STAND-UP TUESDAYS: Doug Stanhope

March 6th, 2012

Angie Frissore

Stand-Up Tuesdays is a weekly comedy spotlight written by the wonderfully talented Angie Frissore. Covering both known and unknown comics, Stand-up Tuesdays is your new source for all things funny.

This week, Angie puts a spotlight on Doug Stanhope. If you or your comedy troupe would like to be featured on Stand-Up Tuesdays, please email utgjames@gmail.com.

Today marks the release of Doug Stanhope’s much-anticipated album Before Turning the Gun on Himself, which was recorded at The Complex in Salt Lake City, Utah in July 2011 – and I couldn’t be more delighted. In what’s being referred to as a follow-up to last year’s Oslo: Burning the Bridges to Nowhere, we’re given a fresh dose of the brutally raw and honest comedian at his finest.

Stanhope has a unique ability to take society as a whole and cut it down to size. He’s known for pointing out the sheer stupidity that is carried out in our daily lives and certainly isn’t one to back down from his opinion. In Before Turning the Gun on Himself, he talks about everything from Dr. Drew to what’s wrong with art communities – but unlike some other rant-type comedians, Stanhope’s views actually have a good amount of logic to them. At one point, he simply repeats the last line of a joke about five times, momentarily confusing the hell out of everyone.

“I’m just trying to point out to you how lazy song writers are,” Stanhope quips. “You have three minutes to fill a song and you say the same shit over and over and over. I have to do an hour and ten minutes up here, every word has to be different.”

Despite what he believes, Stanhope’s a pretty smart guy. Couple that with his I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude, and you have a comedian who can pretty much get away with saying or doing anything on stage – and the worst that will happen is you’ll sit back and say, “Well, he’s got a point.”

Now living in Bisbee, Arizona, Stanhope tells his audience what it’s like to live in such a small town – or more specifically, an artist community. He mercilessly picks apart the type of jobless ‘artists’ that reside there, and launches into an hilarious tirade about why he hates art that has an underlying message.

“The people who need to hear messages are dumb as shit. The masses of humanity are dumb as shit. Just say what you mean.”

Stanhope isn’t simply relying on the shock value of his act – he is able to jump from topic to topic seamlessly yet suddenly bring it all back together with one reference to an earlier joke. He knows what is funny, and more importantly, what’s downright ridiculous, and impeccably combines the two to present a polished, gut-busting set that actually gives the audience something to think about beyond simply dick-and-fart jokes.

Even as he rants about owning one’s body and having the right to do any drug or get as morbidly obese as one wishes, he slyly works in an absolutely perfect view on a controversial subject.

“Your body is your own private property,” Stanhope states, “you find something living rent-free in your uterus, evict that motherfucker – this is private property! There are no squatting rights – pay rent or quit!”

Doug Stanhope’s Before Turning the Gun on Himself proves why the comedian is being lauded by everyone from Ricky Gervais to Louis C.K. Available on iTunes via Roadrunner Comedy, pick it up today and join Stanhope in no longer giving a shit.