Doug Stanhope - "Before Turning the Gun on Himself"
Prolific stand up Doug Stanhope drops release number 12: “Before Turning the Gun on Himself” as MP3, CD and DVD.
(First, this review is based on the MP3 version so take that into consideration.)
For those without prior knowledge: If you like your comics dark, Doug Stanhope is your man. Without being a new Bill Hicks, he is slowly filling the void Bill left on my horizon. Its dark, its smart, its courageous, its fresh, its funny. He is definitely a stand up, but he might be something more.
Doug Stanhopes comedy isn’t for everybody. His topics has crawled out of the darkest corners, hope is no where to be found. World is a bad place and the majority of people are problems. All fair. Whats controversial is his use of cursing. You are now warned.
Last years release, the spur-of-the-moment recording “Oslo: Burning the Bridge to Nowhere“, showcased a more relaxed (*drunk*) Stanhope. This time, he is aggressive. Almost 1½ hours of pure, uncensored stand up, its one of the better I heard from him. Not perfect though.
The show has several brilliant bits, especially regarding kids. He hates when friends bring kids to his house or parties, he talks about how a kid costs 250.000$ on average to raise and draws the parallel to other luxury items, compares abortion to evicting squatters. Excellent and very unique material, just awesome.
Check out this official trailer for the show:
Other topics he talks about are Mitch Hedbergs legacy, despising song writers and playwrights, origin of belly dancing, drugs, people not taking his advice seriously, “Obamanomics” and general greed + stupidity.
For the bad part, he got one track that needs singling out: “My Piss Stinks“. I hate it. Its Doug being disgusting without jokes. If you are a middle-aged man with a failing body, there might be some insight… If you buy MP3 version, leave that one out for a better show.
All in all, I recommend this release. Its very dark, but if you can handle that, this is gold.
The Stand-Up Observer 
“My Piss Stinks“ is great, it is like a really disgusting and personal version of “the aristocrats”. You just didn’t get it, but that’s ok.
Ahhhh, I did not make that connection, but now that you mention it, it makes a ton of sense.
I still don’t like the bit, but now I understand the motive, see the perspective. Thanks for your insight, I appreciate it. 🙂