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"Brutal" is an adjective usually reserved for death metal bands and horror movies, but thanks to the bitter, trashy, and very funny Doug Stanhope, it's a descriptor found stickered across CDs and DVDs in the comedy section. Born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Stanhope originally moved to L.A. for his big break, but his career didn't take off until he gave up on California and moved to Las Vegas in 1990. In 1997, he was selling his ACID Bootleg album at shows, then a year later he released his official debut, Great White Stanhope, on the Uproar label. The appropriately titled Sicko followed in 1999 with a picture of a "marital aid" on the cover, then Something to Take the Edge Off landed in 2000 courtesy of the Stand Up label. By then he had earned a loyal following thanks to constant touring plus appearances on Howard Stern's radio show, so in 2001 it was no surprise when he was hired by the Comedy Central cable network for his first television special. In 2002, he released Die Laughing and was named "One of the Top Ten Comedians to Watch" by Variety magazine. Hosting numerous volumes of the Girls Gone Wild adult video series, plus co-hosting the television show The Man Show with his friend Joe Rogan helped pay the bills, but standup was still Stanhope's main interest, and he got back to it with the 2004 CD/DVD set Deadbeat Hero. After running as a Libertarian candidate for President of the United States in 2008 -- Stanhope lost to that year's Democratic candidate Barack Obama in what was a landslide -- he released Live from Cape Fear in 2009. Recorded at a European tour stop in Norway, Oslo: Burning the Bridge to Nowhere followed in 2011.
Wikipedia:
Douglas Gene "Doug" Stanhope (born March 25, 1967) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and author known for his on-stage drinking and abrasive comedy routines.
Life and career
Stanhope quit high school after his freshman year. His comedy career began in 1990 in Las Vegas.
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 Festival Fringe in Scotland, where he won the Strathmore Press Award in 2002.
Stanhope was the winner of the 1995 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 2003 and 2004, Stanhope co-hosted the fifth and sixth seasons of The Man Show with Joe Rogan.
In 2005, Stanhope hosted his own radio show on SIRIUS Satellite Radio.
Also in 2005, Stanhope hosted Girls Gone Wild: America Uncovered. When asked what it was like working with Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis, Stanhope said "He's pure, unadulterated evil," and "The most awful human being I've ever met in all of my time in the entertainment business."
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. The Unbookables' first CD, Morbid Obscenity, also featuring Andrist, Rouse, Lynn Shawcroft, and Banjo Randy, 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 appeared in the film The Aristocrats, telling a caustic joke to a baby.
Stanhope 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 Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny, 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.
In August 2006 he appeared alongside Rouse at the Festival Fringe 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. During his Edinburgh performance he included a segment that was perceived as anti-Semitic. 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 on March 12; and one for the UK's Channel 4 Comedy Lab, filmed at the Caves in Edinburgh, Scotland titled "Doug Stanhope: Go Home". The Showtime special, titled 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. Stanhope'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.
Stanhope lives in Warren, Arizona (part of Bisbee) near the Mexico border in a small house with musician/author Amy "Bingo" Bingaman.
In August 2009, Stanhope was booed and had several bottles thrown at him at the Leeds Festival in the UK, 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, and Stanhope continued to bait and taunt hecklers throughout his set.
His live show was placed in the top 5 of the 20 Best Live Shows of 2009 by London's The Guardian newspaper.
Stanhope's 7th album, From Across The Street, was released on November 24, 2009. It was originally intended to be released under the name Live from Cape Fear (and later I Ain't Never Won Nothin' In My Life). 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 crygenically 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 Newswipe with Charlie Brooker in the United Kingdom.
Stanhope is managed by Brian Hennigan.
On November 17, 2010, Doug Stanhope signed to rock and metal label Roadrunner Records to launch their new comedy label, Roadrunner Comedy. Cees Wessels, CEO of Roadrunner Records, said, “We are very excited to launch Roadrunner Comedy, yet another innovative iteration of the Roadrunner brand. We look forward to welcoming a variety of like-minded comedians to the Roadrunner family—new artists with dynamic talents—that will be making us laugh for years to come.”
On March 8, 2011, Roadrunner Records announced that Stanhope would have the debut album for the newly created comedy label. The live CD/DVD release is slated to be released on May 3, 2011, it will be titled Oslo: Burning The Bridge To Nowhere.
In cooperation with the mayor of Reykjavik, comedian Jón Gnarr, Stanhope has scheduled a performance in Iceland's only maximum security prison, Litla-Hraun, for September 25th 2011. Fans who want to watch the show would have to commit a crime; for them he invented The Stanhope Defense.
Stanhope appeared on the FX television show Louie as Eddie, a fictional comedian that Louis C.K. knew 20 years earlier when they first started performing, in the season 2 episode titled "Eddie". It first aired on August 11, 2011.
Politics
Stanhope is known as a libertarian comedian. In 2004, he endorsed the Free State Project, and was quoted as saying, "The Free State Project stands out as one of few ideas that could produce tangible change in our lifetime. The vision of Christian gun enthusiasts buying hand-painted targets from pot-smoking artists, laughing together while they give the tax man the finger, is beautiful enough to make the move."
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, "[O]fficially — I am reconsidering my presidential run while my exploratory team looks into the viability of such an endeavor." He explained that he made this statement due to campaign finance laws and other reasons. Later he said, "The presidential run is getting in order. You keep asking me if I'm serious. You have no idea. Let's have fun again."
Stanhope intended to formally declare his candidacy during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show show on May 3, 2007, but on May 1 announced that he would not run due to restrictions of the Federal Election Commission, which stipulated that he could not receive personal income from his comedy appearances and website if he was using them to campaign. Stanhope then endorsed libertarian-leaning Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.
In August 2008, 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."
On September 11, 2008, Stanhope re-entered 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, then-current Alaskan governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Stanhope said, "Rather than sit back and impotently bemoan Bristol's tragic, lonely circumstance, it is time for us — the silent majority — to unite behind this poor, imprisoned woman and save her from both a tyrannical household as well as the horrible nightmare of a forced childbirth."
Though the $50,000 offered by Stanhope himself would more than cover the cost of an abortion under normal situations, Stanhope encouraged others to donate money towards helping Bristol begin a new life. On the site, Stanhope pledged, "Even if you cannot take my offer, I will still use my money or money donated through this page to pay for at least one abortion for a disadvantaged teenage girl each year for the rest of my life in the name of your mother. And in my will, I shall have a good portion of my estate turned into the Sarah J. Palin Abortion Fund that will help girls from all walks of life from destroying their lives and our natural resources by having children."
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 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.
