From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Doug Stanhope
Stanhope on stage at Charlies, Manchester, England, October 2006
Birth name	Douglas Gene Stanhope
Born	March 25, 1967 (1967-03-25) (age 42) Worcester, Massachusetts
Medium	stand-up, television
Nationality	American
Years active	1990 - present[1]
Genres	Black comedy, Observational comedy, Satire/Political satire, cringe humor
Subject(s)	American culture, current events, recreational drug use, human sexuality, religion, angst, anarchism, libertarianism
Influences	Andy Andrist, Sean Rouse, Mat Becker, George Carlin, Glen Wool, Bill Hicks
Spouse	Renee Morrison [3] (2003-present) (separated)[4]
Notable works and roles	7 CDs, 3 DVDs
Website	dougstanhope.com

Douglas Gene "Doug" Stanhope (born March 25, 1967) is an American stand-up comedian and author known for his deliberately crass and vitriolic comedy rountines, frequently performed while smoking cigarettes and drinking on-stage. He currently lives in the small U.S.-Mexico border town of Bisbee, Arizona.

Life and career

In 1967, Stanhope was born in Worcester, Massachusetts where he lived until he was 18 years old. Stanhope's comedy career began in 1990 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Stanhope has made appearances at several major comedy festivals, including the Montreal Just For Laughs, US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado, the Chicago Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, where he won the Strathmore Press Award in 2002.

Stanhope was the winner of the San Francisco International Comedy Competition where he edged out notable comedic actor Dane Cook in a three-week contest. He's appeared in dozens of national and international standup comedy television specials. He claims that his appearance on the BBC television show, "Live Floor Show," (broadcast March 20 2003) was fueled by "ecstasy". According to Stanhope 'TV is just for the money; live performance is where it’s at.'

In 2004 Stanhope briefly co-hosted the Man Show with Joe Rogan.

In 2004, Stanhope endorsed the Free State Project, and is quoted as saying:

He has established a group of touring comics known as The Unbookables featuring artists such as Andy Andrist, Sean Rouse, James Inman, Brett Erickson, Travis Lipski, Brendon Walsh, Norman Wilkerson, Kristine Levine, and Brian Potrafka.^[3] The Unbookables' first CD, Morbid Obscenity, also featuring Andrist, Rouse, Lynn Shawcroft, and Banjo Randy, was released July 4, 2006, on Stand Up! Records was released as a benefit for a friend, Arthur Hinty, to help pay for a gastric bypass.

Stanhope was featured in the film The Aristocrats and stood out by telling an extraordinarily vulgar and caustic version of the joke to a baby. The child is often confused as being Stanhope's own offspring. In reality it was the baby of a producer and Stanhope remains child-free and a vehement promoter of zero population growth.

Doug was the subject of an 8-page feature in British GQ under the title "Is This America's Most Depraved Man?" by Robert Chalmers in 2006.

In summer 2006, he was booked to appear on several bills at the Kilkenny Cat Laughs comedy festival in Ireland; he told his lairy, late-night crowd, that Irish men sleep with children, because — as the headline to the following day's Irish Daily Star put it - "Irish women are too ugly to rape! Comic booed after shocking festival jibe." he managed to perform for just 10 minutes before having all his remaining slots canceled yet garnered several more full-length solo performances.^[4]

In August 2006 he appeared alongside Rouse at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, to rave 5 star reviews from the press. On his opening night he took what was believed to be an ecstasy tablet that was handed to him by a member of the audience.^[5][6] His Edinburgh performance lived up to his edgy reputation by including a segment that was later perceived as anti-Semitic.^[7] Stanhope responded in his 2007 Showtime special, No Refunds, by elaborating on the incident and including an extended bit on "Jew-hating".

In October 2006, he self-published a book, Fun with Pedophiles: The Best of Baiting, which includes several of his "baits" which had appeared on baiting.org. Baiting is the practice of setting up a false Internet instant messaging persona, say, that of an underage female, waiting for others to message you asking for sex, and then brutally abusing the "baitee" in a chat session that is logged to share with others. He discussed his self-published book and the philosophy behind it on Penn Jillette's radio show on San Diego's 97.1 FreeFM on November 22, 2006.

In 2007, Stanhope made two TV specials — one in the US for Showtime, recorded at The Gotham Comedy Club in New York City March 12; and one for the UK's Channel 4 Comedy Lab, filmed at the Caves in Edinburgh, Scotland entitled "Doug Stanhope: Go Home". The Showtime special, entitled No Refunds, premiered August 3 and was released on DVD August 14.

