This here is some great audio of Doug Stanhope talking about hecklers and other fun stuff. [News Tribune]

There is a friggin’ book about Russian comedians! Ok, actually, it looks as though it’s a 20-page pamphlet, which makes more sense. Regardless, you can buy this thing, which features Eugene Mirman. [Amazon]

In Kyle and Kevin Cease’s latest viral video, two pornstars do some licking, a little peeling and a lot of… well, you’ll just have to see for yourself. [Atom]

Maz Jobrani was a guest on NPR’s game show Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Check out the audio here. [NPR]

This is a great video interview with Jim Jeffries. We would’ve blogged it earlier in the week and embedded the video for you, but the a-holes who run the news site it comes from disabled that option. [STV]

A look at stand-up comedy from the 1800s to 2010 (that’s this year). [Huffington Post]

Comedian Don Jamieson, co-host of VH1’s That Metal Show is contributing his musical chops to a cover song album dedicated to fat women. [MySpace]

Eva Mendes stars in her own sex tape. Or, does she? [Funny Or Die]

A popular Chinese comic’s assistant beat up a television reporter. And said comic is totally backing his assistant up. [CRIEnglish]

Some dude running for mayor of Gary, IN has the support of comedian Michael Coylar. Thank god! [PRLog]

Kyle Cease, the comedian who recently came under fire by Doug Stanhope for his stand up comedy boot camp classes, released a video featuring himself as Tony Hayward, beloved BP CEO.

In this Atom.com original video, Cease/Hayward apologizes for the oil spill, but in true BP fashion it doesn’t quite seem sincere. Cease nonchalantly throws garbage into the pristine lake behind him, gets upset at the duck walking on the dock with him, and gets off topic by telling the boom operator how to score chicks.

Check it out, because 10 Internet cents from all BP Internet parodies will go toward cleaning up the spill.*

*Not really, that’s not how the Internet works

MONTREAL — Earlier today, Doug Stanhope popped into the Hyatt’s lounge here, ground central for the Just For Laughs comedy festival. It’s noteworthy because Stanhope isn’t one of the many comics performing here. In fact, the road horse comedian trained it up to Montreal for two reasons: to throw a massive party at a car wash (which he did with great success, by many accounts) and to kick off his Canadian tour; you could check out the dates here.

Doug was kind enough to spend a few minutes chatting with me. So, you should check out how that went. Enjoy!

When road warrior comedian Doug Stanhope speaks, there’s never any question about what he really means. Case in point, a new blog post on Stanhope’s website outlining his thoughts on stand-up comedy classes, and the people who run them. He has articulate, unkind words for comedian Kyle Cease, instructional writer Judy Carter, industry insider Jeff Singer, and several others.

Here’s a taste of what you’re in for:

Say what you will about any Carlos Mencia, Dane Cook or Jeff Dunham but I would lay Rubenesque on my side, chin cupped in my limp hand blowing the lot of them before I would say one positive thing about anyone who steals money by teaching a comedy class.

Any fan of Stanhope knows that even when you don’t agree 100 percent with what he’s saying, he makes great points. A lot of time you end up agreeing with what he has to say more than you thought you would, and that’s part of what makes him one of the most intriguing comics working today. He even offers his own tongue-in-cheek comedy class alternative, Doug Stanhope’s Comedy Death Camp.

The post is smart and laugh-out-loud funny, but some might say it’s a little over the top. I’m sure a lot of comedy classes are complete rip-offs – and the particular one that draws most of Stanhope’s criticism definitely sounds like one – but are they all? Don’t some stand-up classes just function as a place for people with no experience in comedy to try out material in front of a supportive crowd i.e. classmates?

Let us know what you think below, and definitely visit dougstanhope.com to experience the tirade in all of its glory.

In what I can only describe as one of the most pointless and ill-conceived analyses on the subject of comedy, Troy Media yesterday, in a pair of op-eds (“American Comedians Can’t Hold a Candle to their Canadian Counterparts” and “Why Americans Love Canadian Comedians”) makes the point that Canadian comedians are better than American comedians. “Better”— as if it can be quantified. I actually had to make sure, before writing what’s below, that Troy Media was not part of the Onion News Network.

To be clear, I’m not annoyed that Troy Media – an online news service that covers “issues shaping Canada and the world” – thinks Canadian comedians are funnier than American comedians. I’m annoyed that as a news organization, they feel that this is something that can be proven; they take an art as complex, personal and subjective as stand-up comedy and attempt – failingly – to compare the two camps (as if there are two camps and not just comedians from two different countries) as if they’re comparing sedans or bathroom cleaning products.

That said and out of the way, the most disturbing parts of the editorials are the reasons they give for Canadian comedians’ dominance.

This is my favorite: Canadian comics have “no need to spill their psychological guts.” It continues:

Why? Because they don’t have the need to talk about the psychological horrors of their upbringings the way American comedians do. Canadians are either free of them or throw themselves into their work and hide behind their characters in an attempt to avoid confronting them.

Listen, there are many American comedians that I love to watch who do not feel the need to share their inner most scars – see Brian Regan, Jim Gaffigan – but the comedians who bare their souls artfully are the ones that fuel my passion for covering comedy and embedding myself into their world. Guys like Doug Stanhope, Jim Norton, Marc Maron and Greg Giraldo would no doubt fall into the “spilling of their psychological guts” categories Troy Media disdains. And that’s exactly why those comedians resonate so powerfully with their fans.

Read the rest of this entry »

Criminally underrated stand-up comedian Tom Rhodes has very quietly launched his own podcast through thechannelproject.com, a podcast hub of sorts. Simply titled Tom Rhodes Radio, the audio cast will find the already well-traveled comedian visiting spots all over the world and chatting with not only his comedian friends but also his family and colorful locals.

