Doug Stanhope: “From Across The Street,” & now from across the pond as BBC comedy correspondent
With all of the talk at Sundance and everywhere else in the past year about how Louis CK is such a great stand-up comedian who is able to make us laugh while sometimes delving into dark and offensive territory, I thought it's about time you all took another look at comedian Doug Stanhope. Stanhope is making you confront your miserable lives and the most offensive things, too, but from the fringes of the comedy world. Why is that? And how can we change that? How about by opening your ears and eyes to what he's doing lately. I talked to Doug Stanhope in November about where he feels his career has led him, but since then, he has started contributing regular comedy correspondent pieces for the BBC Four satire program, Newswipe. Here is his recent piece about America's late-night news and where we get our news these days, and also why he hates the topical comedy prevalent in late-night TV: His report from last week's episode looked at how modern media turns freak shows into celebrities. And on his new CD on Stand Up! records, "From Across The Street," Stanhope opens his 58-minute set from North Carolina's Cape Fear with a joke about how child pornography suffers, relatively speaking, from a lack of appreciation within show business, notes immediately afterward how he's not for everyone, and within a minute,...
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