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Doug Stanhope
Stanhope in Manhattan, Kansas, April 2010
Birth name	Douglas Gene Stanhope
Born	(1967-03-25) March 25, 1967 (age 45) Worcester, Massachusetts
Medium	Stand-up, Television
Nationality	American
Years active	1990—present[1]
Genres	Black comedy, Observational comedy, Political satire, Insult comedy
Subject(s)	American culture, Current events, Recreational drug use, Human sexuality, Religion, Family, Libertarianism
Influences	George Carlin, Glenn Wool, Bill Hicks, Howard Bloom
Influenced	Andy Andrist, Sean Rouse, Mat Becker, Mark Nelson.
Notable works and roles	9 CDs, 4 DVDs
Website	dougstanhope.com

Douglas Gene "Doug" Stanhope (born March 25, 1967) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and author known for his on-stage drinking and abrasive comedy routines.

Life and career[link]

Stanhope quit high school after his freshman year. His comedy career began in 1990 in Las Vegas.

Stanhope has made appearances at several major comedy festivals, including the Montreal Just For Laughs, US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado, the Chicago Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, where he won the Strathmore Press Award in 2002.

Stanhope was the winner of the 1995 San Francisco International Comedy Competition where he edged out notable comedic actor Dane Cook in a three-week contest. He's appeared in dozens of national and international standup comedy television specials. He claims that his appearance on the BBC television show, Live Floor Show, (broadcast March 20, 2003) was fueled by "ecstasy". According to Stanhope, "TV is just for the money; live performance is where it’s at."

In 2003 and 2004, Stanhope co-hosted the fifth and sixth seasons of The Man Show with Joe Rogan.

In 2005, Stanhope hosted his own radio show on SIRIUS Satellite Radio.^[2]

Also in 2005, Stanhope hosted Girls Gone Wild: America Uncovered. When asked what it was like working with Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis, Stanhope said "He's pure, unadulterated evil,"^[3] and "The most awful human being I've ever met in all of my time in the entertainment business." ^[4]

He has established a group of touring comics known as The Unbookables featuring artists such as Andy Andrist, Sean Rouse, James Inman, Brett Erickson, Travis Lipski, Brendon Walsh, Norman Wilkerson, Kristine Levine, and Brian Potrafka.^[5] The Unbookables' first CD, Morbid Obscenity, also featuring Andrist, Rouse, Lynn Shawcroft, and Banjo Randy, released July 4, 2006, on Stand Up! Records, was released as a benefit for a friend, Arthur Hinty, to help pay for a gastric bypass.

Stanhope appeared in the film The Aristocrats, telling a caustic joke to a baby.

Stanhope was the subject of an 8-page feature in British GQ under the title "Is This America's Most Depraved Man?" by Robert Chalmers in 2006.

In summer 2006, he was booked to appear on several bills at the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny, Ireland; he told his lairy, late-night crowd, that Irish men sleep with children, because — as the headline to the following day's Irish Daily Star put it - "Irish women are too ugly to rape! Comic booed after shocking festival jibe." He managed to perform for just 10 minutes before having all his remaining slots canceled, yet garnered several more full-length solo performances.^[6]

In August 2006 he appeared alongside Rouse at the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland, to rave 5 star reviews from the press. On his opening night he took what was believed to be an ecstasy tablet that was handed to him by a member of the audience.^[7][8] During his Edinburgh performance he included a segment that was perceived as anti-Semitic.^[9] Stanhope responded in his 2007 Showtime special, No Refunds, by elaborating on the incident and including an extended bit on "Jew-hating".

In October 2006, he self-published a book, Fun with Pedophiles: The Best of Baiting, which includes several of his "baits" which had appeared on baiting.org. Baiting is the practice of setting up a false Internet instant messaging persona, say, that of an underage female, waiting for others to message you asking for sex, and then brutally abusing the "baitee" in a chat session that is logged to share with others. He discussed his self-published book and the philosophy behind it on Penn Jillette's radio show on San Diego's 97.1 FreeFM on November 22, 2006.

