Something to Take the Edge Off [Explicit Lyrics, Live]

Doug Stanhope | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 1, 2000)
• Original Release Date: August 4, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics, Live
• Label: Stand Up! Records
• ASIN: B000053F91
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,361 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Doug Stanhope’s second CD covers every hilarious topic from birth defects to suicide, performed live with Henry Phillips providing acoustic guitar accompaniment to help “take the edge off.” While the music offers a smoother pacing than the frenetic “Sicko,” the material doesn’t lose any of the bite for which Stanhope is renowned.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Greatest Comedy Albums Ever, April 22, 2004

By 

Inspector2211 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Something to Take the Edge Off (Audio CD)

ALSTTTEO is up there with Hicks' "Relentless," Kinison's "Live From Hell," Bruce's "Lenny Bruce is Out Again," and Pryor's "Supernigger." I mean, this thing is a classic.

Whereas "Sicko" mainly just chronicled Stanhope's smutty lifestyle, ALSTTTEO takes that lifestyle and applies the lessons one can learn from it to the Big Picture. And trust me, no one else but Doug could take such deviant practices and not only make them feel universal, but also mold them into incisive analogies that leave the listerner feeling an ironic sense of enlightenment.

5 stars isn't enough...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Life is like animal porn. It's not for everybody.", September 5, 2004

By 

Andrius Uzkalnis (Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Something to Take the Edge Off (Audio CD)

I open with this quote (which, to me, sums up Stanhope's art) because I did not want to open with a banality which happens to me all the time.

This is possibly the most accomplished of Stanhope's CDs so far, and not only because of the beautiful guitar background track (it was tried by many comedians, and most of them failed to enhance the effect - even Bill Hicks in his Arizona Bay, although personally I quite liked the background there).

The CD flows back to back and an hour of act feels like maybe 15 minutes. It does not get boring for one second, and Stanhope proudly displays his biggest strength: wild, ornate, all-stops-pulled verbal imagery. He starts building an image before your eyes, and then adds an extra gross and revolting feature, and then another one, and then another. He piles them high and after each layer you think - now I've heard everything. But wait - there is more! And more. And more. Until the image before unwraps before your eyes, like a bizarre medieval painting, where Flemish artists surpassed themselves in inventing incredibly convoluted, complex - sometimes disgusting - picture of inferno and the Last Judgment.

Stanhope is an accomplished professional and God only knows how long he has to work on his act to get this perfection of delivery, where the pinnacle of the punchline is delivered - always - with just the correct volume of breath, enhancing the feeling of the culminating crescendo.

And the closing tracks about Excess in Moderation and about Bobbie Barnett - listen to them again. They can sum up an entire life philosophy - only for those, of course, who happen to agree with it. But hey: this is like animal porn. It's not for everybody.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Comic Mind, February 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Something to Take the Edge Off (Audio CD)

Have never bothered to write one of these reviews before but felt obligated to in Mr Stanhope's case. He is not only incredibly filthy, but brilliantly funny with it. Plenty of comic's are filthy but Doug elevates his filth with genuine wit. Favourite bit was where he drew a comparison between the crowds a rock star commands and the crowds a stand-up comedian commands. Asking the audience, "By round of applause, who came here to see Me specifically tonight." A smattering of applause. "Okay, who came to see whichever douchebag happened to be standing behind the mike and couldn't care less who it was?" A massive cheer. For my money, the best comedic voice since Bill Hicks (a comparison I'm sure he's sick of) and an actual satirist, rather than just someone doing blue material. Well worth spending your hard earned money on. Buy this one and then buy the rest after you're sold on him. A truly brilliant mind and a great crafter of jokes. See him before he drinks himself to death for your entertainment.