Douglas Gene Stanhope
(born March 25, 1967) is an American stand-up comedian who currently lives in the small U.S.-Mexico border town of Bisbee, Arizona.
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DOUG STANHOPE TICKETS
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Career
In 1967, Doug 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 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.
[2] 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.
[3]
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.
[4] [5] His controversial Edinburgh performance lived up to his edgy reputation by including a segment that was later perceived as Anti-Semitic.
[6]
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 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, but Doug finished his set to applause from the remaining half-full tent.
Discography/videography
Title
| Year
| CD
| DVD
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The Great White Stanhope
| 1998
| x
|
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Sicko
| 1999
| x
|
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Something to Take the Edge Off
| 2000
| x
|
|
Die Laughing
| 2002
| x
|
|
Word of Mouth
| 2003
|
| x
|
Deadbeat Hero
| 2004
| x
| x
|
Morbid Obscenity
, The Unbookables
| 2006
| x
|
|
No Refunds
| 2007
|
| x
|
There is a bootleg video referred to as
The Austin Incident
, 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 Party (United States)|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:
“
| The presidential run is getting in order. You keep asking me if I'm serious. You have no idea. Let's have fun again.
| ”
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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. Doug then endorsed libertarian-leaning Republican presidential candidate
Ron Paul [8].
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."
[9]
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.
“
| 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.
| ”
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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:
“
| 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 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.
[10]
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
[who?] to believe that plagiarism had taken place, either by the writers of
Real Time with Bill Maher or Maher himself.
Notes
- Doug Stanhope's endorsement of the Free State Project
- Unbookables on IMDB
- "If You're Offended, Then You're Not Listening," The Guardian , July 31, 2006 (accessed September 5, 2006).
- "It'll Blow Your Mind," The Sunday Times , August 20, 2006 (accessed September 5, 2006).
- "Boozy and Brilliant," The Independent , August 11, 2006 (accessed September 5, 2006).
- "[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tools_and_services/specials/article609103.ece " (The Times , August 15, 2006)
- dougstanhope.com
- ronpaul2008.com
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