Doug Stanhope: Difference between revisions

Doug Stanhope
Doug Stanhope
	Stanhope on stage at Charlies, Manchester, England, October 2006
Birth name	Douglas Gene Stanhope
Born	March 25, 1967 (age 57); Worcester, Massachusetts
Medium	stand-up, television
Nationality	American
Years active	1990 - present[1]
Genres	Black comedy, Observational comedy, Satire/Political satire
Subject(s)	American culture, current events, recreational drug use, human sexuality, religion, libertarianism
Spouse	Renee Morrison[2] (2003-present) (separated)[3]
Website	dougstanhope.com

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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. According to his official MySpace page, Stanhope is an Atheist and 0'0" tall.

Career

Stanhope's career began in 1990 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is widely known for hosting the final 22 episodes of Comedy Central's The Man Show in 2003 and 2004 and a Girls Gone Wild video. He also produced and starred in "Invasion of the Hidden Cameras" (a project for the Fox Broadcasting network). 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 Comedy Competition. He has released several CDs. He claims that his appearance on the BBC television show, "Live Floor Show," was fueled by "ecstasy". According to Stanhope “TV is just for the money; live performance is where it’s at.”

He has established a group of touring comics known as The Unbookables featuring artists such as Andy Andrist, Sean Rouse, Brett Erickson, Travis Lipski, Brendon Walsh, Norman Wilkerson, and Brian Potrafka. The Unbookables' first CD, Morbid Obscenity, also featuring Andrist, Rouse, Lynn Shawcroft, Mr. Arthur Hinty and Banjo Randy, was released July 4, 2006, on Stand Up! Records.

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 (misreportedly) - "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 cancelled.^[1]

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.^[2]^[3]

Stanhope joined fellow Unbookable Norman Wilkerson and Mancuinan comedian Dave Bishop at the Manchester Comedy Festival in October along with a two week residency at the Soho Theatre in London.

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 December 26, 2006.

2007 has seen Stanhope tape two TV specials - in the US for Showtime, recorded at The Gotham Comedy Club in New York City March 12th and the other for the UK's Channel 4 Comedy Lab, filmed at the Caves in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Showtime special, entitled No Refunds, premiered August 3rd and was released on DVD August 14th.

In October 2007, Doug signed on to host and executive produce an "edgy" version of Family Feud for Fox. Described as "The Family Feud with a Jerry Springer twist", the show "would pit families against each other for basic needs. Rather than giving bloated, middle class America any more cash to stuff its face with, this Feud is going to give Americans what they really need: diapers, food stamps, books without pictures, and regular trips to the dentist."

By January of 2008, all production on the show was believed to have ended. The official reason given was that production deadlines set in the contract could not be met because of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Although the show ultimately failed to reach the airwaves, it is believed to have paved the way for the reimagining of other popular game shows of the past, including Dave Attell's relaunch of The Gong Show for Comedy Central and BET's "The Newlywed Game" with Katt Williams.

In April of 2008, Stanhope performed two shows in one night at The Rivoli in Toronto, home of the famous ALTdot COMedy Lounge. During the first show, he took ecstasy given to him by an audience member and is rumored to have felt good.

Discography/videography

Titel	Year	CD	DVD
The Great White Stanhope	1998	x
Sicko	1999	x
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. After consulting political advisors, he stated on his website, "...officially - I am reconsidering my presidential run while my exploratory team looks into the viability of such an endeavor." [4] 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 candidacy during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show show May 3rd, 2007, but May 1st 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 [6].

Notes

^ "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).

External links

[1] "If You're Offended, Then You're Not Listening," The Guardian , July 31, 2006 (accessed September 5, 2006).

[2] "It'll Blow Your Mind," The Sunday Times , August 20, 2006 (accessed September 5, 2006).

[3] "Boozy and Brilliant," The Independent , August 11, 2006 (accessed September 5, 2006).

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-'''Douglas Gene Stanhope''' (born [[March 25]], [[1967]]) is an [[United States|American]] [[stand-up comedy|stand-up comedian]] who currently lives in the small U.S.-Mexico [[border town]] of [[Bisbee, Arizona]]. According to his official MySpace page, Stanhope is an [[Atheist]] who is 0'0" tall.
+'''Douglas Gene Stanhope''' (born [[March 25]], [[1967]]) is an [[United States|American]] [[stand-up comedy|stand-up comedian]] who currently lives in the small U.S.-Mexico [[border town]] of [[Bisbee, Arizona]]. According to his official MySpace page, Stanhope is an [[Atheist]] and 0'0" tall.
 ==Career==