If you know anything about Rhodes, his passion for performing comedy is equal to his passion for learning about other cultures, meeting new people and simply finding happiness in this otherwise fucked up world. We assume all of that will be part of Tom Rhodes Radio.

The first episode went live on March 10 and features comedian and longtime friend of Tom’s Doug Stanhope, who also appears in Tom’s latest comedy DVD and travelogue Rhode Scholar (which we named the #1 comedy DVD of 2009). The second episode, featuring Tom’s Uncle Bob just went live yesterday. We strongly advise you to check both out and continue following Tom’s adventures. You can find both episodes here.

Sick of the bloated yes-man quality of 21^st century news reporting? Leave it to England to stir the pot. Starting in January, irreverent comedy extraordinaire Doug Stanhope will join BBC 4’s Newswipe. The show, hosted by journalist and comedian Charlie Brooker, will allow Stanhope to report and air his grievances on “stories that are driving him bonkers,” according to a report on Chortle.

“The return of Newswipe is both exciting and daunting, because it nearly killed me last time,” says Brooker. “Maybe this time it’ll finish the job. It’s hard to say precisely what we’ll be featuring, because I can’t predict the future, but hopefully we won’t be picking apart coverage of either an intercontinental nuclear war or a global ebola outbreak. Whatever happens, we’ll be staring at it with amusement and horror.”

British TV should be an interesting venue for the subversive yet very American Stanhope. He was recently booed at the Leeds Festival for making fun of Jews and the Royal Family. If you want a taste of what the show’s audience is in for, check out a track from Stanhope’s new album, From Across The Street, available now.

Tomorrow, the mighty Stand Up! Records will release the mighty Doug Stanhope’s new album, From Across the Street. We’ve been listening to it for days already, just to make sure that our initial opinion of the disc remained true through repeated listens. So, after a very scientific process of playing the album and laughing and then playing it again and laughing and then thinking about the album and laughing, we’ve arrived at our official decision: the new Doug Stanhope album is excellent – one of the best stand-up releases of the year – and you should buy it immediately.

If you’re familiar with Stanhope’s gritty ways, nothing will surprise you about From Across the Street; you will once again find comfort in chaos as Stanhope pours brutal honesty upon his audience: he doesn’t want to know if he’s dying of a terminal illness; one time, a die hard fan killed himself after seeing Stanhope live; he hated his tenure – but loved the money – on Comedy Central’s The Man Show.

For those less familiar with the veteran comedian, well, now you know what you’re in for. And if it’s still not clear, check out the track below from the new album! Also, be on the look out for our in-depth interview with Stanhope later this week!

Ok, now buy the album by clicking the image below.

It’s that time a week again when we proudly announce who’s going to appear on Marc Maron’s new-ish podcast WTF. I guess you can call us a sponsor of sorts– or at the very least an occasional financial supporter and tremendous fan of the show.

Regardless, this week on WTF brings in guest Doug Stanhope; it’s the first time Marc and Doug really sat down to have a heart to heart. You’re not going to want to miss that. Word has it, that Janeane Garofalo also makes a stop by the show. On Thursday’s episode, Marc welcomes Daily Show correspondent and stand-up comedian Wyatt Cenac. And for a special bonus on both shows? Marc’s dad, a surgeon, who has given some questionable medical advice on past shows, will drop by.

Check out the official WTF site right here. Get some WTF merchandise for the holidays, download all the episodes you’ve missed. That’s it. You’ve got your orders. Now enjoy some great effing comedy podcasting.

During a weekend of New York Comedy Festival shows at huge theater venues like Town Hall and Carnegie Hall, there was something different happening downtown and appropriately off the radar. Doug Stanhope was doing a five-show, three-night stand at Comix.

Stanhope, a 20-year veteran of the underground comedy scene, is probably best known to people outside of his cult following as a former co-host of The Man Show. I went into the show not knowing much about the guy’s comedy, and I was completely blown away. Stanhope definitely comes from the offensive and pissed-off school of comedy. He also deals out brutal honesty, telling stories from his drink and drug-addled past (and present). Having seen a ton of comics who talk about the same things, that description makes him sound predictable. Not the case at all, and that’s what makes him so fucking funny.

I try to be open to anyone that can make me laugh, but unfortunately, a head shot of a dude in a jersey usually strikes me as kind of a red flag. I’m an idiot. Stanhope is hilarious. However many times I’ve been turned off by comics that cover similar ground, it’s been because they just don’t back up their grievances with big laughs. Stanhope does. Any short clips you’ve seen him in don’t do him justice. You have to watch him for a full set. He tricks you into thinking he’s a jackass, then catches you off guard by saying something sharp, insightful and ridiculously funny.

He’s also great at doing long bits. He’ll tell you what he thinks about a topic, and just when you think it’s about to devolve into unstructured rambling (he downed two beers over the course of his set), he drives his point home with a huge comic payoff. His punch lines aren’t “lines”; they’re machine blasts that go on and on and on.

His bit about sex, and how isn’t the most intimate thing two people can share, was so good I can’t really see anyone else having to talk about the subject ever again. I’m afraid to use quotation marks and get it wrong, but he talked about taking his friend home from the hospital after she’d had a mastectomy, and how intimate was. “After sharing that, I didn’t say, ‘Let’s take this to the next level. Let me hunch over you in a seahorse position…” His impression of a pathetic male orgasm is hilarious, and sadly accurate. I was slapping my table (my seat was too cramped for me to slap my knee).

Stanhope’s on the road into December. Do yourself a favor and see a show. His dates are on his website.