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.