From Across the Street

Doug Stanhope’s fixing to kill himself. The method is the problem. The way he figures it, if he’s going to kill himself, he’d better make a spectacular exit. It’s gotta be a good story, or he’ll have wasted his biggest punchline. Performing overseas, he did get one particularly ingenious suggestion from a European fan, but when a comedian commits suicide, he sure as hell isn’t going out as a hack, doing some other guy’s material! And that about sums up Doug Stanhope: he’s living life the way he wants to die, surrounded by the kind of fans who will spend precious hours thinking up newer and better ways for the stage veteran to off himself.

“From Across the Street” finds Stanhope reveling in “his people,” speaking directly to his core audience without any pretense of a mainstream persona. Yes, he says, I’m the guy who ruined “The Man Show.” And yes, he’d ruin it again, twice as much, for half the pay. Yes, he says, he knows his style might seem a little raw to some, but, like fetish porn, it has a dedicated audience and always leaves them thoroughly satisfied. Stanhope’s honest, if dour; hilarious, if depressing; and brilliant, if underappreciated. His new, live record, “From Across the Street,” is now from Stand Up! Records. Just, please, don’t play it for Grandma at the holidays. As Stanhope would say, “She won’t get what I do.”