Doug Stanhope is the most pissed-off, depressed comic to consistantly sell out mid-sized venues while essentially cutting out the agents and ticket agencies by doing it himself. (He apologized to the audience that this show was one of 2 on his current tour thru Ticketmaster. He did offer to blow anybody after the show to give extra value for the added ticket fee...) His show at the Trocadero in Philly was vintage DS. Bits that killed while seeming stream of consciousness. Real-time stuff: ripping a new hole in a front row dude filming w/ camera phone. Not because he was 'illicitly filming', but because while he was filming life, real life was going on... Later he stopped dead to call out 2 idiots in the front row who were texting during his entire set. "You f*#king trust fund-silver spoon babies had daddy get you front row seats so you could engage in mindless chitter-chat the whole show..."
The cool thing about the way DS does it, everybody there is either a Stanhope fan or brought by somebody who thinks they'll appreciate his depraved humor. (I took a friend instead of my wife...) I think I can go out on a limb and say that almost everyone went away laughing about how f*#ked up the world is today...a hey hey.
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