Probably best known for co-hosting the final seasons of "The Man Show" and one "Girls Gone Wild" video, Stanhope is also a touring stand-up comedy machine. By his own count, Stanhope has hit 43 states and four countries so far this year.
He’s also got a DVD of his recent Showtime special, "No Refunds," and an abandoned run to be the Libertarian presidential candidate for ’08. (Turned out it would be illegal to campaign on the same stage where he was getting paid to be funny.) Metromix writer John Graham talked with Doug as he headed to a gig.
I hate to start with a Wikipedia question, but that’s just the kind of research I do, my man. Your bio says you’ve got a development deal for a Family Feud kind of show?(Cough, laugh) No, people always fuck with that page. I’ve got to get rid of that. It’s not even that funny. I don’t know how to do Wikipedia or I’d add to it myself, but yeah, people on my message board always go on there. For years, it said I was on ABC’s "The View."
After The Man Show, I haven’t seen you on TV too much. Is TV avoiding you or are you avoiding it?
I’m avoiding it. I left L.A. right after "The Man Show." Unless it’s something like the Showtime special …
A little looser?
Yeah, no censorship. We just shot a pilot in the UK and all of their channels are basically like HBO so far as language and content go.
What do you think of the UK’s view of us? When I was over there last, it seems like they thought we would all be either Friends or Jerry Springer.
Well, it all depends on you you’re hanging out with, but Americans do have a tendency to fit the stereotypes that they’re hated for. I mean, nobody likes our government, including most of us. And as far as culture goes, how many busloads of fat American tourists complaining about “I can’t get a good ham sandwich over here” are you going to tolerate? We’re spoiled in this country, so tourists go over there and they just fucking complain, like I do.
How long ago did you wrap up your presidential campaign?
We were still going up until May and then it all collapsed … but it was making me unfun and miserable to be around.
This was kind of a serious effort, right? Not like Stephen Colbert.
We put a lot of effort into it and the Libertarians didn’t, and they still don’t really, have a candidate worth mentioning. But Ron Paul, that’s a guy who, if you’re a Libertarian, he believes it all. He’s just running as a Republican.
How much of your material on a given night is the same as last night?
I don’t want you to hear something you just bought. We just put that Showtime thing out in August, so ninety-five percent of what I do on stage is stuff you won’t hear in a recording.
Is it painful to have to say goodbye to all that material?
No, no … by the time I record something, I’m fucking sick of saying it. I get tired of myself really quick, so I’m always desperate to have something new to talk about. It’s so pointless to write “topical.” CNN, Fox News … all the news is “the most important thing in the world,” but in three days, it’s forgotten. I’ve got some Senator Craig material that makes me feel like I’m doing fucking Nixon jokes.
You’re playing a lot more bars than comedy clubs.
The rock and roll venues are just so much more fun, so much more adrenaline and electricity. You go to a comedy club, it’s like going to a fucking TGI Friday’s. People act like they’re going to see a movie. They know they’re going to sit there for ninety minutes and that’s it. You go to a bar, where people are going to be hanging around anyway, it’s more chaos.
I assume that when you get out on stage, you want a fair amount of people out there who aren’t going to agree with you.
I always try to split my audience. Just keep making it smaller and smaller until, one day, I only have my manager in the audience and then I’ll find something to piss him off and then I can quit.
It’s got to be nice to get up on stage, whether they agree with you or not, and speak your mind.
They’ll all agree with me eventually if you leave them in that seat long enough.