In 2007, Stanhope made two TV specials — one in the US for Showtime, recorded at The Gotham Comedy Club in New York City on March 12; and one for the UK's Channel 4 Comedy Lab, filmed at the Caves in Edinburgh, Scotland titled "Doug Stanhope: Go Home". The Showtime special, titled No Refunds, premiered August 3 and was released on DVD August 14.

His live show was voted "Best Comedy Performance of the Year" by Time Out New York for both 2006 and 2008.

On September 25, 2008, Stanhope appeared as a guest panelist on the Channel 4 programme 8 Out of 10 Cats whilst in London as part of his unofficially titled "Is Mom Dead Yet?" tour. Stanhope's mother, Bonnie Kirk, appeared regularly on The Man Show as well as several independent features and opposite Sean "Puffy" Combs at an MTV Music Award sketch where she played an aging stripper. She died at the age of 63 in October 2008.

Stanhope lives in Warren, Arizona (part of Bisbee) near the Mexico border in a small house with musician/author Amy "Bingo" Bingaman.

In August 2009, Stanhope was booed and had several bottles thrown at him at the Leeds Festival in the UK, after making derogatory comments about the Royal Family and the attitude of the English, which he likened to people in the stone age. Many people left early, and Stanhope continued to bait and taunt hecklers throughout his set.^[10]

His live show was placed in the top 5 of the 20 Best Live Shows of 2009 by London's The Guardian newspaper.^[11]

Stanhope's 7th album, From Across The Street, was released on November 24, 2009. It was originally intended to be released under the name Live from Cape Fear (and later I Ain't Never Won Nothin' In My Life). According to promotional materials mailed to reviewers, "half of the proceeds made from the CD sales will be going towards medical bills incurred by maintaining the crygenically frozen remains of his mother's cats at the Bisbee Forever Hope life suspension facility in accordance with her wishes."

In 2010, Stanhope aired a series of vignettes during Newswipe with Charlie Brooker in the United Kingdom.

Stanhope is managed by Brian Hennigan.^[12]

On November 17, 2010, Doug Stanhope signed to rock and metal label Roadrunner Records to launch their new comedy label, Roadrunner Comedy. Cees Wessels, CEO of Roadrunner Records, said, “We are very excited to launch Roadrunner Comedy, yet another innovative iteration of the Roadrunner brand. We look forward to welcoming a variety of like-minded comedians to the Roadrunner family—new artists with dynamic talents—that will be making us laugh for years to come.”

On March 8, 2011, Roadrunner Records announced that Stanhope would have the debut album for the newly created comedy label. The live CD/DVD release is slated to be released on May 3, 2011, it will be titled Oslo: Burning The Bridge To Nowhere.^[13][14]

In cooperation with the mayor of Reykjavik, comedian Jón Gnarr, Stanhope has scheduled a performance in Iceland's only maximum security prison, Litla-Hraun, for September 25th 2011. Fans who want to watch the show would have to commit a crime; for them he invented The Stanhope Defense.

Stanhope appeared on the FX television show Louie as Eddie, a fictional comedian that Louis C.K. knew 20 years earlier when they first started performing, in the season 2 episode titled "Eddie". It first aired on August 11, 2011.

Politics[link]

Stanhope is known as a libertarian comedian.^[15] In 2004, he endorsed the Free State Project, and was quoted as saying, "The Free State Project stands out as one of few ideas that could produce tangible change in our lifetime. The vision of Christian gun enthusiasts buying hand-painted targets from pot-smoking artists, laughing together while they give the tax man the finger, is beautiful enough to make the move."^[16]

2008 presidential campaign[link]

Stanhope announced on July 9, 2006 through his website that he would run for president in 2008 as a Libertarian. After consulting political advisers, he stated on his website, "[O]fficially — I am reconsidering my presidential run while my exploratory team looks into the viability of such an endeavor."^[17] He explained that he made this statement due to campaign finance laws and other reasons. Later he said, "The presidential run is getting in order. You keep asking me if I'm serious. You have no idea. Let's have fun again."

