In his new CD, Beer Hall Putsch, Doug Stanhope rips right in. No introduction, no nonsense about how happy he is to be in whatever city he happens to be in. He starts off talking about drinking to have a good time (and poking fun at those who believe they don’t need to drink to have a good time). He says, “It’s a fail-safe. I take whatever mundane shit I was doing anyway and I just start pouring booze on top of it, and within a short amount of time it’s fantastic.” He adds, “I have a problem? No, lady, I have a solution.”
However, you certainly don’t need to be drinking to enjoy this performance. This is one of the best comedy albums I’ve heard in quite a while. His manic, enthused energy is wonderful. But the main draw of it for me is the fact that he’s really intelligent, and actually has some important things to say. Of course, he says them in a way that will have you laughing possibly to the point of tears.
A man who can tell the story of his mother’s suicide and make you laugh is one hell of a good comedian. Doug Stanhope says: “She had at this point been four years sober. I’m like, ‘You’re not going to kill yourself sober, right? You can’t take those chips with you.’” He told his mother she couldn’t do it on Sunday or Monday because of football. And there are certain lines in this routine that completely blew me away, stuff that is completely bloody hilarious. Like this: “Your silly fake Jesus only lasted three days before he ran out of that cave like a pussy.” But that isn’t nearly the funniest bit from that portion of the show (I just don’t want to spoil the best bits).
His stuff on the Occupy movement is also excellent. And in that section he finds a way to rip on Scientology, which I always love. Scientology needs to be ridiculed out of existence. And for anyone who is a Scientologist who might be reading this, let me just say this to you: Are you a total moron? Doug Stanhope says, “You know what L. Ron Hubbard didn’t have in his master plan for world domination? A drum circle. It doesn’t do anything… You had enough time in a year to learn how to play real instruments. You could have had a whole New Orleans-style jazz swing band that people want to hear.”
And there is this line: “His asshole is winking like a Cyclops in a rainstorm.” The audience at that moment sounds like it’s pissing itself from continuous laughter. And holy moly, I would have loved to have seen “Lady And The Champ.”
Beer Hall Putsch was released on September 10, 2013 through New Wave Dynamics.
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