There’s almost always a heckler at Doug Stanhope’s show. Even for fans who are paying customers, Stanhope’s casually incendiary material — like his endorsement of the Internet as a playground for pedophiles (better that than an actual playground) or his acknowledgment that he’d really rather that certain soldiers didn’t come home (some troops are assholes) — is just too much for the faint of heart. But Stanhope, who performs in the socially aware, ranting vein of Bill Hicks, doesn’t worry much about that. The downside, he says, is when you run out of real anger.

“Once you talk about the things you’re passionate about so many times, you’re looking for new material and you’re like, well, I’ve already talked about the stuff I’m passionate about. I guess I’ll talk about some stuff I don’t really give a fuck about and pretend to care about it more,” Stanhope muses. But a dearth of angst hasn’t stopped his momentum; he’s released a CD and a special in the last year and has another coming up at Christmas. And his new material is arguably even funnier...and angrier. Take his new stand on breast-cancer awareness, for example. “It’s a fucking scam,” he says. “This is one of 20,000 diseases that you can have. Tits are popular. The pancreas is not popular. The colon’s not popular. The cunt’s kind of ugly. Tits are popular.”

Hear that bit and many more when Stanhope takes the stage at the Oriental Theater, 4335 West 44th Avenue, at 8 p.m. to-night. Tickets are a mere $25, but be warned: This show is not for the easily offended. For more information, visit www.theorientaltheater.com.
Fri., Nov. 4, 8 p.m., 2011