Stanhope intended to formally declare his candidacy during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show show on May 3, 2007, but on May 1 announced that he would not run due to restrictions of the Federal Election Commission, which stipulated that he could not receive personal income from his comedy appearances and website if he was using them to campaign.^[18] Stanhope then endorsed libertarian-leaning Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.^[19]

In August 2008, Stanhope endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, citing his disappointment with the libertarian candidates and a desire to have "a strong, handsome black man in the White House", as well as referring to himself as "the head of the one-man Libertarians for Obama group."^[20]

On September 11, 2008, Stanhope re-entered the election scene with the creation of www.savingbristol.com, a web site dedicated to raising money to pay for an abortion for Bristol Palin, daughter of staunchly pro-life, then-current Alaskan governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Stanhope said, "Rather than sit back and impotently bemoan Bristol's tragic, lonely circumstance, it is time for us — the silent majority — to unite behind this poor, imprisoned woman and save her from both a tyrannical household as well as the horrible nightmare of a forced childbirth."^{[citation needed]}

Though the $50,000 offered by Stanhope himself would more than cover the cost of an abortion under normal situations, Stanhope encouraged others to donate money towards helping Bristol begin a new life. On the site, Stanhope pledged, "Even if you cannot take my offer, I will still use my money or money donated through this page to pay for at least one abortion for a disadvantaged teenage girl each year for the rest of my life in the name of your mother. And in my will, I shall have a good portion of my estate turned into the Sarah J. Palin Abortion Fund that will help girls from all walks of life from destroying their lives and our natural resources by having children."

To fight off rumors that he was seeking to profit from the site in any way, donations to the cause are now made directly through lilithfund.org, the web site for Lilith Fund, a Texas-based organization dedicated to helping women pay for abortions if they are unable to afford them themselves.^[21]

Discography/videography[link]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Doug Stanhope

• Doug Stanhope's official website
• Doug Stanhope at the Internet Movie Database
• Doug Stanhope's MySpace Page
• Doug Stanhope's Facebook fan page
• Doug's Youtube page
• Morbid Obscenity CD official website
• Sacred Cow Productions
• Stand Up! Records
• Drunk For Your Amusement, TLAvideo Doug Stanhope article
• An Interview with Doug Stanhope -- Free Market Mojo
• May 2010 interview with Doug Stanhope
• Roadrunnercomedy.com
• Interview with Doug Stanhope on London Student, 2012

Ravi Zacharias
Born	1946 (1946) (age 66) Chennai, Madras Presidency, British India
Residence	Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Nationality	Indian, Canadian and American
Occupation	Christian apologist, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
Religion	Christian
Website
http://www.rzim.org

Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias (born 1946) is an Indian-born, Canadian-American evangelical Christian apologist. Zacharias is the author of numerous Christian books, including Gold Medallion Book Award winner Can Man Live Without God?^[1] and bestsellers Light in the Shadow of Jihad^[2] and The Grand Weaver.^[3] He is the founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, host of the radio programs Let My People Think and Just Thinking, and visiting professor at Wycliffe Hall of Oxford, where he teaches apologetics and evangelism.^[4] Zacharias studied as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University and held the chair in Evangelism and Contemporary Thought at Alliance Theological Seminary from 1981 to 1984.^[5] Commentator Chuck Colson referred to Zacharias as "the great apologist of our time."^[6]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Zacharias was born in Madras, India. Zacharias claims descent from a woman (of the Nambudiri Brahmin caste) and a low caste Boatman^[7]. Missionaries spoke to one of his ancestors about Christianity and thereafter the family was converted. Zacharias grew up in a nominal Anglican household,^[7] and he himself was an atheist until the age of 17, when he unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide by swallowing poison. While in the hospital, a local Christian worker brought him a Bible and instructed his mother to read to him out of John 14. Zacharias says that it was John 14:19 that touched him and caused him to commit his life to Christ.^[7]

