Doug Stanhope: Oslo - Burning the Bridge to Nowhere

Doug Stanhope is one of comedy's underdogs. I was recommended one of his albums based on my appreciation for Bill Hicks, and, if anything, he's even more scathing and self-loathing than Hicks was. He lacks some of the political insight, and has a more everyman approach (he simply hates politics for what it represents, unlike Hicks, who usually had a utopian view beneath it all).

Anyway, Stanhope is best known to the layman as the host who took over The Man Show after the original hosts left. I think it lasted about one season with him as the host and he said in his previous stand-up, "From Across the Street," that he still gets death threats from fans.

Stanhope is known for drinking on-stage, but "Oslo: Burning the Bridge to Nowhere" catches him in a rare moment where you can really tell he's quite drunk and it's not just part of his act. He talks at length about how he thinks he's past his prime as a comedian and that he just doesn't care anymore, and that he's kind of lost his passion for his job. It's kind of sad but refreshingly honest.

The crowd isn't too great and his act is more scattershot and rambling than it typically is, and thus, this is probably one of his least-funny recordings; it is, conversely, one of the more interesting. The approach is sort of similar to Andrew Dice Clay's "Day the Laughter Died" (the infamous routine where he went onstage without jokes and simply berated his audience for over an hour), but Clay ended up being a phony and Stanhope has already established himself. Here you can witness the fall of a great comedian who has lost concern for anything. Hopefully he bounces back on his next stand-up recording, but this was worth a listen.

If as suggested this was a "spur of the moment" set up as implied - it was AMAZING. If not it is still hilarious. Doug's presentation is always believable. In this Oslo venue, however, you have to wonder if the audience really "gets it". By all appearances, not only do they DO "get it" but the show makes it seem as though the audience is more on the inside of the jokes than those of us not fortunate enough to have been there.

It's kind of out of focus at times, the crowd isn't pretty, and the lighting is reminiscent on early John Holmes productions, but the result is a snapshot of one of the best stand-ups today.

Hailing from the Saigon of Arizona, Bisbee; Stanhope is not one to shy away from taboo topics, in fact he embraces them. His material delves into a drunken philosophy that is brilliant and simple at the same time. Stanhope reminds us that we have the power inside of us to rebel against the system.

Or just have fun, and don't shy away from a good time.

If you want to see a good representation of what it's like to see Doug on a random night, grab this DVD. You may not get the perfect edits of a 52 minute HBO special, but you will get Doug Stanhope in Norway, as important a statement of time as Intolerance.