His live show was voted "Best Comedy Performance of the Year" by Time Out New York for both 2006 and 2008.

On September 25 2008, Stanhope appeared as a guest panelist on the Channel 4 programme 8 Out of 10 Cats whilst in London as part of his unofficially titled "Is Mom Dead Yet?" tour. Doug's mother Bonnie Kirk appeared regularly on the Man Show as well as several independent features and opposite Sean "Puffy" Combs at an MTV Music Award sketch where she played an aging stripper. She died at the age of 63 in October 2008.

Doug lives in Warren, Arizona (part of Bisbee, AZ) near the Mexico border in a small house with musician/author Amy "Bingo" Bingaman.

He hopes to finish out his career with his "End of the World" concert on 12/20/12 — the eve of the purported end of time according to the Mayan calendar. The line-up and location are still being worked out.

In August 2009, Doug was the subject of heavy booing and was at the receiving end of several thrown bottles at the Leeds Festival in the UK, he got the treatment after making derogatory comments about the Royal Family and the attitude of the English, which he likened to people in the stone age. Many people left early, though many hecklers stayed for no apparent reason, whom Doug continued to bait and taunt throughout his set.

Stanhope's 7th album, From Across The Street, was released on November 24th, 2009. Originally intended to be released under the name Live from Cape Fear (and later I Ain't Never Won Nothin' In My Life), the CD was recorded by Stand Up! Records at Level 5 at City Stage in Wilmington, NC on August 11th, 2009. According to promotional materials mailed to reviewers, "half of the proceeds made from the CD sales will be going towards medical bills incurred by maintaining the cryogenically frozen remains of his mother's cats at the Bisbee Forever Hope life suspension facility in accordance with her wishes."

In 2010, Stanhope aired a series of vignettes during Charlie Brooker's Newswipe in the United Kingdom.

Discography/videography

There is a bootleg video referred to as The Austin Incident link , which Stanhope himself keeps in circulation, that features conspiracy theorist Alex Jones introducing him. The gig descends into chaos and twenty minutes in Stanhope can clearly be heard saying jokingly "you're never opening for me again" to Jones.

2008 Presidential Campaign

Stanhope announced on July 9, 2006 through his website that he would run for president in 2008 as a Libertarian. After consulting political advisers, he stated on his website:

He explained that he made this statement due to campaign finance laws and other reasons. Later he said:

Stanhope intended to formally declare candidacy during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show show May 3, 2007, but May 1 he announced that he would not run due to restrictions of the Federal Election Commission. He could not receive personal income from his comedy appearances and website if he was using them to campaign.[5] Doug then endorsed libertarian-leaning Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul^[9].

In August 2008, Doug Stanhope endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, citing his disappointment with the libertarian candidates and a desire to have "a strong, handsome black man in the White House", as well as referring to himself as "the head of the one-man Libertarians For Obama group."^[10]

On September 11, 2008, Doug reentered the election scene with the creation of www.savingbristol.com, a web site dedicated to raising money to pay for an abortion for Bristol Palin, daughter of staunchly pro-life Alaskan governor and Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Though the $50,000 offered by Stanhope himself would more than cover the cost of an abortion under normal situations, Doug encouraged others to donate money towards helping Bristol begin a new life. On the site, Stanhope pledged:

To fight off rumors that he was seeking to profit from the site in any way, donations to the cause are now made directly through www.lilithfund.org, the web site for Lilith Fund, a Texas-based organization dedicated to helping women pay for abortions if they are unable to afford them themselves.^[11]

On September 12, 2008, Bill Maher launched a site similar to SavingBristol.com in the form of FreeLevi.org, a site aimed at Levi Johnston, Bristol's boyfriend and father of her unborn child. Similarities between the content, presentation, and designs of the two sites led some to believe that plagiarism had taken place, either by the writers of Real Time with Bill Maher or Maher himself.

Notes

External links

• Doug Stanhope's official website
• Doug Stanhope at the Internet Movie Database
• Doug Stanhope's MySpace Page
• Doug Stanhope's Facebook fan page
• The Unbookables' official website
• Morbid Obscenity CD official website
• Sacred Cow Productions
• Stand Up! Records
• Drunk For Your Amusement, TLAvideo Doug Stanhope article
• An Interview with Doug Stanhope -- Free Market Mojo

From Wikiquote

Doug Stanhope (born 25 March 1967) is an American stand-up comedian.

Word of Mouth

• If you really believe that death leads to eternal bliss, then why are you wearing a seatbelt?