He immigrated with his family to Canada in 1966, earning his undergraduate degree from Ontario Bible College in 1972 (now Tyndale University College & Seminary) and his M. Div. from Trinity International University. In May 1972, Zacharias married Margaret ("Margie") Reynolds, whom he met at his church's youth group.^[7] They have three children, Sarah, Naomi and Nathan.^[8] He was later ordained by the Christian and Missionary Alliance and commissioned as an international evangelist.^[9] He founded Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in 1984 to pursue his calling as a "classical evangelist in the arena of the intellectually resistant."^[9]

Ministry[link]

Zacharias was invited to spend the summer of 1971 in Vietnam, where he evangelized to the American soldiers, as well as to POWs and Viet Cong.^[7] After graduating from Ontario Bible College, he began an itinerant ministry with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada.^[7] In 1974 the C&MA sent him to Cambodia, where he preached only a short time before its fall to the Khmer Rouge.^[7] In 1977, after graduating from Trinity, Zacharias was commissioned to preach worldwide.^[7]

In 1983, Zacharias was invited to speak in Amsterdam at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's annual evangelists' conference. It was here that he first noticed a lack of ministry in the area of Christian apologetics.^[7] After Amsterdam, Zacharias spent the summer evangelizing in India, where he continued to see the need for apologetics ministry, both to lead people to Christ and to train Christian leaders. In August 1984 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries was founded in Toronto, Canada. Today its headquarters is located in Atlanta, Georgia, and has offices in Canada, England, India, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.^[7]

In 1989, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Zacharias was invited to speak in Moscow. While there he spoke to students at the Lenin Military Academy as well as political leaders at the Center for Geopolitical Strategy.^[7] This was the first of many evangelism opportunities towards the political world. Future events included an invitation to Bogota, Colombia in 1993, where he spoke to the judiciary committee on the importance of having a solid moral foundation.^[7]

Zacharias took a sabbatical in 1990 and spent part of that year as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University. There he heard lectures by men such as Stephen Hawking and studied under professors such as John Polkinghorne and Don Cupitt. He also wrote his first book, A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism.^[7] In 1993 Zacharias was invited to speak at his first Veritas Forum at Harvard University,^[7] and later that year was one of the keynote speakers at Urbana.^[10] Zacharias continues to be a frequent guest at these forums,^[11] both giving lectures and answering students in question and answer sessions at academic institutions such as the University of Georgia,^[12] the University of Michigan,^[13] and Penn State.^[14]

Zacharias attracted media attention when in 2004 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) opened its signature pulpit at the Salt Lake Tabernacle to him for a series of messages. Zacharias delivered a sermon on "Who Is the Truth? Defending Jesus Christ as The Way, The Truth and The Life" to some 7,000 lay-persons and scholars from both LDS and Protestant camps in an initiatory move towards open dialog between the camps.^[15]

Some evangelicals criticized Zacharias' decision not to use this opportunity to directly address the "deep and foundational" differences between the historic Christian faith and that of the LDS church. He responded by asserting that Christians should not immediately condemn Mormonism's theological differences but "graciously build one step at a time in communicating our faith with clarity and conviction". He said this is just as effective as showing someone the faults of their faith.^[16] The speaking engagement was nearly sabotaged by a claim by event organizer Greg Johnson, president of Standing Together, that Zacharias had nothing to do with editing the book The Kingdom of the Cults and had only loaned his name to the latest edition. Johnson later apologized for his comment.^[17]

Zacharias is a frequent keynote lecturer within the evangelical community at events such as the Future of Truth conference in 2004,^[18] the National Religious Broadcasters' Convention and Exposition in 2005,^[19] the National Conference on Christian Apologetics in 2006.^[20] On successive nights in October 2007, he addressed first the students and faculty of Virginia Tech, then the community of Blacksburg, Virginia, on the topic of evil and suffering in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre.^[21] Zacharias has represented the evangelical community at occasions such as the National Day of Prayer in Washington, DC, the Annual Prayer Breakfast at the United Nations, and the African Union Prayer Breakfast in Maputo, Mozambique, and was named honorary chairman of the 2008 National Day of Prayer task force.^[22]

Zacharias was interviewed in Focus on the Family's Truth Project. In November 2009, Zacharias signed an ecumenical statement known as the Manhattan Declaration calling on Evangelicals, Catholics and Orthodox to engage in civil disobedience with regard to laws which the declaration claims would force them to accept abortion, same-sex marriage or other matters that go against their religious consciences.^[23]

