Doug Stanhope: The Comedians' Comedian's Comedians

A compilation of three videos recorded during a private, invitation-only gig at The FunHouse in Bisbee, Arizona (where Stanhope lives, the audience is comprised of his close friends and neighbors) in 2016. Previously available as clips on YouTube, Stanhope released the three, 20-minute clips himself direct to streaming services, including Vimeo and Amazon, in late 2017.

The Unbookables is a narrative documentary about stand-up comics who have spent their careers pushing limits--on stage and off. Relegated to small venues and touring in a crappy van through the Midwest they careen between the desire to succeed and the reality that there may be nothing left to lose. Road life is far from glamorous: comics come and go and cruel pranks and hard drinking punctuate their obsidian dark comedy on stage. They succeed and fail-spectacularly. When they face being fired for going too far on stage, the conflict culminates in a showdown: compromise or double down?

Filmed Memorial Day weekend in 2019 at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas (the city where he first performed stand-up comedy) Doug Stanhope goes through a dark wealth of material, uniting topics as disparate as child fatalities, hotel chain misery, and all the things you can do in Indiana.

Doug Stanhope performs live in his hometown of Bisbee, Arizona, tackling an assortment of hard-hitting issues, from caring for the mentally-ill, to Vietnam vets, being locked up abroad and why everyone should kick like they kick. Watch him battle ISIS for the disenfranchised, angry youth.

Recorded in an abandoned factory in the Grünerløkka suburb of Oslo, Norway, this performance is as spontaneous and unhinged as anything Stanhope has ever done. Originally a sewing machine factory converted to a German WWII bunker, the setting for Oslo is anything but conventional. Whereas most comedy specials are filmed on an elaborate stage, Stanhope and Nikon Norway filled a dilapidated industrial space with lights and folding chairs, ultimately allowing the material be the focus of this release.