This interview was conducted for an article that first appeared online onNYPress.com on March 7th, 2007
Doug Stanhope on education, baiting, and why Sal’s Comedy Hole is lucky enough to have him perform there.
How is Austin treating you and how would you compare it to New York?
As of now, my move to Austin has consisted of changing the location on my Myspace page. As I’ll be on the road almost straight between now and June, it wasn’t feasible to get a place yet, though I still plan to. So far as comparisons go, anything with less people is preferable to New York.
Will this Showtime special relate to your “reconsideration of your presidential run” in anyway outside of your role as a social critic?
At this point, I don’t plan on using the Showtime special to overtly push the 08 run, although I’m sure large parts of the material will relate directly or indirectly to Libertarian viewpoints and may also be conducive to further coverage of the campaign.
Can you tell me about the studying you’ve been doing lately?
Liberty in Troubled Times by James Walsh, Running for Office by Ronald Faucheux, The Complete Idiots Guide to American Government as well as Common Sense by Thomas Paine, Libertarianism, For and Against by Craig Duncan and Tibor Macham, The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford and a lot more on deck.
Is school reform something that you’re interested in? If so, what are some ideas that you have?
Educational reform might not be in my top 3 campaign priorities but, like most social concerns in America, it needs some hydro-colon therapy. I left school after completeing the 9th grade mostly because I wasn’t challenged. I found public school to be a social nightmare and an educational waste of time. Believe it or not, many students are far brighter than their teachers and they know it.
Too much of the curriculum is spent memorizing trivia that are of little use in the real world. I just saw advertised a new game show called “Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?” or some like title where adult contestants are asked questions from a 5th grade textbook. They ask questions like “Where is Mt Rushmore?” and the contestants are likely ridiculed for not knowing what a 5th grade student is being taught.
The truth is that people don’t remember because they don’t need to know where Mt Rushmore is or the names of ships that landed at Plymouth rock, not to mention additional time-wasters like school prayer and the pledge of allegiance. Meanwhile, your CPA is hanging himself off the GW Bridge rather than attempt to figure out the twists in the ever-confused labyrinth of the latest tax code. Hopefully he was wearing a South Dakota souvenir t-shirt when he lept, just to be ironic.
So, in short, education needs overhaul and the heavier portion should be the responsibility of the parents. Don’t just squeeze em out onto an already over-populated planet and expect the government to raise them as their own with the taxpayer footing the bill.
What can people do to become more aware of the real issues?
If government were simplified to the most minimal, workable level, people would be able to keep up with issues that matter without having to make it a part-time job. The truth is that people should be able to not care about politics without getting raped for their indifference. Politics are boring. Our government has capitalized on the apathy of the people since it’s inception. If anything, I intend on making the political landscape more entertaining so that people will have incentive to get involved.
Sometimes, people don’t want to pay attention to the real issues and just wanted to be distracted with things like coverage of Anna Nicole Smith’s death. Do you think that this is a fine distraction or do you have better or perhaps more useful distractions to recommend?
Anna Nicole is dead???? Cancel my candidacy!
You seem to perform at Sal’s Comedy Hole more frequently than other NYC comedy venue. Is there a reason why?
They call first. Path of least resistance.
How much time have you been dedicating to baiting lately?
None. That was fun when I had nothing better to do but the joke kinda plays out after a while. I still think its the funniest stuff I’ve done but there’s only so many curves you can throw in it.
Has anyone ever claimed to have been baited by you?
No, but as long as there are lawyers, I’m sure one will pop up.
How would you react if, after a show, someone approached and said they were baited by you?
I’d probably laugh. I didn’t do it as a social service to attack pedophiles. Pedophiles are mentally ill people. I know you hate to hear that but we didn’t bait em to benefit society like the Perverted Justice faggots pretend to do. (That’s the website behind the latest Dateline NBC pedo-buster entrapment television show. From what I understand, Perverted Justice tried to do what Baiting.org did but failed at being funny so they then pretended to be vigilant watchdogs.) Truth is, we did it because it was funny.
How will you celebrate your performance on the 12th ?
I celebrate for a living. You should too.
Doug will be appearing at Gotham Comedy Club on the 12th to film a Showtime special and at NYC’s Sal’s Comedy Hole May 3rd, 4th, and 5th.
