Doug Stanhope Quotes

I used to have a little whisky before I went on stage. I realized that could have slowly turned into something a bit more serious. I get hyped up. I also think doing it a lot, you get used to it. You get more confidence. It's confidence building, really.

I didn't think I could go onstage and play unless I had a beer to loosen up. Well, if it was only one beer to loosen up, I'd probably still be drinking today.

I've never taken drugs. My drug, I suppose, is drink. I never drink before I sing, but I do make up for it when I come off!

Vodka does not ease back pain. But it does get your mind off it.

I should also say, in general, I just drank a lot. I shouldn't characterize it as "to get the courage to perform." It was just an in-general nighttime activity. It definitely made it easier when I started doing stand-up. It was just much simpler to do a couple of shots. It made my nerves go away, for the most part. It just was something I sort of relied on for about the first four years.

I started doing cocaine to get through interviews, 'cause people wanted to know a lot about my personal life and I wasn't prepared for a 60 Minutes interview every time. Doing bumps I was able to get through the day, but then I would smoke weed to calm me down - it was the only way I could get through the day without people noticing I was doing it.

Don't use barbiturates before going on stage. And be honest.

Just to keep bad dreams at bay, she took a swig out of a bottle that smelled of apples and happy brain-death.

I drank more wine when I wasn't working as much, to be honest.

I'll keep going until I get to the point where I can't get out on stage.

Beer would be a great help in fighting off the mental depression which afflicts great multitudes.

I'm nervous performing because it's such a weird thing to do, standing on stage demanding people's attention.

I ran off stage at my first gig. Halfway through it, I forgot my lines and didn't know what to do, so I just ran out of the building down towards a lake. I was going to throw myself in, but the compere came out and said, 'No, it's going well, come back and finish the gig!'

I was on 'Strictly' because I was getting stage fright. I was taught that I had to imagine what a good outcome would be and be happy with it.

When times are good, people drink. When times are bad, people drink.

Yes, sharing super-personal experiences is scary, but I can only get up on stage and perform it if I really connect with the music.

I went to a hypnotist to learn how not to use drinking a pint before you go on as a way of giving you the confidence to just fly at it, irrespective of the fear. That's not a long-term strategy, when you do as many gigs as I do.

Every time I step onto the stage, it's not only proving to the audience that I'm capable but to myself.

Fundamentally, I was a very shy and quiet person growing up, so it was just really difficult getting up on a stage. It was a perverse career choice really.

You're basically getting on stage and asking people, 'Do you guys like me? Do you like who I am?' But you grow pretty thick skinned. And the less scared you seem, the more people like you anyway.

My anger made me drink as an escape from reality, a way of forgetting. But you don't know when the medicinal effect ends and the poisoning begins ... This is my sixth year of sobriety. Overcoming alcoholism has been my greatest challenge and my greatest reward.

The plan was to drink until the pain is over, But what's worse, the pain or the hangover?

If you're up there [on stage] thinking about what you're doing, you're just not there and it's not going to happen.So trying to learn how to overcome those - which is a normal thing to do. You're in front of a lot of people. People are going to get very self-conscious. So you have to learn to sort of overcome that tendency towards self-consciousness and just blow it wide open. And you jump in and join all those people that are out there enjoying what you're doing together.

I drink wine on stage to sort of loosen my grip on reality a little.

Is it bad when you refer to all alcohol as "Pain Go Bye-Bye Juice"?