• I had a girl say this to me. She goes "you know, if god intended women to suck dick, he'd made cum taste like chocolate" I said "Yeah, but he had to make it taste like bleach so you remember to do the laundry"

Something to Take the Edge Off

• Are there any vice cops in here? You dicks. How do you do that for a living? I don't understand. I first read these stories and I think "Don't you have real crime to fight somewhere?" But then you think about it vice cops don't fight real crime; that's not their job. Real cops fight real crime. A vice cop's only job is to fuck up the party.

• I hate when your friends quit drinking on you, don't you? It's sad. I've lost more friends to AA than Liberace did to the virus. It's sad to see 'em go. You see a thirty day chip on your buddy's key ring, it's like seeing a toe tag on his cold, stiff corpse.

• Life is like animal porn, it's not for everyone.

• Suicide is another thing that's so frowned upon in this society, but honestly, life isn't for everybody. It really isn't. It's sad when kids kill themselves 'cause they didn't really give it a chance, but life is like a movie: if you've sat through more than half of it and it sucked every second so far, it probably isn't gonna get great right at the very end for you and make it all worthwhile. No one should blame you for walking out early.

• Babies are like poems. They're beautiful to their creator, but to other people they're silly and fucking irritating.

• I couldn't be a responsible enough parent if my kid was born with a new suit and a full-time job.

Die Laughing

• It's thirty days since the terrorist act. George Bush has told us to go back to our normal lives and to go back to what we used to do, so I've gone back to thinking that George Bush is a soft-headed tit and a danger to all of us.

• Does anyone get upset that George Bush keeps quoting the bible in all his fucking speeches? Does that get on anyone's last nerve? Does it ever occur to him that it's all those stupid fucking religions that start all this shit in the first place. National day of prayer? Fuck you! You think you're doing something? You're not. You can sit at home and cry jinx and keep your fingers crossed too; it does as much good. You wanna pray? Pray all day. Pray on your own time. You wanna help, grab a shovel and start digging there, pinwheel, 'cause it looks like your god takes Tuesdays off.

Deadbeat Hero

• The problem with this country is that old fucks vote. We got shit to do, old folks don't, the only thing they have to do is judge you and vote.

• Start the argument where it starts: I have the right to do what ever the hell I want to my own body, if it kills me slowly, happy for me, fuck you, "clack clack" (miming a pump-action shotgun) stop me!

• All illegal narcotics are medicinal. Boredom is a disease worse than cancer. Drugs cure it, with little or no side effects if used as directed. Life's temporary for a reason, it gets boring after awhile. You should be inventing new drugs is what you should be doing! Newer, crazier drugs... and more holes, that's what you ladies need!

• There's only two types of people who are against drugs: the people who have never done drugs and the people who really sucked at doing drugs.

• Complaining that a comic is drunk is like going to a titty bar and complaining because your lapdancer is a communist.

• With all the horrible, horrible shit that your priest is pumping into your kid's head, his dick should be the least of your worries, honestly. That's just a little mouthwash and a few years of therapy'll get rid of that. That Jesus shit will torture you for a lifetime.

• If marriage didn't exist, would you invent it? Would you go "Baby, this shit we got together, it's so good we gotta get the government in on this shit. We can't just share this commitment 'tweenst us. We need judges and lawyers involved in this shit, baby. It's hot!"

• (on his ex-wife's abortion) Has anyone had an abortion? You're all rapt with attention now, all of a sudden, so I assume you all have. It's a fucking horrible thing to go through. And not horrible in that "Oh, it's a living thing, what are we doing?" Fuck the living thing. A genital wart is a living thing. If it's gonna irritate you for life, burn it off, right? Bladder cancer is alive and growing like a baby in you. If you try to remove that I'll protest you and say "stop playing god." ... Before you actually go and get all quiet and pissy, like I'm some asshole about this, keep in mind I'm just telling you the parts that I think are funny. You don't know the reason we had... The reason we had an abortion was... It wasn't because... It wasn't frivolous. We didn't have an abortion because we weren't ready to take care of a child, we were irresponsible, or because we're not financially capable of taking... The reason we had it is 'cause I really wanted to see what it felt like to kill a baby.

• (on people who join the military) As long as the people who kinda wanna go kill other people are going to go kill other people who kinda wanna go kill other people, you're killing all the right people and opening up all the best parking spaces.

• You were born free, you got fucked out of half of it and you wave a flag celebrating it.

