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.