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.

About the Author

Doug Stanhope is a veteran of over twenty-five years of stand-up comedy, a stalwart of the hard-drinking, chain-smoking, literally dying breed. With a litany of dubious television credits, he has successfully dodged mainstream fame using his uncompromising brand of stand-up to build a cult-like following around the world. He's won numerous accolades, including being voted the best show of the entire Edinburgh Festival by the British press on his 2002 UK debut, and has recorded over a dozen comedy specials.

Stanhope tours extensively in North America and overseas, described by the New York Times as "an acidic blend of prickly hostility, elaborately articulated self-loathing, and righteous anger" and who Ricky Gervais says "might be the most important stand-up working today." A regular guest on the Howard Stern Show and appointed the Voice of America for Charlie Brooker's BBC TV Wipe shows, Stanhope continues to be an armchair revolutionary for the excluded, ignored, forgotten, and wasted of society, rallying them with what The Guardian calls "comedy with brains and guts and a heart."

Stanhope resides in the US border town of Bisbee, Arizona, with pets who have people names, in an absurd relationship with his gal pal Bingo.

Book Information
ISBN 9780306825743
Author Drew Pinsky
Format Hardback
Page Count 352
Imprint Da Capo Press Inc
Publisher Hachette Books
Weight(grams) 460g
Dimensions(mm) 218mm * 150mm * 29mm