• They say if you give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish.... then he's gotta get a fishing license, but he doesn't have any money. So he's got to get a job and get into the social security system and pay taxes, and now you're gonna audit the poor cocksucker, cuz' he's not really good with math. So he'll pull the IRS van up to your house, and he'll take all your shit. He'll take your black velvet Elvis and your Batman toothbrush, and your penis pump, and that all goes up for auction with the burden of proof on you because you forgot to carry the one, cuz' you were just worried about eating a fucking fish, and you couldn't even cook the fish cuz' you needed a permit for an open flame. Then the health department is going to start asking you a lot of questions about where are you going to dump the scales and the guts. 'This is not a sanitary environment', and ladies and gentlemen if you get sick of it all at the end of the day... not even legal to kill yourself in this country. Thanks again John Ashcroft you weird bible addict, can't even handle your own drug. You were born free, you got fucked out of half of it, and you wave a flag celebrating it. [audience member]: Hey, don't hold back! [Doug]: You got an argument? [am] No, keep goin'!..The only true freedom you find, is when you realize and come to terms with the fact that you are completely and unapologetically fucked, and then you are free to float around the system.

• [in regards to the subway breakfast sandwich not being available after 11AM] I'll go "Uh, hey man, uh gimme an egg and cheese", and the kid will say, "I'm sorry sir, it's after 11, we put all that stuff, away. You didn't put it away...it's in the second green cabinet, it's right there. This place is as big as a photo-mat, there is no away in the building, you don't own away. There's no brinks truck that pulls up at 11:02 and yanks out the eggs under armed guard.

• Mutations are exciting. They try to fix 'em when they come out. Did you see the two-headed baby they killed last month when they tried to cut it apart? That was hilarious!

No Refunds

• Jesus died for your sins. I'm doing it for your mere entertainment dollar.

• Why would you die for someone's sins? Your sins are the only thing interesting about you you dreary, bleak motherfuckers.

• If I die soon, don't ever say I died too young.

• Who knows? Maybe if Jimi Hendrix hadn't died young he would have sold out by now and be doing half-time super bowl shows with Elton John.

• Pussy is the main motivating factor behind all of humankind. That is why cocaine is illegal. It makes pussy too easy to get.

• Nationalism does nothing but teach you how to hate people you've never met-- all of a sudden you take pride in accomplishments you had no part in whatsoever... if you're American you'll go "Fuck the French! Fuck the French, if we hadn't have saved their ass in two World Wars, they'd be speakin' German right now!" And you go, "Oh, was that us?" Was that me and you, Tommy, we saved the French? Jesus! I know I blacked out a little after that fourth shot of Jägermeister last night, but I don't remember... I know we were going through the Wendy's drive-thru to get one of them "Freschetta" sandwiches that looked so alluring on the commercial, but then we ordered it and realized we had no money, and we had to ditch out before the second window, and those douchebags in line behind us with the bass music probably got our order and we laughed about that. But I don't remember savin' the French. At all! I went through the last ten calls on my cell phone and there's nothin'--incoming or outgoing--to the French, lookin' for muscle on a project! I checked my pants, there's no mud stains on the knees from when we were garroting Krauts in the trenches at Verdun. I think "we" didn't do anything but watch sports bloopers while we got hammered. I think "we" should shut the fuck up!

Misc

• Wanting more. Having your cake or eating your cake are fine. Not even wanting cake is where you get fucked.
  • When asked, "What would constitute 'complete happiness' to Doug Stanhope (you)?"^[1]

• Whether the reasoning for these laws is insurance costs, more opportunities for random taxation through traffic stops, curbing lost production or any other justification that could be offered, the bottom line is that it isn't governments place. You own your body. No legislation should infringe on that.
  • On legislation against drug use, driving without a seatbelt, and motorcycling without a helmet.^[1]

• The word addiction is used far too liberally in our society and I shy away from it. If I have any addiction, it would be nicotine. I would say alcohol is more of a compulsive habit for me. I have used different narcotics for roughly 20 years and I have always used them socially, sporadically and usually sparingly. I use cocaine occasionally and sometimes medicinally - before a third show Saturday, a bump of coke can make the difference between a strong performance and just phoning it in - and I've never developed any type of habit, never craved it the next day. I will use hallucinogens a few times a year as well, always in a safe environment. So far as an "early grave," I'm more concerned with quality of life. No sense in having a mint condition classic car if you're afraid to take it out of the garage. I look as sadly at people awash in hand-sanitizer and surgical maks in elevators as they might see me when I'm pouring booze down my head on stage.
  • On his drug use^[1]

References

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Doug Stanhope

• Doug Stanhope's web site
• Quote Stanhope on Twitter