Doug Stanhope

Douglas Gene “Doug” Stanhope (born March 25, 1967) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and author known for his cynical, controversial comedy style and libertarian political views.

He 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 Festival Fringe in Scotland, where he won the Strathmore Press Award in 2002.

Stanhope was the winner of the 1995 San Francisco International Comedy Competition where he edged out Dane Cook in a three-week contest.

Stanhope had his own prank show on Fox called Invasion of Hidden Cameras in 2002. He also was one of the pranksters on Spy TV In 2003 and 2004, Stanhope co-hosted the fifth and sixth seasons of The Man Show with Joe Rogan. He hosted his own radio show on SIRIUS Satellite Radio in 2005.

That year, Stanhope hosted Girls Gone Wild: America Uncovered. When asked what it was like working with Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis, Stanhope admitted “He’s pure, unadulterated evil,” and “The most awful human being I’ve ever met in all of my time in the entertainment business.”

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. The Unbookables’ first CD, Morbid Obscenity, also featuring Andrist, Rouse, Lynn Shawcroft, and Banjo Randy, released July 4, 2006, on Stand Up! Records.

Stanhope appeared in the film The Aristocrats, telling a caustic joke to a baby. He 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 Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny, Ireland; his extended bit saying that Irish men commit pedophilia because of the ugliness of Irish women earned a hostile reaction from the crowd, the press, and the festival organizers.

He appeared alongside Rouse at the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh on August 2006 to 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. During his Edinburgh performance he included a segment that some regarded as anti-Semitic. Stanhope responded in his 2007 Showtime special, No Refunds, by elaborating on the incident.

He self-published a book, Fun with Pedophiles: The Best of Baiting in October 2006, which includes several instances of his setting up a false Internet instant-messaging persona to offer sex, and then verbally 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 on March 12; and one for the UK’s Channel 4 Comedy Lab, filmed at the Caves in Edinburgh, Scotland titled “Doug Stanhope: Go Home”. The Showtime special, titled 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.

Stanhope lives in the Warren tract of Bisbee, Arizona, near the US–Mexico border in a small house with musician/author Amy “Bingo” Bingaman. – Wikipedia

“I thought we could maybe get on the ticket of the Libertarian Party. But people were either amused or horrified at the idea of me representing their party.”