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Extras:
Shocking Home Video of Drug Abuse Gone Out Of Control, Trailer, Music Video,
T*t F**k joke on PBS, 3 Easter Eggs
Director:
Kevin Booth
"This country is a big terrorist pig. This country is a big bloated celebrity that thinks it doesn’t have to pay the cover charge" – - Doug Stanhope
( abridged ;)
After the passing of
Bill Hicks
I pretty much lost interest in the American Stand-up comedy scene, actually pretty much all
stand-up comedy… There didn’t seem to be any comedians around who were worth the time, yammering on endlessly about their
family and how funny their kids are… Yes, ‘Dennis Leary,’ I’m looking at you! Based on some good reviews (as I’d never
heard of the guy), I picked up this disc in a special offer, and it’s turned out to be a damned good buy as it’s
hysterically funny and gets an alarming number of spins.
Doug Stanhope seems to be a comedian whose star is on the rise. He’s picked up a co-presenting gig on Comedy Central’s
‘The Man Show’ (shown here on Sky’s ‘FX’ Channel) and his stand-up performances have garnered many excellent notices,
apparently winning the ‘Stratmore Press Award’ at 2002’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. ‘Word Of Mouth’ is his first DVD, the
second is due for release around August time and, based on the strength of this, I for one plan on picking it up.
Like Bill Hicks, Stanhope is not a comedian for all tastes, he walks on stage half drunk and then proceeds do drink and
smoke his way through the following 78 minutes of his set, unleashing some of the most near-the-knuckle material I’ve heard
in recent years. Please don’t have visions of Bernard Manning here, Stanhope doesn’t come across as a bigot, but more as
an angry, funny and incisive bar room philosopher.
He certainly doesn’t seem to be afraid of offending anyone though, that this show was recorded on May 11th 2002 makes it
very surprising that he does material about 9/11 and Al Quaeda. Touchy subjects even now. Like Bill Hicks before him he
laments the move towards prevalent conservative attitudes in American society, his skit on vice cops and vice laws is worth
the purchase price of the disc alone.
"Great things don’t have to tell you they’re great. You’ll figure it out on your own!" - Doug Stanhope
When, as global citizens, we’re repeatedly force-fed America’s re-found sense of patriotism, it’s refreshing to see someone
who’s not afraid to criticise his own country. Stanhope incisively skewers the hypocrisy of modern day living, politics
and religion. He controversially (correctly?) proclaims that the attacks on America are resultant from the country’s
interfering in foreign lands, in such a way that would not be tolerated were the positions reversed. Predictably George
Bush also comes in for a kicking with some of the set’s cruellest and funniest material.
He is also not afraid to poke fun at himself and show himself to be no better than anyone else, he openly admits to having
used hookers and frequenting porn shops in his past. He also has two hysterical stories that he recounts that show he’s not
above laughing at himself as well as others. Obviously the truth of these stories are unknown, one’s about using a sex toy
and one is about getting business from an ugly transvestite hooker, and both had me gasping for breath from laughing so
hard!
The image on this disc is perfectly acceptable, shot on video but a good picture all the same. It’s presented in 4:3
Full-screen ratio, and I did notice a few compression artefacts in a couple of places, they were distracting but nothing
too serious and over very quickly. The sound is in stereo and is nothing special. Being an independent release the sound
does suffer a bit as sometimes you can clearly catch conversations that are going on in the audience and this can become a
bit distracting. For most of the time though the sound is perfectly fine. The 84 Minute main Feature is divided up into a
healthy 30 chapters.
Extras wise, we have quite a few for an independent release, including what must rank as some of the strangest I’ve ever
seen.
The first is titled ‘Shocking Home Video of Drug Abuse Gone Out Of Control,’ it is a 29 minute video of Doug Stanhope and
his friend Mat Becker tripping on mushrooms in a hotel room. It’s strange but very funny stuff, mostly because of Doug
ranting and rambling on about hookers, his life being a shambles and trying to make a connection and Becker cracking up at
just about everything he says.
There is a short interview clip called ‘T*t F**k joke on PBS’ (0:49) in which he advises TV censorship has the strange
effect of working well for him as a stand-up comedian. It’s shot with a nightvision lens and the sound is pretty bad on it
due to a siren going off.
There are also 3 Easter eggs on the disc, one is a clip of Stanhope sitting on the toilet tearing pages from the bible
(0:59), one is a conversation between him, his wife and Don King (strip bar owner) in an elevator (0:14) and the last is a
short video of Stanhope skitting a waitress in Don King’s strip bar (1:24). Apart from the ‘toilet’ clip none of them are
particularly good quality due to limitations inherent in the filming of them. Still they go some way to show that Stanhope
is a genuinely funny guy even when he’s not working from a prepared set.
Rounding things up we have a trailer and a music video, which is the song that plays over the end of the drug abuse extra
and seems to be based on various lines of Stanhope’s, sung by a girl punk band… The song’s not really my thing but some may
like it…
It’s nice that ‘Sacred Cow’ made the effort to put some value added material on this disc when so many of the majors don’t
even bother to try!
In closing, I can easily recommend this to those who like their comedy raw and angry and who are not easily offended. The
disc has acceptable picture and sound quality and a few decent extras.
Please note that as an independent release it is only available from the website of the production company
Sacred Cow.com
If you’re still not convinced there are a few downloadable clips to view that might help you make up your mind. The disc
turned up for me about a week after I got the shipping notice, but I’ll admit I did find the shipping charges to the UK a
bit steep.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
