Since the late 1990s, Doug Stanhope has been releasing comedy albums steadily, but never quietly. From 2000s Something to Take the Edge Off through ’02′s Die Laughing, he built a solid audience for his acerbic, culture-hating, mean drunk comedy, and did so without compromise. The hard work seemed to pay off in 2003, when Comedy Central tapped him to co-host the Man Show. But despite the show’s Stanhope-friendly blend of crass comedy and beer swilling, happily chauvinistic behavior, the comic’s wit was still muzzled by the TV censor. Stanhope and co-host Joe Rogan didn’t resonate with audiences, and their Man Show was canceled in 2004. Fans of his work on the show will find Stanhope’s stand-up darker and way more foul-mouthed than his moment in the mainstream. But this makes it more refreshing, because you get the sense with Deadbeat Hero that the road is where Stanhope always wanted to be anyway. This makes it more refreshing. On Hero he’s an equal-opportunity offender, a bitter, bitter man who encourages us to drink on weekdays, steal from the office, and date transvestites (“They’re GOOD! You don’t even have to pretend you got tricked anymore!”). He details his firsthand experience with abortions, hates his mother’s chain-smoking (“…it’s like some kind of respiratory Gallagher event…”), and winds eventually into politics and larger social issues. But there’s insight in his occasionally offensive observations, and some striking cultural criticism behind all the jokes about gay priests and two-headed babies. Stanhope did his time in the TV lights. Now he’s back live in a comedy club, with neither a censor nor the inherent protection of being on tape. He has no one to answer to, so he can say whatever he wants to, and has only his wit for backup. He knows the audience is either going to laugh themselves silly or punch him repeatedly in the face, and that’s exactly the way Stanhope seems to want it. There’s no doubt about it: Deadbeat Hero is some gutsy comedy. [The album came bundled with a DVD featuring the same show on video, bonus "street-level" content, and a vignette called Doug Stanhope: Behind the Mullet."] – Johnny Loftus