 2006 and received many positive reviews. He played the final show of his career at Caroline's in New York on January 6, 1994. Bill moved back to his parents' house in Little Rock shortly thereafter. He called his friends to say goodbye before he stopped speaking on February 14, and died on February 26 of pancreatic cancer. In 2004, Comedy Central listed him as 19th in their show 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.