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Digging Up Mother (Paperback)
Doug Stanhope; Foreword by Johnny Depp
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Doug Stanhope is one of the most critically acclaimed and
stridently unrepentant comedians of his generation. What will
surprise some is that he owes so much of his dark and sometimes
uncomfortably honest sense of humor to his mother, Bonnie. It was
the cartoons in her Hustler magazine issues that molded the
beginnings of his comedic journey, long before he was old enough to
know what to do with the actual pornography. It was Bonnie who
recited Monty Python sketches with him, introduced him to Richard
Pryor, and rescued him from a psychologist when he brought that
brand of humor to school. And it was Bonnie who took him along to
all of her AA meetings, where Doug undoubtedly found inspiration
for his own storytelling. Digging Up Mother follows Doug's absurd,
chaotic, and often obscene life as it intersects with that of his
best friend, biggest fan, and love of his life--his mother. And it
all starts with her death--one of the most memorable and amazing
farewells you will ever read.
As his legions of devoted fans (known as "termites") already know,
Doug Stanhope lives in an interesting world, a "cult legend" who
nonetheless commands an audience that is larger than many
mainstream stars. That's because Stanhope built his career from the
ground up, playing the dive-iest dives and most decrepit
out-of-the-way comedy rooms you can imagine for two decades, in the
process becoming a populist hero to an equally drunken fan base.
This Is Not Fame is the uncensored story of how it happened, full
of debauched tales from the low side of the road as related by a
master comedic storyteller. In his relentless pursuit of non-fame,
Stanhope has done it all, including having to hide out in Alaska
from a raging state senator who was searching every bar to kick his
ass for remarks made about him on the radio; scouring the frozen
streets of Korea trying to procure a prostitute for a certain
Fellow Comedian; taking a job doing gay phone sex just for the
story (and showing up on mushrooms); being booked for a private
backyard party and finding out it's for children; having Johnny
Depp call and tell him he thinks he's a legend, not knowing he's
standing in the rain in a Days Inn parking lot about to play a
sports bar to a crowd of 65 people; pretending to be Johnny Rotten
for an incompetent interviewer just so he'll stop calling; agreeing
to do a stand-up gig--sober and unpaid--for the country of
Iceland's worst criminals; filming his own vasectomy to boost
ticket sales ahead of a tour; appearing on The Jerry Springer Show
posing as a traveling salesman whose wife is leaving him for a
lesbian stripper . . . and so much more (and so much worse). This
book is exactly what Stanhope's fans have been waiting for:
Stanhope unleashed, holding nothing back no matter how
embarrassing, immoral, sordid, or compromising it may be.
Doug Stanhope has been drunkenly stumbling down the back roads and
dark alleys of stand-up comedy for over a quarter of a century,
roads laden with dank bars, prostitutes, cheap drugs, farm animals,
evil dwarfs, public nudity, menacing third-world police, psychotic
breaks, sex offenders, and some understandable suicides. You know,
just for levity. While other comedians were seeking fame, Stanhope
was seeking immediate gratification, dark spectacle, or sometimes
just his pants. Not to say he hasn't rubbed elbows with fame. He's
crashed its party, snorted its coke, and jumped into its pool
naked, literally and often repeatedly--all while artfully dodging
fame himself. Doug spares no legally permissible detail, and his
stories couldn't be told any other way. They're weird,
uncomfortable, gross, disturbing, and fucking funny. This Is Not
Fame is by no means a story of overcoming a life of excess,
immorality, and reckless buffoonery. It's an outright celebration
of it. For Stanhope, the party goes on.
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