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About Doug Stanhope
Working the stand-up scene since the late 90’s, Doug Stanhope’s comedy ranges from true-life graphic perversion to volatile social criticism. Opinionated, brutally honest and shockingly uninhibited, Doug Stanhope is a two-time winner of Time Out New York’s “Best Comedy Performance of the Year”.
With an impressive stand-up career to date, Doug Stanhope has appeared at numerous major comedy festivals over the years including Montreal Just For Laughs, Aspen US Comedy Arts, Chicago Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where he won the Strathmore Press Award for Best Act of the Fringe in his debut year.
Selected by both Variety and the Hollywood Reporter as one of the Top Ten Comics To Watch, comedian Doug Stanhope has released four albums and three DVDs including “No Refunds” on Showtime in 2008. Elsewhere he has hosted The Man Show on Comedy Central and made appearances on “The Howard Stern Show”, “Comedy Central Presents”, “Premium Blend”, NBC’s “Late Friday”, “Spy TV” BBC’s “Floor Show Live”. In 2010, he was the ‘Voice of America’ on BBC’s popular news revue satire, “Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe”. And whatever Doug Stanhope does next, you can be sure he’ll be breaking all the rules, in his true rebel comedy style.
WATCH DOUG STANHOPE: NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Cult hero Doug Stanhope brings his abrasive, anarchistic set on poverty, American politics, warfare and mental health to his hometown of Brisbee, Arizona. Battling ISIS to recruit the angry and disenfranchised to his comic cause, this is Doug Stanhope at his most maverick.
Reviews and Awards
Doug Stanhope was winner of Time Out New York’s “Best Comedy Performance of the Year”. He also won the Strathmore Press Award at the Edinburgh Festival for Best Act of the Fringe in his debut year.
‘Sharp, off color, and howlingly funny’
The San Francisco Chronicle
‘If you’re easily offended, stay home… But if you like your comedy rough, raw, and rowdy, there’s no one better than Doug Stanhope’
Austin Chronicle
‘The charm, don’t-give-a-damn swagger and aggressive intelligence that make for important, exciting comedy’
The Guardian
‘Ask anyone whose opinion matters, and they’ll tell you Doug Stanhope is one of the top ten stand-ups in the world today’
Chortle
Doug Stanhope Tickets
Information on Doug Stanhope’s upcoming gigs and live shows can be found here
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Biography
Described as depraved, rude, hostile, and raunchy, when comedian Doug Stanhope was asked by On Magazine what the best description he’d ever heard of himself was, his response was that of a true misanthrope: “ ‘Visionary douchebag’ was my favorite quote from the UK press. I was also described as a ‘miserabilist’ which I had to look up. Someone who is only happy when they are miserable. That description made me quite happy, which made me miserable. And then I was fine. I’ve also been described as being part of the lineage of great American comics who have turned their demons into assets.”
Born in 1967 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Doug Stanhope quit school at fifteen, working in telemarketing before he began his stand-up comedy career in 1990. At the age of 23, Doug Stanhope performed at his first open mic night at a Las Vegas bar, The Escape Lounge II. He developed his act in Las Vegas, “performing jack-off jokes for free drinks” before moving to Phoenix, Arizona, where he landed a gig as a house MC at a comedy club.
Comedian Doug Stanhope settled in West Hollywood, performing in regular spots at Hollywood Improv or The Comedy Store, before he became based in Playa del Rey and worked in clubs outside the city centre. In 1995, Stanhope won the San Francisco International Comedy Competition against Dane Cook in a three-week contest, a breakthrough that enabled him to move to Los Angeles and step his comedy career up another gear.
By August 2002, Doug Stanhope was making his Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut, winning the Strathmore Press Award (as voted by 40 press critics) for his week-long run. Following the run, Stanhope signed with his longtime manager Brian Hennigan. In 2003 and 2004, Stanhope co-hosted the fifth and sixth seasons of The Man Show with Joe Rogan and a year later made his move to settle in his now home town of Bisbee, Arizona.
At the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Doug Stanhope announced “A Day with Doug”, an opportunity to spend an entire day with him for £7,349, the average amount that comedians lose when they are booked at one of the four biggest venues at the festival. His live show was placed in the top 5 of the 20 Best Live Shows of 2009 by London’s The Guardian newspaper.
Doug Stanhope’s seventh album, From Across The Street, was released on November 24, 2009 and in 2010, he recorded a series of vignettes for the news revue show Newswipe with Charlie Brooker, later doing the same during Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe as “the voice of America”. In 2010, Doug Stanhope signed to rock and metal label Roadrunner Records to launch their new comedy label, Roadrunner Comedy. A year later, the album Oslo: Burning The Bridge To Nowhere was released, supported with an international tour, which included a 25-night residency at the Leicester Square Theatre in London.
In 2012, Stanhope released his comedy special Before Turning the Gun on Himself, recorded in Salt Lake City. Not long after, Doug Stanhope also debuted The Doug Stanhope Podcast, recorded out of his home in Bisbee, Arizona. More recently, Doug Stanhope has released his third book, This is Not Fame, a collection of honest and unfiltered stories about travelling on the comedy circuit and being an infamous comedian.And so what’s next for Doug Stanhope? With a comedy career already spanning three decades, will he go on and on? In a 2015 interview with The Guardian he quips – “If I have to. I’m not a guy that gets off on it. I don’t like going on stage, it terrifies me. Not like stagefright, but eventually everyone’s washed up. You can’t name many comics over 50 that are relevant. But, at the same time, if you get to a point where you’re Blue Öyster Cult and you have a fanbase, then maybe you’re happy.”
Get More Doug Stanhope
Want more of Doug Stanhope? You’re in luck – his full stand-up comedy special is available to watch on NextUp – a digital comedy club where you can stream instantly over 120 comedy specials from some of the exciting names in comedy. Oh, and there’s a 7 day free trial.