Doug Stanhope Sounds Off on the British, Bill Hicks and Why He Loathes Comedy Clubs

Doug Stanhope is a sick man: a sufferer of umbilical hernia, a surly boozer, recidivist smoker, champion of recreational drugs, former Libertarian candidate for President, rambling social satirist and stand-up veteran who's crawling out of his hole in the Arizona desert to play the Firebird on Saturday night.

He managed to call Daily RFT as planned, but did so an hour late, thanks to an unexpected visitor...

Daily RFT: Did you say the lead singer of [trash-metal band] Exodus is coming to your house down in Bisbee, AZ?

Doug Stanhope: Yeah, he emailed a couple years ago and said he was a fan. We've swapped emails back and forth. So now [he and his girlfriend] are comin' down, I don't know if they're staying or not.

But he doesn't drink, so that's creepy.


This is one of the few sanctioned social events I'll attend where people don't drink. And we're cleaning up the house, for a fucking death metal guy. It's a death metal guy, and I'm fucking mopping the floor.

You recently quit smoking. How's that going?
 
I'm smoking as we speak, sir. I got one of those electronic cigarettes and it actually works pretty well. Now I can smoke like in airports. I end up smoking twice as much.

Some of your best work, in our opinion, has been your ranting on BBC's Newswipe.

The BBC knows how to do TV. They run six episodes and stop, quit while they're ahead. They're not like American sitcoms going into their 19th season, and they have to add a fucking alien or some random child they had out of wedlock that appears on the scene.