Philosophy[link]

Zacharias states that a coherent worldview must be able to satisfactorily answer four questions: that of origin, meaning of life, morality and destiny. He says that while every major religion makes exclusive claims about truth, the Christian faith is unique in its ability to answer all four of these questions.^[24] He routinely speaks on the coherency of the Christian worldview,^[25] saying that Christianity is capable of withstanding the toughest philosophical attacks.^[26] Zacharias believes that the apologist must argue from three levels: the theoretical, to line up the logic of the argument; the arts, to illustrate; and "kitchen table talk", to conclude and apply.^[27]

Zacharias's style of apologetic focuses predominantly on Christianity's answers to life's great existential questions,^[28] with logical and scientifically inclined defense of God. In some discussion Zacharias appropriates to scientific matters, he answers the question of human origin. He has voiced skepticism over what he believes to be inadequate empirical evidence in the fossil records for an honest endorsement of the theory of evolution. He believes that evolution is incompatible with the second law of thermodynamics, saying that the two are inconsistent and irreconcilable.^[29] This view is rejected by many in the scientific community.^[30]

Ravi Zacharias also believes that in Christianity homosexual acts are an “aberration” and “violation” of human sexuality and that though some people may have a homosexual “disposition,” they are not justified in expressing that disposition.^[31]

Works[link]

• A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism (1994, 2004) ISBN 0-8010-6511-9
• Can Man Live Without God? (1994, 1996) ISBN 0-8499-3943-7
• Deliver Us From Evil (1996, 1998) ISBN 0-8499-3950-X
• Cries of the Heart (1998, 2002) ISBN 0-8499-4387-6
• The Merchant and the Thief (1999) (Children’s) ISBN 0-7814-3296-0
• The Broken Promise (2000) (Children's) ISBN 0-7814-3451-3
• Jesus Among Other Gods (2000, 2002) ISBN 0-8499-4327-2
• Jesus Among Other Gods (Youth Edition) (2000) ISBN 0-8499-4217-9
• The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks with Buddha (2001) ISBN 1-57673-854-X
• Sense and Sensuality: Jesus Talks with Oscar Wilde (2002) ISBN 1-59052-014-9
• Light in the Shadow of Jihad: The Struggle For Truth (2002) ISBN 1-57673-989-9
• Recapture the Wonder (2003) ISBN 1-59145-276-7
• Is Your Church Ready?: Motivating Leaders to Live an Apologetic Life (2003) (Editor, with Norman Geisler) ISBN 0-310-25061-7
• Who Made God? And Answers to Over 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith (2003) (General Editor, with Norman Geisler) ISBN 0-310-24710-1
• The Kingdom of the Cults (2003) (Editor) ISBN 0-7642-2821-8
• I, Isaac Take Thee, Rebekah: Moving From Romance to Lasting Love (2004) ISBN 0-8499-0822-1
• The Prince and the Prophet: Jesus Talks With Mohammed (Copyright 2004, to be released posthumously) ISBN 1-59052-319-9
• The Lamb and the Führer: Jesus Talks with Hitler (2005) ISBN 1-59052-394-6
• Walking From East to West: God in the Shadows (With R.S.B. Sawyer) (2006) ISBN 0-310-25915-0
• The Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives (2007) ISBN 0-310-26952-0
• Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend (2008) ISBN 0-8499-1968-1
• The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists (2008) ISBN 0-310-28251-9
• Is There Not a Cause (2008) (National Day of Prayer Feature Book)
• New Birth or Rebirth: Jesus Talks with Krishna (2008) ISBN 1-59052-725-9
• There is a Plan (2009) (excerpts from The Grand Weaver) ISBN 0-310-31849-1
• Has Christianity Failed You? (2010) ISBN 0-310-26955-5
• The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks with Buddha (2010) ISBN 1-60142-318-7
• Why Jesus? Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality (2012) ISBN 978-0-89296-319-5

References[link]