If there’s such a thing as being too honest in comedy, Doug Stanhope may come close. The comedian—whose previous gigs include hosting Comedy Central’s The Man Show and, seriously, Girls Gone Wild—has an act that covers things like Internet pedophilia and his own deviant sex acts. Known for brutal honesty, railing against the “system” and caring very little about what his audience thinks, Stanhope has elevated himself to become one of today’s most talked-about artists. We called Stanhope before his Lakeshore Theater shows on Friday 20 and Saturday 21.

Is there a story about how you got into stand-up?
No, I usually just mock people for asking that question—it’ll be boring in print—but you’re different.

Oh yeah?
I’m not in a hateful mood. [Laughs] It’s just that one unanswerable question that everybody asks. Like, “Where do you get your ideas from?” Nobody knows where their ideas come from…unless they specifically have a…“Oh, I get my ideas from a vending machine at the gas station.”

So not from your stint on The Man Show then.
That was completely not [cohost Joe Rogan and me]. We were dragged into it with a lot of smoke going up our ass about how we could make it our own, but that didn’t ever pan out in reality.

Did the producers pressure you?
Well, the stand-up stuff that I do is so far from that…I don’t want to say “level” of comedy…but yeah. That whole genre of, “Hey, guys and girls are different! Guys are a bunch of stupid slobs who sit on the couch and love sports!” We’re not that guy, but they said, “No, no, you can give it your own flavor.” But when we tried, there was a lot of, “Oh no, we can’t do that.”

Is that a problem with stand-up in general nowadays?
That’s the problem with television. And, unfortunately, television is the big, shiny beacon bug light that people aspire to. And if you aspire to be on television, you’re going to have an act that’s television-friendly, and that makes comedy suck.

What characterizes a sucky TV comedy show?
It takes all the meat off the bones. It leaves no room for error. It’s just censorship. “Don’t say this because you might lose your sponsor, don’t say this or we can get sued.” It’s not just language: It’s ideas. “You can’t talk about drugs unless it’s a negative.” Well, all my drug material is really positive. It’s about suicide, too. And they go, “If someone kills themselves, we can get blamed for it.” Are you fucking kidding me?

Does this bleed into stand-up?
Well, there’s a general mediocrity and I couldn’t tell you why—I’d be guessing. It’s in entertainment and in society all around. When’s the last time you heard stories about rock & roll bands throwing TV sets out of hotel windows? When they do VH1 Behind the Music stories of the last ten years: “…and then they went backstage and had trail mix.” There’s a palpable lack of imagination in this country. Everything’s a fucking rip-off of something else that’s boring. American Idol: That’s already a bad show. You’re watching overproduced karaoke—songs that if they came on in your car, you couldn’t kick the knob off the radio fast enough—and they make it a competition.

Is it refreshing, then, when you find your audience?
Yeah, but I try to keep it even. I occasionally enjoy when the people who don’t know me show up, who think all comedy is Jay Leno family-friendly. They have no idea what they’re going to see, but they think comedy is a genre in itself. Well, there are different types of comedy just as there are types of music.

What’s the worst thing anybody has ever said to you after a show?
Well, everybody likes to pick one thing, even if they liked [the show]. “I thought you were really funny, but when you made fun of cancer…my dad has cancer.” Or whatever it is: “Rape and abortion and making fun of Terri Schiavo: All of that was great. But when you mentioned that one thing that affected me, I was offended.” This society instills this customer-comes-first mentality into people; and somehow, as an artist, you should live up to the same corporate work ethic they have. So they think that if they bitch at you, you have to listen. I don’t give a fuck if you don’t like it. I’ve been standing up in front of you, drunk and chain-smoking, for the last hour.

Doug Stanhope doesn’t give a shit what you think about his Lakeshore Theater shows Friday 20 and Saturday 21.

By Steve Heisler