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Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Arts / News Comedian Doug Stanhope coming to the Q.C.
Posted By Lesli Frazier on Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 3:02 PM
Comedian Doug Stanhope claims he has “a lot to talk about, but very little to say.” After four recorded CDs and two seasons on UK’s breakout television show NEWSWIPE, Stanhope will grace the Queen City with his unconventional humor June 5 at The Milestone. “Show starts at 9 p.m., wear a vest. Kevlar I mean,” he says. When asked about Saturday‘s show he adds, “It’s just this rotten, little rank punk rock club. Tell them you’re with me and they won’t rape you, at first. It’ll make every other Saturday night pale in comparison.”
I had the pleasure of exchanging a few laughs with Stanhope.
Creative Loafing: What makes you different from other comedians?
Doug Stanhope: I’m way fucking better. [laughs] I’m not; it’s a different type of comedy. It’s less deliberate, more chaotic. It might be less funny, depending on how you like your comedy. If you watch American Idol for the good singers, you should probably see another comic. But if you like to watch the train wrecks and you find that funny, then you’d like me.
Where do you get ideas for your material?
Wherever I can now. After 20 years of doing this, I’m buying it from fucking hobos at the bus station if I can — wherever, vulgar nights out partying and piecing together what you can recollect from the night before. Shit you see on television that no one else seems to see is wrong. Other people’s tragedy, your own tragedy.
Is there anything too controversial too talk about during a show?
Yeah, I can’t talk about it though. [laughs] No, there’s nothing. I try to stay away from inherently boring subjects. There’s not enough things controversial to talk about anymore as opposed to the opposite. There’s not enough things that you feel are too sacrosanct or too touchy to bring up.
Why do you think you have had success in the UK?
There are more miserable pricks over there. The level of misery and discontent and disenchantment is a lot higher and that suits what I do because it’s a pretty dark and misanthropic type of show. People over here, young and pretty and 360 channels of distraction, they don’t understand that level of discontent.
You’re known to drink during a show; do you have a preferred alcoholic drink?
It depends. If I’m at home, I drink vodka. On the road, I drink beer and occasionally Jagermeister shots. I know how much I’m drinking when I drink those. I know how much alcohol is in a beer, but if you order a vodka grapefruit, you don’t know if they put a shot in there or four shots. On the road I need to know I’m drinking at a level I can still maintain a decent show. I mean 20 years of drinking every night, some of them are bound to go array. [laughs] But that’s how I know how to have a perfect mix now. It takes a long time to get that kind of a chef’s recipe put together.
Do you ever think about retiring from comedy?
Yeah, that was about 2004. Unfortunately, I probably won't die as quickly as me and a lot of other people expect. [laughs] I think I better keep working. It is on my bucket list of things to do, quitting comedy. That would be near the top. Just because there’s such a freeing feeling of going, you know what, I quit. I’ve never had it with this job. But every other job I had before this were shit jobs, and there’s always that great feeling when you go fuck you, I quit.
Doug Stanhope will perform at The Milestone on Saturday, June 5, Tickets are $20 in advance and can be purchased here.
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