Doug Stanhope's latest CD/DVD set, Before Turning the Gun On Himself..., is available everywhere today - get it on iTunes or from Amazon!

Doug was recently interviewed by, a site that attempts to explore the science behind comedy. He discussed a variety of subjects, including geographical subjectivity (why things are funny in some countries but not others), the effect of alcohol on performance, and the impact of the Internet on comedy as a culture.

Says Stanhope, "I don’t think that geography has as much to do with it as people knowing who and what they are there to see. The more people are there to see Doug Stanhope rather than simply 'comedy,' the less chance of problems happening."

Regarding alcohol, he says, "There’s a fraudulent root element of comedy in that we say things night after night as though they are rolling effortlessly from the brain and off the tongue when in fact they are crafted over weeks and months and years. Alcohol allows me to get past this sense of trickery and focus on the original passion in the material even when it’s old to me. God knows how much I’d have to drink to be able to live with myself if I were a magician."

And where the Internet's concerned, he's firmly pro-, saying, "The internet has done nothing but good for comedy all around. Comedians no longer have to rely on TV execs and club owners deciding if they are funny or not. There’s the problem of piracy if you think it’s a problem. I credit piracy with getting my name known enough to have a decent career. People bootlegging shows on cell phones and putting material out before it’s finished is a problem for every comic, but compared to all the upsides of what the internet has done, it’s a fact of life that we’ll learn to adapt to even if it means finding these people and killing their families in front of them."

Read the whole thing!