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Doug Stanhope

Stanhope says he was living off fraud telemarketing and the kindness of strippers in Las Vegas, when he first ventured onto the stage of an open mic comedy night at a seedy bar called the Escape Lounge II.

When all the strippers left for band guys, Doug traipsed down to Phoenix on the tail of a woman and landed a gig as a house MC at the Comedy Cove, a club as doomed to failure as the relationship. The girl left him nine months later for the lighting guy from Cheap Trick . The club shut down around the same time, but not before Doug had enough contacts to start a life on the road.

In December of 1992, Doug packed his few belongings in a 1981 Dodge Omni and spent the next three years living on the road like a pig, getting drunk, chasing women and spewing "dick jokes" across America like a crop duster until his break at the 1995 San Francisco comedy festival enabled him to move to Los Angeles.

Venue cancels comedian's show after death threat

...but Doug Stanhope isn't taking it seriously

A ‘drunken idiot’ forced a venue to cancel an appearance by American comic Doug Stanhope after sending an illiterate death threat via social media.

The historic Ritz Theater in Scranton, Pennsylvania, got cold feet about tomorrow night’s gig after a Facebook user called Gareth Patrick Keenan threatened to shoot the comedian.

He posted: ‘if u r I wiL fkN shooT u deED my self!… carry on commie scumm…’

The troll also posted a link video of The Wolfe Tones’ rebel song Highland Paddy, which calls upon Feinians to ‘spill the blood upon this holy ground’ and – bizarrely – another link to a National Geographic Channel video of orcas charging a giant blue whale.

He also got the date of the gig wrong, starting his message with 'July 12th' – rather than tomorrow's date.

Stanhope did not take the threat seriously, sharing the message with the hashtags ‘#DrunkenIdidotFBDeathThreat’ ‘#WeDidntCareButTheyDid’.

And a source close to the stand-up dismissed it as ‘clearly some drunk posting after a bit too much – alas the venue took it seriously.’

Luckily, the comedian found a nearby venue willing to accommodate the show, which will now take place at the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel.

It may be coincidence, but Gareth Keenan is the name of Mackenzie Crook’s character in The Office – a member of the Territorial Army obsessed – some may say delusional – about his military prowess.

And the US version of The Office is set in Scranton.

Published: 24 Jun 2017